etherio

Re: "Neat" Pictures
 

 
Hehehe...who would ever buy that concept now that the cosmopharmocologic distance is so last week (pretending to get it, so that you won't know I'm dumb).
 
Funny how in-group knowledge can result in humor that only the geeks in question can understand. (As gamers, I'm sure we've all encountered this. That's why in many ways being a gamer encourages closeting oneself in a way that is socially analogous to being gay in the bible belt.)
 
Here's my science geek joke experience:
 
During my freshman 'Chemistry for Science Majors' course at the U of Hawaii, we had been recently going over EM wavelength and frequency, fundamentally expressed (if memory serves) as 'C= (lambda)(nu).' The professor walked in and, as he did every day, asked the class casually, "What's new?"
 
"C over lambda," popped out of my mouth reflexively.
 
He looked at me over the class, gave a big sigh, and said, "I've been waiting 10 years for somebody to do that." The class erupted in laughter.
 
Oh, hilarity!!! When I related the story to my friends (who are decidedly uninterested in any science that doesn't involve 'warp drive' or 'the Force'), they were not amused. Their expressions made me feel quite lonely, indeed. (Check your own now!)

Re: "Neat" Pictures
 

 
Hehehe...who would ever buy that concept now that the cosmopharmocologic distance is so last week (pretending to get it, so that you won't know I'm dumb).
 
Funny how in-group knowledge can result in humor that only the geeks in question can understand. (As gamers, I'm sure we've all encountered this. That's why in many ways being a gamer encourages closeting oneself in a way that is socially analogous to being gay in the bible belt.)
 
Here's my science geek joke experience:
 
During my freshman 'Chemistry for Science Majors' course at the U of Hawaii, we had been recently going over EM wavelength and frequency, fundamentally expressed (if memory serves) as 'C= (lambda)(nu).' The professor walked in and, as he did every day, asked the class casually, "What's new?"
 
"C over lambda," popped out of my mouth reflexively.
 
He looked at me over the class, gave a big sigh, and said, "I've been waiting 10 years for somebody to do that." The class erupted in laughter.
 
Oh, hilarity!!! When I related the story to my friends (who are decidedly uninterested in any science that doesn't involve 'warp drive' or 'the Force'), they were not amused. Their expressions made me feel quite lonely, indeed. (Check your own now!)

Re: Aging Campaigns
 
Mike,
 
Keep in mind this is strictly a Heroic-level game; there are no Powers in use at the moment (not even NPCs, yet).
 
We let them try to do whatever it is they are wanting to learn. Whether they succeed or fail, it counts as a "use" toward learning the ability.
 
So the character tries to "use" a Skill he doesn't have (usually with a 5- Roll to reflect complete lack of skill). When the spreadsheet totals up a full character point in the new Skill, he gains a Familiarity with it.
 
Hope that makes sense.
 
Edit: Oh, and the idea isn't original. It came from our playing the computer game Wizardry 8, where your skills improve as you use them. The more you use a skill in that game, the better you get at it (and the quicker you get better at it). We thought it would be fun to simulate that and it is so far.

Re: Aging Campaigns
 
Some possibilities:
 
1. Give assigned experience points to buy wealth, reputation, and contacts - or give bonuses to contact relationships - for people who role play it well. In other words, all those "background perks" develop with roleplaying, not just expenditures. Players will generally jump on board if they think they can get a freebie. And remember that those contacts are two way streets. Anyone the player has a contact probably has the player as a contact - so let the contact call up and ask for help. For example, I'm running in a comined Marvel/DC world. One of the characters had Spidey as a contact. As a plot hook recently, I had Spidey call up and ask for help with Carnage. Since the PC group came running right away, I gave the player +1 to his relationship with Spidey when the night was over. Reputation perk is another good place to give freebies. If they roleplay it well, maybe give them +1 to their wealth.
Perks can be very useful, but also very easy to control.
 
2. Suggest putting points into a group base or vehicle(or improving the current one). For 8 or 10 points each, the group can have a vehicle which is much faster than any of the chracters and can get them all there at the same time. You can buy a VERY basic base for 18 or 20 points total, but X-Men style danger rooms and Avengers level security can get very expensive, very quickly.
 
3. Don't forget that villains get experience too. Everytime you use a villain, give them a few points at the end of the night to buy a couple more DEF, another MP slot, or an extra die on their EB. Just make sure to keep it balanced. And you can always give them a tougher class of villains. After all, you've got stats for Dr. Destroyer, Firewing, and the like. So maybe it's time to use them.
 
4. Another thing I try to do in my campaigns is use a "paper trail" which is twofold. First, we have a "newspaper" of sorts which details not just the PC's latest adventure(if it was public enough and noteworthy enough) but also details what other heroes/villains were doing(handy excuse for a contact not being around even if the character makes the roll) and can be used to introduce plot hooks for adventures(a spate of robberies, etc). The other is what we initially called "bluebooks"(because we used college exam "bluebooks" until they became too expensive, now we use cheap folders with notebook paper). At the end of each night, or between adventures, the players write down what their characters are doing "between sessions" this gives the player a chance to develop a contact, improve their business, etc without it taking time away from the main session with the other players...and can be a good place to start adventures involving the character's personal life(their store gets robbed, someone infilitrates their company, a hunted kidnaps a DNPC, you've got all kinds of possibilities here).

Re: Aging Campaigns
 
How many points do you pay for your characters to have the Perk: Invulnerable; PCs player sleeps with GM?

Re: Animated Series Style Character Images
 

Try the Gimp (http://www.gimp.org). It is free, and works well. It supports layers, blending of layers, import of photoshop files, etc., etc. It's really quite impressive. I think most of my problems using it stem from the fact that it is the first sophisticated image-processing program I've used.
 
- Bill

Re: Animated Series Style Character Images
 
I posted a number of these on the DCU Animated website a while back, but that site has been under reconstruction for some time. My original intent was to design some Cardboard Heroes for Thrilling True Tales!!!, the Pulp Hero game I play in, but I got enough of a response from people that I started creating characters to fill in the GM's world.
 
Here is my own character, Johnny Danger, BTAS style.