NinjaGeek

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

 

Game of Thrones, Season 1 on DVD

 

According to Amazon.com season 1 hasn't been released on DVD yet, but I have a friend who worked in Iraq for several months and he picked up a boot leg copy from a local vendor.

 

I wished they had toned down the nudity and sex. I can't remember the last time I saw an R-rated movie with as much sex and nudity. HBO seems to really enjoy being in your face about the fact that they don't have to worry about broadcast TV standards.

 

In any case, the story was excellent and really sucked me in. I stayed up late and devoured all 10 episodes in two nights. It makes me want to read the books, but I'm resisting since G.R.R. Martin has two more books to write and by the time he finishes them I'll have to reread everything to remember who all the characters were and what was going on.

Re: Would you marry a near-human alien?

 

That depends. Does she look like this:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]38200[/ATTACH]

 

Or this:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]38201[/ATTACH]

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

 

I can't believe how many good movies Wal-mart has in their bargain DVD section. This week I scored copies of Spiderman 1 & 2, Superman Returns, X-Files: Fight the Future, and Collateral (They had more good movies, but I had to limit myself.) All were $5 each!

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

 

I don't like my screen name on the Hero Games board. NinjaGeek? Laaaame!!! I was just in a rush to get registered for some reason and couldn't think of anything better. (I like my avatar pic though. Dexter is cool. )

Re: Darth Vader vs. The Hulk

 

I question if Hulk actually has enough IQ to find Jar Jar annoying. And it is not like Jar Jar is likely to whomp him hard enough to be considered an enemy (except maybe by accident - a MAJOR accident, at that!). After all, JJB is about as pathetically goofy and incompetent as a biped could possibly get - and STILL be able to walk (semi)upright. Which is probably why he ended up as a Senator in the Old Republic.

 

Been numerous instances where the Hulk has chosen to befriend especially pathetic / goofy / incompetent beings instead of whaling on them.

If he can hang out with Rick Jones and the "Teen Brigade" without stomping them into toe jam, he shouldn't have any problem with Jar Jar. I think Hulk has total immunity to annoying sidekicks.

Re: The cranky thread

 

You know what sucks? Having a huge responsibility, but having no authority.

 

My Boss: You need to get a "Best Practices" going for this new division.

Me: OK . OK, here's y'all's new Best Practices. Please begin implementing them immediately.

Them: No.

Me: It's not your call; you need to start doing this.

Them: No. You can't make us.

Me: Guess you're right. Hey boss, my task is complete, but they aren't doing it.

Boss: Hey! Things are going to crap over there! What happened to those Best Practices I told you to write up?

Me: I did it, they refused to implement it. I have no power to force them to, so it has languished.

Boss: Well, make them implement it!

Me: What authority do I have to do this?

Boss: None.

Me: Well then, we are at an impass. The BPs are ready to go, but if I have no authority to force them to use them, there is nothing further I can do.

Boss: Well... come up with something!

 

Does your boss have pointy hair?

Re: WWYD if you could recieve ONE super power

 

Oh and I suppose having some vastly powerful ability like the power cosmic or molecule man's powers would be really useful too. But I assume that would be cheating since those types of powers could be used in so many ways as to be almost limitless.

Re: WWYD if you could recieve ONE super power

 

The ability to read minds. Especially if I didn't need line of sight and could target minds over a distance.

 

I could be the ultimate spy. Or work for the military and pick the brains of captured terrorists to discover the identities and locations of Al-Quaeda operatives and their current plans. Just start with the terrorists we already have in prison and I believe that we could completely wipe out Al-Quaeda in a couple of months.

 

Or work in law enforcement doing criminal investigations. It would be easy to determine who was guilty or not. And even if I couldn't use the information in court, being able to pick a criminal's brain would enable me to find out what really happened and what evidence to look for and where it was located.

 

There are a lot other cool powers to have. But I believe that mind reading would have the most impact because of the potential to stop criminal activity.

Re: Starship Size Comparison Website

 

Very cool. Now if only they would fix the drag and drop so it works in a browser other than IE.

Re: WWYD: The Perfect Partner (potentially controversial)

 

By the time you could create an android with an AI so sophisticated that it could pass for an actual person (it would have to be that realistic if you wanted to sell it to women as an actual partner instead of a really expensive sex toy.) it would be no trouble to alter its programming so that it would actually be a sentient artificial life form. Give it a few personal desires and some self preservation and viola! You've now got a robot that would very likely start to rebel when they realized that they were being treated as personal property. I believe that someone would try to do this, if for no reason than it could be done. The question is at that point would the future look more like AI (the movie) or The Matrix?

Re: Traveler Hero

 

Are there any links to an introduction to Traveller universe? How about a summary/detailed product list/comparison of the Traveller product line(s)? I looked at Comstar's website and I couldn't figure out what is the first product that you would want to buy.

 

Also, after a little bit of web browsing it appears to me that licensed Traveller products have been produced by multiple companies over the years. For example, compare the Traveller product line listed on comstar-games.com with the products at travellerrpg.com. SJG has their own line Traveller products and their web links list a company called Judges Guild that also has produced some Traveller stuff.

 

Who owns the rights to the Traveller universe. Who produces the official products? What is(are) the main rule book(s)? Which products overlap with each other? What happens if different companies create supplements with conflicting information?

 

Confusion...

Re: Kal Turak

 

In the Hero Universe Takofanes actually endures to the contemporary era' date=' and there's a full writeup for him in the Champions sourcebook, [i']Conquerors, Killers And Crooks[/i]. If you really want to use the character in your fantasy campaign you could adapt his stats from that book. I must caution you, however, that that version of Takofanes is designed to threaten whole teams of powerful superheroes, and will effortlessly squash just about any heroic-level characters.

Which would probably be appropriate if he is supposed to be a Sauron-class villain.

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought)

 

Bob,

 

Is this going to be an official published Hero setting? If not, are you going to be making the setting available on the web?

Re: What fundamental thing would you change about the Hero system?

 

number of female players.

Unfortunately, I can't rep you yet.

Re: Moving from D&D - rules issues

 

Really the only mechanic from 3e that I personally think is superior to the HERO System's way of doing things is the ability to Attack then Move' date=' but on the whole I understand the mechanical / balance rationale for why it isnt allowed in the HERO System.[/quote']

Could you explain this. What is the rationale to allow move-then-attack but not attack-then-move?

Re: Why are robots always immortal?

 

Maybe R2D2 can't fly any more' date=' because he's getting worn out. Or maybe he's old and senile.[/quote'] Or perhaps George Lucas is old and senile.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game

 

Bummer.

 

If they released a stand alone costume designer I think it would sell pretty well in the gaming community. Oh well.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game

 

Sorry if this has already been covered, but this thread is really long and I don't feel like reading two years worth of posts.

 

I was wondering if it is possible to play CoH or CoV in single player mode without a monthly fee. Actually I am mainly interested in using the costume designer and doing screen shots that I can print out for a character sheet, put in a pdf/Word file, post on a website, etc.

 

So I guess my question is: Is it possible to use the costume designer without paying a fee?

 

And also: Does the costume designer in CoV include all the costume designing capabilities of CoH? In other words should I buy just CoV? Or should I buy both?

Re: The things I've learned playing a munchkin

 

Use dice that are difficult to read so that other players will be less likely to notice when you fudge your roll.

 

Good example: crystal dice that do not have painted numbers. They're a pain in the neck to read unless your are staring right at them. Even better, get a set with a d20 that uses a plus (+) symbol to mark values over 10. I don't know if they still make dice sets like that any more but they were real common when I was in high school.

 

Pick up your dice quickly after rolling to minimize the chance that anyone will see what you actually rolled.

 

Ok this doesn't work real well in Hero where you rarely roll less than 3 dice. But you know the d20 munchkins try it.

 

After rolling your d20 to hit, pick up the die and squint to pretend that you're looking at the result (you are using those hard to read dice right?). If your roll sucked, read off a better number that is near it on the die and **** the die slightly as you put back down on the table.

 

Ok, this sounds like a pathetically lame and obvious attempt at cheating. But we actually had a guy in our old group from high school/college that used to do this.

 

EDIT: Those word filters are funny. The censored word above is of course c-o-c-k.

Re: Horrorclix: Full pictures

 

After blowing too much money on a collectible card game in the 90s, I refuse to spend money on "collectible" games. They are an outrageous rip off. Do you guys actually buy the booster boxes or just buy the stuff you want on eBay, etc?

Re: Genres HERO GAMES may want to avoid (intended to be humorous)

 

Reptative Hero

Spell Check HERO

Re: Did the palindromedary eat the title?

 

Those assumptions seem to be no longer valid (if they ever were) for Hero games these days.

I'll take your word for it. I'm sure you've played in more Champions games than I have. But if that's true, it's a real shame because it removes one of the differences between the different archetypes in superhero comics. It is no big deal to be the "man of steel" who bounces bullets off his chest if every tom, dick, and harry is running around with the equivalent of a bullet proof vest. Daredevil sure would have been a lot more boring if sais, katanas, and throwing stars bounced off him like he was wearing a suit of plate mail.

 

Even if you DO assume your opponents have some Resistant Defense, the fact remains that Killing Attacks are superior to Normal Attacks of the same point value; this eventually leads to the ubiquity of Killing Attacks,

If your assertion is true, then it sounds like munchkinism is pervasive among Champions players. The purpose of having two different types of attacks in Champions is obvious: to enable the system to simulate the non-lethal combat which is (was?) pervasive in the comic book super hero genre. Using killing attacks instead of normal attacks just to play the stun lotto (as opposed to when it really fits the character concept and the campaign style) is just another form of min-maxing IMHO. I don't see why GMs would allow it.

 

which leads to an environment in which Resistant Defense becomes practically mandatory for everyone, which is why FRED has a kludge called “Combat Luck” which makes Resistant Defense available for everyone.

Are you sure it's not because more lethal iron age/dark champions style campaigns are more common now than when Champions was first introduced? Killing attacks have always had the advantages you are talking about.

Re: Did the palindromedary eat the title?

 

If that was a bank robber thug (normal human; 2 ED, no resistant; 8 BOD; 16 STUN)

 

- Average KA does 14 BOD, 37 Stun. Thug is KO'd and dying (-6 BOD), but not dead. Recovers once per minute (-21 Stun), so out for a while. 1st minute gets to -17 Stun; 2 turns later -9; next turn (2 phases + PS 12) conscious at 3 STUN. Total time out: 1 minute, 36 seconds.

 

- Average EB does 12 BOD, 42 Stun. Thug is KO'd and dying (-2 BOD), but not dead. Recovers once per minute (-24 Stun), so out for a while. 1st minute to -20 STUN, second minute to -16 Stun, 2 turns to -8; next turn (2 phases + PS 12) conscious with 4 STUN. Total time out: 2 minutes, 36 seconds.

 

Both thugs have taken enough BOD that they will die before recovering from KO, so they both need immediate medical attention. The one hit with the EB will take longer to recover consciousness, assuming he does receive medical attention. The one hit with the KA will, admittedly, take longer to recover from his injuries, but with 3.5 months vs 2.5 months (based on standard rates of body recovery), they're both looking at an extended convalescence.

 

I don't see the above results as all that different to Joe Sixpack observing the results.

You're right that a 4d6 rka is not an instant death sentence. My comment exagerates to be humorous while making a point. The point being that killing attacks kill people, but normal attacks generally do not. (We're talking about fights among super-heroic level characters. All bets are off if your heroes are in the habit of running around blasting normals.)

 

If it was a Super with, say, 20 Def, 10 rdef, the KA will do BOD where the EB will not, so that will result in more grave injuries. Take him up to 15 rDEF and he won't generally take BOD. There's a pretty narrow window where the KA will be significantly more lethal than the EB.

I guess I'm operating under different assumptions than you.

 

I'm assuming that there are a lot of characters running around without very little or no resistant defenses, but enough normal defenses to essentially ignore the body of 12d6 normal attack. 10 is a lot of resistant defense in my book. 10 rPD is enough to make a character almost bullet proof.

 

But of course, I grew up reading comics in the silver and bronze ages when characters like Wolverine and the Punisher were the exception not the rule. Most characters who weren't inherently bullet proof didn't feel the need to wear body armor under their leotards.

Re: Did the palindromedary eat the title?

 

I don't buy this. How does Joe Sixpack tell the difference between a 12d6 Lughtning Bolt EB abd a 4d6 lightning Bolt RKA?

When a hero defeats his foe with a 12d6 EB lightning bolt, Joe Sixpack sees an unconscious felon lying on the ground.

 

But when a hero defeats his foe with a 4d6 RKA lightning bolt, Joe Sixpack sees a charred body that look more like a KFC extra crispy drumstick than the villain he saw robbing the bank ten minutes ago.

Re: LotR What if... question

 

The five wizards were Curunir (Saruman)' date=' Olorin (Gandalf), Radagast and the two 'Blue wizards'. The blue wizards ventured east and south into Sauron's own lands and nothing more is known of them.[/quote']

I thought Gandalf's real name was Mithrandir?

 

They are known as the Istari. Essentially they are Maiar (lesser angelic powers) embodied in mortal form (hence Gandalf's very real death). Suggest you check out the Encyclopedia of Arda:

 

http://www.glyphweb.com/ARDA/

Cool. Thanks for the link. It would probably also help if I finished reading LotR. I've only read through the first half of the Two Towers. But I've been peeking at the RotK after watching the extended editions of the movies to see what they changed.