Therm

Re: THRILLING HERO TALES — A Campaign Chronicle The intentionally mispronounced names and Amerikon (now only three syllables!) never stopped being funny. Given that I was one of the two people in our group who was dead-set against the possibility that PULP could ever be fun and the fact that I'm having a blast. Well, I'd have to say that the campaign is a huge success. Me enjoying PULP. I'd never have believed it.

Re: Sudden impulses - the interaction between system and emotion I'll be the first to agree that sometimes you have to tell a player no. However, it seems like the problem here is that you do not trust the players to make decision for their characters. Is that accurate? I'm not accusing you of anything, I don't know you at all. However, most of the questions seem to imply that the players are "out to pull a fast one" in tone. If you do, indeed, feel that way then no amount of rules manipulation will get rid of that feeling. Of course, I could be way off base here. I apologize in advance if I misread you... internet and all that

Re: THRILLING HERO TALES — A Campaign Chronicle This question got posted in another thread about the campaign. I thought that the question was good enough to warrant being in this thread in case anyone was wondering the same thing.

Re: Adamant's upcoming Mars book Adam MacBryde here... To be honest, being invulnerable didn't seem to make much of a difference at all. I think that it was the result of a few different things. It was of no help at all in the social situations, aside from establishing us as "special". It was a huge help in the duel though we didn't know that going in. But once we moved on to what I like to call "the hell of riding a Turago", I was too busy trying to avoid crashing to remember that I was invulnerable... not that it would have helped me one bit from a fall at that altitude. It was all that I could do to keep up with Roy and the NPCs in the air. I went through all but one of my Heroic Action Points just keeping myself from slamming into a cliff face and falling to my death. In the final battle, we were able to ignore most of the rank and file troopers; however, we still had to stay smart and move with our troops for fear of being overwhelmed by sheer numbers. In addition, the enemy elite troops were also a real threat due to being armed with either nets or mauls. The two times the invulnerability came in handy was when we were attacked by enemy Turago riders. Since they were using nothing but knives and arm bows, the relatively small attacks were not able to do Body damage to us. This bought us the time to remove a few of their number from the fight before they realized their weapons weren’t effective against us… and changed tactics. There’s nothing worse than a competent NPC who thinks on his feet. So while the invulnerability did change the way some battles were fought, it didn’t really make us “safe” so much as it bought us a few phases as our foes had to adapt their tactics. To be honest, this was the toughest game by far for me as Adam was utterly unsuited to most everything that we had to do. Brad (Adam MacBryde)

Re: THRILLING HERO TALES — A Campaign Chronicle So now I'm forced with having to decide between remaining in "pulp heroic" character vs. killing this guy since " he's got it comin' ". Decisions, decisions.

Re: Need help with CoH crossover It's been a while since I fought the Praetorian versions of the heroes, so this is all "from memory". Note that all of the signature heroes get all powers from the primary, all powers from their secondary, 4 power pools and an additional "signature" power pool with 4 powers not available to players. Statesman is a Super Strength/Invulnerable Tanker. He has all the Leadership powers, Flight, Fitness pool. I don't remember his fourth pool, but have a screenshot from the CoV end of beta event somewhere. His signature pool is the Power of Zeus, which in game terms gives him four Electric Blaster attacks. Sister Psyche is a Mind Controller, I think that her secondary is Empathy but I'm not certain about that. I didn't get to fight the heroic version of her in the end of beta event so I have no screen shot of her actual power choices. Positron is a Radiation/Radiation Defender. He is a Teleporter and also has the Leadership pool. I've got a screenshot of him from the end of beta. Synapse is an Electric / Electric Blaster. This is assuming that I'm thinking of the correct hero as I'm at work and can't check from here. Is this the TF Agent for Skyway City? If so, I've only fought the Praetorian version and he was a lightweight. Manticore is a Trick Arrow / Trick Shot Defender. I've never fought him so I can't say any more about his powers. He was at the end of beta but I never bumped into him. From the chat, he appeared to be quite powerful. Miss Liberty is a Martial Arts Scrapper. I honestly can't tell what her defensive powerset is as I missed her at the end of beta. I've only fought the Praetorian version, so I couldn't get screenshots of her powersets. The Praetorian version had no visual effect for her defenses so I've always assumed that she was Super Reflexes... but that is just a guess. Mynx is a Claws / Regen Scrapper. She was not present at the end of beta so no screenshots. She's somewhat fragile (for a hero of that level) but can hit *very* hard. Silver Swan is a tough call. She wasn't at the end of beta and her Praetorian is Black Swan. Black Swan is a Dark/Dark defender who also summons little darkness imps (like Fire Controllers, only much cooler looking). As there is no "light" defender, I have no clue. I've always assumed she was an Empathy Defender, but that is pure guesswork on my part. Infernal is a Fiery Aura / War Axe tanker. He also possesses the ability to summon 2-3 Behemoth Lieutenants to aid him in fighting. I believe his backstory is that he is trapped within the possessed armor/axe and has learned to control the evil within to force it to serve him. Malaise is a Mind Controller. I don't remember what his secondary powerset is. The two or three times I've fought him he felt like a lightweight. The villains are a lot harder to nail down. We've never gotten a chance to fight either them or their 'mirror universe' selves. Everything here is from website chat, mostly confirmed by the developers. But there is precious little specific detail for these five. Lord Recluse is a Mastermind, presumably specialized in robotics. There are an awful lot of arachnos drones. Ghost Widow is a Mind/Psi Dominator with a signature power of soul attacking. I forget what it was called in the CoV pre-release video. That's the only place we've seen it used. Captain Mako is a Brute. Think of him like a brick. Black Scorpion is a Corruptor (believe it or not). Think of him as a Blaster who can also weaken foes. Sirocco is a Stalker. I believe he's a Katana/Ninjutsu Stalker, but I'm really only guessing at the Ninjutsu part. His signature power is "wind control" but I can't recall having seen it in action.

Re: THRILLING HERO TALES — A Campaign Chronicle It was a great game. The pacing on the runway in the opening scene was very well handled. I was constantly trying to keep the tide of rushing opponents from overwhelming "my" side of the runway. Roy Austin really managed to shine in this game. He took down one of the chain-holders trying to block the airstrip while Blazing Away and then lifted off early to boot. Once at the airfield in Cairo he was competing against some highly skilled aviators, all while jury-rigging the sabotage done to his plane. He got that great 3000RPM line and then managed to get on the "getting the girl" scoreboard, despite Koslov's (very) dedicated efforts. Just goes to show you... can't compete with the flyboys. Brad (Adam MacBryde) Keeping score - Gets the Girl Koslov: 1, MacBryde: 1, Austin: 1, Everyone else: 0

Re: THRILLING HERO TALES — A Campaign Chronicle Speaking as one of the ‘prop recipients’ I don’t really think that envelops (accurate or not) are a value add for the prop. The look and period folding of the telegram creates the perfect feel without the extra time needed to tear into an envelop. But that’s just me. Other opinions may vary. Brad (Adam MacBryde)

Re: THRILLING HERO TALES — A Campaign Chronicle This was another excellent game, well done Steve! More of the top notch props this week including the Marsh Map (sectioned and aged), more authentic telegrams and maps of all the locations. He's also added our own period map of the world so that we can place pinpoints in all the places we've been. Highlights of the game include the Arabs backing down (have to love a GM saying "no player's ever done that before"), Roy Austin's dagger throw or Jake coming up with that hidden knife. It's always nice when the guy with Luck gets two 6's. Oh yeah... Keeping score - Gets the girl Macbryde: 1, Koslov: 1, Everyone else: 0 That'll teach Koslov to miss staff meetings Brad (Adam MacBryde)

Re: THRILLING HERO TALES — A Campaign Chronicle It's funny you should mention that. Two of players in the campaign (of which I am one) don’t really “get” Pulp as a genre. More than once I have remarked that my knowledge of the genre basically stops at Indiana Jones. Yet somehow this was the most fun I’ve had gaming in a really long time. With no outside urging at all, every single player at the table was suddenly going for ‘cinematic drama’ with their actions rather than ‘tactical planning’. And it was a beautiful thing to behold. I can’t wait for the next game. Brad (Adam MacBryde)

Re: THRILLING HERO TALES — A Campaign Chronicle Steve – thanks for running, the game was great fun! In retrospect, I can't believe that we walked into that ambush. We’re normally so suspicious that it seems really odd now that I look back on it. It never even occurred it me at the time. At least, not until you said “the rickshaw turns off the main road into an alley†and before you even finished describing the alley we were all exchanging the “yep, we’re boned†look. Actually, the more I think about it the funnier it seems. Brad (Adam MacBryde)