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Ian Mackinder

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Posts posted by Ian Mackinder

  5. Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

     

    Hmm, Vitus detects the stench of intellectual property infringement. But no doubt a few a few compariative applications to suitable test subjects, he'd agree that the similarities between "Testaverde's Testicular Trauma" and "Detonate Scrotum" are co-incidental :)

     

    Now there's an alarming thought - Vitus in the Marvelverse....

     

    ;) Well, the MU does need major house-cleaning - and it is difficult to see how Vitus could actually make things worse.

  7. Golden Age Resources: Superweapons of WW II

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Golden Age Resources: Superweapons of WW II

     

    Considering the state Japanese forces were in by the time the first two I-400s became operational (AND the problems they had building and manning just about anything at that stage), I seriously doubt that they could have mustered the force for an undertaking like this. Let alone get it all the way to Panama - which was, let's be very clear, a heckuva long way from Japanese waters even at the height of their expansion.

     

    Which is NOT saying, mind you, that higher-ups in Japan wouldn't have had a thought or two in this direction. As the war progressed, 'wishful thinking' seemed to play a greatly increased role in their operational planning.

  8. Golden Age Resources: Superweapons of WW II

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Golden Age Resources: Superweapons of WW II

     

    Looks a LOT shopped to me.

     

    The upperworks almost exactly look like the Surcouf. But the aft section seems disproportionately short for a submarine, and the stern itself looks squared-off rather than the taper that pretty much all subs have even now. My guess is that this originally was a pic of a surface vessel, with elements of the Surcouf later photo-shopped in.

     

    Developing something like the Surcouf was probably within the IJN's capabilities. They had a number of subs that could carry observation planes or minisubs - the latter were used to launch the minisub raids against Pearl Harbour and (later) Sydney. Then there were the I-400s, which could carry multiple attack aircraft.

  9. Under the Agony Star: a sword and planet campaign

    in Star Hero

    Posted

    Re: Under the Agony Star: a sword and planet campaign

     

    Hmmm, pretty sicko idea that last, but fits the genre.

     

    The inevitable PC questions for that particular concept being: What's its fuel mileage? Does it only work with human blood? If its energy conversion system is THAT efficient, then why not simply vacuum up whatever (organic) matter is available?

     

    (Possible answer/justification for that last - it could use anything, but either simply likes blood or sees this as a psychological schtick to keep the slaves properly terrorized)

     

    Maybe, instead of being an actual fuel as such, the slaves' blood is needed for a critical component (of whatever blend of mysticism and super-science keeps it running). Maybe the slaves are kept on a peculiar diet and/or other strange restrictions for just that purpose. Just a couple of thoughts.

  13. Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

     

    Excuse me!! What is with this "being reasonable and polite and trying not to cause offense" crap?! These are the interwebz! Get with the program!!

     

    Now, I want you two to call each other stupid and belittle each other's favored game systems. Right now, or there's no pie for either of you!

     

    Well, e-x-c-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-s-e me!

     

    ;)

  14. Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

     

    I hope you didn't take offense. I meant that line to be satirical' date=' not offensive. I also play D&D 4, so I thought that comment was well with in my wheelhouse. In my experience as a D&D player, I rarely need to do any of those things I listed.[/quote']

     

    It is probable I have become more than a tad over-sensitive here.

     

    I like D&D4 (though definitely not a fanboy) and can cope with the fact that some people feel otherwise - there are systems I wouldn't touch with a twenty-foot cattle-prod for various reasons, good OR bad. But my real issue is the degree of personal stuff that has come with it - that anyone who supports the system MUST be turned on to the "right" path. I've gotten that crap a couple of times from people / groups previously thought very tolerant, and it has left me a tad bitter.

     

    Accepted that you weren't trying to be offensive, M74. I apologize if my own reaction was out of line.

  16. Spinning Pulp Racism Into Something Productive

    in Pulp Hero

    Posted

    Re: Spinning Pulp Racism Into Something Productive

     

    Interesting. In my pulp game the players are soon to encounter the black community in New York for the first time (apart from the very large black doorman who works at "The Adventurers' Club"). It should be interesting to see how they react (although the characters are mostly non Americans)

     

    ..... A-N-D said characters are accustomed to multi-racial / multicultural situations anyhow (Captain Ferguson and his travels AND his crew, Doc Hawke's medical studies and interests, the Padre in general). So, they do lack specific knowledge about NYC's black community, but otherwise they'll manage. A bit more likely to get trouble in the OTHER direction, I reckon.

  19. Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

     

    Basically they've screwed up since the first session, and it finally all came to roost. To whit...

     

    Right from the very start, and pretty much one of the first clues they got, which they read out to each other and still ignored.

    They kept the handouts with your character sheets, and even on the single occasion they double checked them, STILL ignored them.

    I put the clues in the campaign journal, on LiveJournal, on the HERO forum, on Yog-Sothoth and not one of them noticed the VERY IMPORTANT DETAIL THAT WAS RIGHT THERE.

    I put clues they missed at the end of the journal and none of them read to the end.

    I emailed them clues that they missed and they didn’t take the hint.

    I gave Abbagale the chance to do basic research before she left New York (since nobody else had bothered) and she decided not to, thus wasting their last chance to discover some extremely important facts about the Carlyle Expedition.

    I suggested multiple times that they consider what Elias may have missed, and they ignored me every time.

    Even cult leaders were suggesting other leads to them and they ignored them.

    At any point, a single Library Use check could have saved them from disaster... but despite all my hints that using the British Library or pretty much any newspaper on Fleet Street, they didn’t make a single Library Use check. Despite me having told them repeatedly over the last few years that :Library Use is one of the most important skills in the game.

    I gave them Miles Shipley’s paintings, which might have warned them they were heading into a trap, and they never went back to look at the rest

    I gave them a spell that would protect them from the minions of Nyarlathotep, reminded them about it twice, and they never had the medallions made.

    They let a cult leader escape in New York and make zero effort to hunt him down or even find out who he was. Despite having had a bar full of people that could have identified him arrested, and then ordered released with asking them anything. And a truckful of corpses they could have magically interrogated.

    Thanks to this gobsmacking incompetence they ended up telling a cult leader all about their plans to raid his cult - and kept him safe from the cultists!

    And when they actually checked for the cultists that have been following them around London since shortly after they arrived, they assumed they were police tails... And never asked the police to confirm it, when they met the Inspectors a few minutes later!!!!!

     

    Hooo, boy.

  20. Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

     

    well' date=' I fear I may have killed off my [i']Masks of Nyarlathotep[/i]. *sigh*

     

    Two of my best roleplayers have quit after the events of last night's session. I hope Sam and Ben (Abbagale and Johnson) stick with it, but I hope I can find a third regular.... as it is, Abbagale and Johnson are probably going to be in the hospital for a while - they only got away because Johnson managed to summon up a star vampire while they were still a few minutes ahead of the mob.

     

    That's too bad. Sounds like things went wrong in an especially bad way. Here's hoping you can pick up the pieces.

  21. Supervillain Monologues

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Supervillain Monologues

     

    At the other end of the scale, there was one long-ago super game I was in, where one PC successfully delivered a quite substantial shot to the supervillain's nads.

     

    Not enough for major damage or anything, but the GM immediately did a supervillain-style flourish and said (in a VERY high-pitched voice), "You'll PAY for that outrage...".

  22. Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

     

    The Vorpal Bunny does not want profits' date=' it wants something to shoot at. The Machine Spirit is "Wrothful" the crew is quite likely made up of all Vikings, the GM muttered something about writing up the Captain and him coming from the home planet of the Sons Of Fenris. There may also be something in the water-recycler on the ship as the crew has only been on it a month or so (we found it empty and broken)...[/quote']

     

    Indeed. But profits can help them find more stuff to shoot at, or get way kewler things with which to shoot at more stuff. Basic dungeoneering mentality, really. ;)

  24. looking for non-Causasian pulp roles

    in Pulp Hero

    Posted

    Re: looking for non-Causasian pulp roles

     

    Another idea would be an African (or Australian aboriginal) "tracker" who had worked with the police in his native country.

     

    As a long-time fan of the series, I would point out the 'Bony' character, from the detective novels by Arthur Upfield, as well worth consideration. He is not really a Pulp character as such, but the books start in the same era.

     

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bony_(fictional_character)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Upfield

     

    The Wiki doesn't do the character justice, oddly enough. As written, Bony owed more than a little to Sherlock Holmes. Except that, instead of the opium problem and misanthropic leanings, Bony was constantly striving for balance between his European and Aboriginal ancestries. He cheerfully (and often) admitted that he was a terrible policeman, but he valued his success as a detective which kept him employed as such. Without that success, he also often said that he would probably revert to traditional Aboriginal ways and return to the bush. By European standards, he was an extraordinary tracker (though not nearly as good as "full" Aboriginals), and this usually featured in the stories.

     

    The novels themselves are set in the Outback or less accessible / well-known parts of Australia. The author himself had done a lot of travelling around, and knew his material well. I highly recommend the books for the detective stuff (excellent), the vivid descriptions of strange (but true) landscapes and the portrayal of a bygone era.

     

    OK, the character is PART-Caucasian (and he himself would openly admit as such). But I still think him worthy of mention here.

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