Ian Mackinder

Re: Iron Skies Trailers True enough. But YOU are also overlooking an important staple of Pulp Action. Specifically, Bad Guys ignoring some very fundamental laws of science and/or common sense - which the Good Guys use to repeatedly belt them over the head with.

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

Re: Iron Skies Trailers Hmmm. Very bad things happening to Nazis. Yep, a good day for everybody else.

Re: Iron Skies Trailers I keep thinking that it would be almost impossible to goose-step properly in Lunar gravity.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From everything I have ever heard about the fellow, one would probably need a separate sheet just to record the Sanity Loss from summoning and meeting him.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... This one is possibly in the 'You Really Had To Be There' category. At the very least, think of genres crossing - in this case, 'Call Of Cthulhu' and 'Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy'. Begins with a standard (early-edition) 'CoC' game. One of the PCs begins the campaign with a spell to summon and control a Dimensional Shambler. Basically, he can summon a low-end other-worldly horror which will obey basic orders. When the allotted time runs out, it immediately vanishes back to wherever it came from. Anyhow, doesn't take long for the party to get into a combat situation. The PC with this spell decides to use it, reasoning that a Dimensional Shambler could be a useful asset. Unfortunately, he was thinking in D&D terms - the monster-summoning process in CoC is much MUCH longer. So, there he is in the middle of a major battle, prancing around, muttering gibberish and doing all the other stuff required by the ritual. Miraculously, he doesn't get shot by anyone. When the monster finally arrives, the battle has just ended. At a total loss as to what else he can do with a fully functional Dimensional Shambler (having it just hang around for the next 15-20 minutes seems wasteful), the PC finally tells it to "Go eat rats". They're in an underground complex with lots of rats, so I guess that tidying up the place is something positive. The party goes on to do other things. The Ref does not forget, having rolled Human-level Intelligence for this particular Dimensional Shambler, making it Genius-level amongst its own kind. Given his sense of humour (same dude as in the 'Young Sherlock Holmes' debacle), an encore was almost ... required. So, a couple of sessions down the track, the party gets into a non-urgent situation where a summoned Dimensional Shambler might be useful, The PC does the ritual and gets a Dimensional Shambler. Whereupon the Ref has the creature say the following (in a dismal, deep, slow monotone): "Oh. It's just you. I suppose you found some more rats for me to eat. It is so depressing. I mean, I know I am just an other-worldly horror who exists solely to do whatever he is told. Bipeds rip holes in reality just so they can dump me in a strange place and watch me eat a rat. No point in caring, It can only get worse. ...." And so on, And so on. At which point, most of the PCs had laughed themselves breathless, and almost forgot what they had summoned the Shambler for in the first place.

Re: "Neat" Pictures Then there is still hope for you.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... A notorious session of 'Cthulhu By Gaslight' ('Call Of Cthulhu' in the Victorian Era). Note in advance that this session happened shortly after the movie 'Young Sherlock Holmes' came out. Everybody had seen it - the GM got A LOT of ideas, and the PCs naturally had acquired a few .... preconceptions.. Any way, the PCs are in London in the 1880s, following rumours of evil cultists and so forth. Oddly enough, their investigations lead them to a large warehouse. Checking it out further, they discover some things of interest. First, there are a number of sigils and Egyptian hieroglyphs in a number of concealed locations within the warehouse. Second, there are a system of tunnels and chambers beneath the warehouse, with lots more Egyptian-style decor. Third is the fifty-foot-high pyramid (mostly timber) in the centre of all this, covered with further sigils and hieroglyphs. Yep, just like in 'Young Sherlock Holmes'. No sign of cultists as yet. The PCs rove about the area defacing everything they can find. As a final touch, they place explosives deep inside the complex. There is a prolonged and unnecessarily heated argument about how much burn-time they should have on the fuses, but the PCs FINALLY opt for thirty-plus minutes. Theoretically, long enough to get some distance, and then sit back and enjoy the fireworks. They light the fuses, and leave. Unfortunately, the party is confronted by the "cultists" in the street just outside the entrance. Perhaps even more unfortunately, the cultists are actually a White Magic group (ie. GOOD GUYS!), who are justifiably upset about all the vandalism the PCs have just done to their secret place of worship. Discussions are not helped when the PCs state something along the lines of "Ooops, sorry, we thought this was a Temple Of Set...". Given that these cultists are so anti-Set that just speaking his name is both an insult and major desecration, this does not go down at all well. However, by Herculean use of their Diplomatic skills, the PCs actually start to calm the cultists down just a little. Right about then, the explosive charges start going off. Yeah, a bit early, but the party's demolitions skills and rolls thereof were mediocre at best anyhow. Ref just about has hysterics as he gleefully describes this part. As the two groups watch, the entire warehouse catches alight, kind of folds in on itself and noisily collapses into its basement. And then the gas main underneath all this adds its own little bit, so there is this dramatic WHOOSH and a column of flame that erupts out of the wreckage. A very brief silence follows, with the Ref gasping for breath after laughing so hard. At which point, the PCs spontaneously and unanimously decide to RUN LIKE HELL! The remainder of their session is spent fleeing the lynch mob of formerly peaceful cultists (and the police), through winding backstreets. Illuminated all the while by the consequences of their most recent adventure - the flames can be seen all over London, pretty much. Afterwards. the party spent a session otr two basically hiding from just about everybody, before literally jumping at a "mission" that took them out of the country for a while. The Ref was VERY proud of that game.

Re: Adventurers' Club Update When things are exactly what they seem, the PCs KNOW they are in deep doo-doo. Good luck. You're also a Sydney-ite? We're based at 'Good Games' in Burwood (PULP Hero is the first Sat of the month). Where does your group play?

Re: .600 Nitro Express Revolver

Re: Eclipse Phase conversions to Hero Overlays, very basically. You have the "core" stuff (the character's ego), and the rest is just plug-ins. For some reason, I have this vivid mental picture of posthumans enthusastically salvaging, restoring and "pimping out" morphs; much as people do today with vehicles of all kinds. Yeah, I KNOW that ain't EP, but it is still funny as hell to imagine.

Re: "Neat" Pictures What you see now is just a hint of what will happen next. When the little buggers are suddenly thirty feet tall, super-intelligent, addicted to human kidneys AND shoot frickin' lasers out of their eyes - THEN you'll be sorry.

Re: "Neat" Pictures

Re: Adventurers' Club Update "Good" as in scary-unstoppable, certainly. Good as in somebody to actually interact with and possibly outwit, not so much. Would be nice if he could at least stay down long enough for us to recover and possibly get a false sense of security. "Double-tapping" the party with him (or making it look like that is about to happen) is arguably a bit much.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... FRom a fellow Player in our Pulp HERO game: "Okay. Unspeakable evil, major threat to humanity, we're the only ones who can save the world. Must be a Wednesday...",

Re: "Neat" Pictures Time travel, dude. Think about it.

Re: Fallout Hero (6E) Was thinking about this one. One possibility is to rule that skill books represent a portion of all XPs that Characters get, rather than being an extra. Not how it happens in Fallout, I know, but worth consideration.

Re: .600 Nitro Express Revolver ... And, in 'Fallout 3', there is a mod that places a .700 'Nitro Express' (with a small but steady ammo supply) into the game. It is an Awesome weapon. Just one shot (medium range) will explode the head off a Supermutant, demolish power armour or turn an unmutated unarmoured Human into minestrone.

Re: .600 Nitro Express Revolver 'A Gun For Dinosaur'. By L Sprague DeCamp. Great story.

Re: Adventurers' Club Update OK, subsequently ... Good News: Dragon Emperor not actually on his way right now, or in immediate future. Bad News: Whenever he does arise ( / resurrect?), the first thing he must do is head for and acquire this scroll. Really Bad News: The scroll is indestructible. At least, as regards anything we have on the 'Antares' - won't burn or tear or puncture or break or bend or anything like that. We don't have a nuke, so it is hard to test the upper limits of this item's toughness. So, its indestructibility is assumed. Round table session follows. Remember we are in mid-Pacific about now. Taking this scroll back to the USA (and, presumably, entombing it in a vault at the Adventurers' Club) is seen as a bad BAD idea. Think about it. If Mr Dragon Emperor makes his comeback anytime soon, he is going to be making a beeline for this item, wherever it may be. Bad enough this will involve his crossing a swathe of China just to get to the Pacific, but add in his stomping across the USA to get to New York and, well .... Not good. Comes to that, we cannot even be sure His Majesty isn't going to "get" us at sea anyhow. Yup, no way Captain Ferguson will let this thing stay on his ship. No frickin' way. Can't launch the scroll into the Sun, no active volcanoes or extra-dimensional gateways nearby, no other holes deep enough (and we don't have the concrete to fill in said hole afterwards). No place that we can reach or think of is sufficiently safe, hidden, tough or isolated enough. So, burial at sea seems the only option. We're in the mid-Pacific (as was said) and it is relatively deep. Mr Dragon Emperor should have to WORK to get his scroll back - probably a helluva lot more than if the dern thing stayed on 'Antares' or in the USA. Make notes of where we dropped the scroll (Navigation roll from the Captain), and if weird stuff ever starts happening in China and then goes there, we at least get some warning. Before dropping it overboard, we take a few other precautions. Partymembers come up with several ideas, and Captain Ferguson offers a Gold Sovereign to whomever of his crew comes up with the best containment idea. Most of what we come up with are basically 'Chicken Soup' ideas (ie. they may not help, but they sure can't hurt). Immerse the scroll in tar, so all its writings should be at least temporarily obscured. Wrap it up tight in some steel plate. Wrap that in lead. Molten lead over that. Father O'Malley blesses the whole thing and affixes some seals of a Holy nature on the outside. Various other precautions. Trust me, no effort is spared. Over the side it goes. Splash. Exact location a strict secret. I speculated as to whether we inadvertently dropped the item on top of the Secret Underwater Base of the morally-deficient and sanity-challenged Doctor Aquaticus. Or maybe it is the Lost City of Ry'leh - I'm sure the Dragon Emperor and Cthulhu would find LOTS to talk about. Several weeks pass, and nothing further happens on that front. Yet. ***** Anyhow, 'Antares' gets passengers and cargo back to the USA. She is then laid up for repair and refit. Currently, the PCs have been split up, with each in what can best be described as a "mini-scenario". Basically, our fame means that various people have called on us for help. Father O'Malley is in a very quiet (and especially damp) corner of Florida, Somebody claiming to be in need of an exorcist, only our Padre is now investigating murder and general skullduggery. Tommy Atkins is doing some test-piloting. An old wartime buddy was killed test-flying a highly advanced aircraft, and Tommy is trying to finish what he started. Trouble is that everything about the aircraft seems to be all about trying to kill the pilot. Doctor Hawke is on an Indian reservation in Colorado, helping to deal with an epidemic. Naturally, there is a lot more at stake than just a bunch of sick people in need of his skills. Captain Ferguson (plus some of his crew) is assisting the US Navy in finding and salvaging a lost submarine. As regards the crew of the sub, it does not look at all hopeful, but the Captain is improvising a fairly quick way of raising the vessel.

Re: Kill the Dude with the Thing "This is not the Thing you are looking for..."

Re: Vostok I: 12 April 1961 + 50 years The interest in space remains, I think. It's just not something that gets any real attention from most politicians. Being seen as "pro-space" might be nice for a photo op or speech that makes one look visionary, but space programs are very expensive (at least, the way Big Government runs them) and extremely unlikely to help win the next election. That last being the primary motivation of most contemporary politicians, or so it seems.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... OK, so McGinty now has a lore-appropriate waste disposal unit. Certainly not the worst thing he has ever done or otherwise been responsible for. So far.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Ohhh-kay. Is that with or without the jar?

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Sorry. I was trying for this thing called "humour"?