Kenn

There are a number of languages, or at least forms of communication, in existence that do not have all of the components of most languages.

Ancient Egyptian has been largly translated, and people can learn to read it, but I don't know that anyone really knows how to speak it, or any other dead language.

American Sign Language and other sign languages all have communication, meaning, grammar and syntax, but they have no written component.

Semaphore and Morse Code are other weird cases.

Should these types of "language" be bought as Languages (and if so, how) or should they just be Knowledge skills?

Re: Speaking of Languages

In some games, it may be useful, but in my Champions game I find the Optional Language Chart to be more complex than its worth for the tiny numbers of changes it would entail. So I don't use that option.

Re: Elves

Well, there is an old folktale about a changeling...

 

For those who don't know, a "changeling" is when a Human child has been taken away and a Faerie child (or sometimes something else, like a block of wood disguised by glamor) left in its place. Usually it's supposed to be infants.

 

In this story, the parents who suspected this had happenned were instructed by the local wise woman or cunning man to brew ale in an eggshell, and let the baby see what they were doing. The baby watched, eyes getting wider and wider, until it exclaimed "I am old and old; I have seen three forests grow and wither, but never have I seen ale brewed in an eggshell." Whereupon, perhaps because it knew that in being startled into speaking it had given away the deception, it vanished up the chimney. I'm afraid I don't recall that they got the original baby back, but they certainly ended the changeling's charade.

 

I doubt the same trick would work anymore; but a modern home probably has plenty of gadgets and wonders and things to see and do that would be just as strange even to someone who had seen three forests grow and wither.

Reminds me of the method to tell if one's bride is a virgin by painting ones naughty bits green and yellow. When she laughs ans says "that's the funniest pair of ***** I've even seen" you'll know she's been around.

Re: Sure signs that your player doesn't want to be in your 350 pt champions game.

Wonder if it was the same player?

I couldn't rightly say. I do know said player was (is?) involved in an ungodly number of PBeMs. So it's certainly possible.

IMX' date=' most major player mis-matches tend to "self-resolve" like that sooner or later. [/quote']

 

My experience too, although in some cases it took way to many sessions (years.)

Re: AIs, automatons, etc. as PCs

There was a character in one of the later 4th Ed. "Enemies" books, the Yeoman, which was essentially a free-willed android. There's a character in my campaign that's also essentially a free-willed android. Characters like Red Tornado and the Vision, from the comics are also that type of character. However, such characters should be built as normal characters, with Powers to represent their mechanical forms.

An AI in a box, like say, ORAC, really should only be an NPC. Imagine the player's reaction when he realises no one picked up his character to take him along.

Re: Superhero Images

Ah, okay... I see.

 

Must have been a fun thread while it lasted. =)

As I said, "More's the pity."

Re: Ultimate Scrapper?

Actually, the first comic hero who had super self-healing as a power is the Simonson/Goodwin Paul Kirk Manhunter. Who was a martial artist/weapon guy who had a schtick about getting better. But he still usually rested while he was doing it.

But while Logan's actual defenses may be lower, but with a higher REC and Regeneration, the whole "I get hit, but I keep standing there fighting" is still a brick trait.

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

The funny thing, when I use to play AD&D, I would play a human about 75% of the time if not more. The rest of the group would play one of the demi-humans, and would get upset that I did not pick a race that had infravision or some such non-sense as that.

 

Once D20 came out, that group now play humans predominately. The removal of "multi-classing", and the addition of bonuses for humans must appeal to the power-gamer in them...

 

As for Hobbits, thanks but no thanks. I am not too crazy about gnomes either, but I do like to use Dennis McKennins (Spelling) gem-eyed folk.

Is this the group you and Savinien frequently regale me with stories about?

Re: Sure signs that your player doesn't want to be in your 350 pt champions game.

DId you get him to rotate the characters back 120 degrees to get them to the proper GM?

Nope. Too beligerent of a player. Jim brought in the one character submitted to him. Player lasted for one session. Spun off into a different game, with a mostly different group of players. Lasted maybe four sessions there, before he just stopped showing up.

Re: Ultimate Scrapper?

Perhaps Mystic and Gadgeteer are two subsets of the "Jack-of-All-Powers" archetype?

Re: Help with a name please

The costume ain't to Silver Agey either. Very Bronze to Iron. And the full face mask. Not silver agey.

Starman (yeah, I know)

Morning Star (I used this one)

Captain Star

Mirster Stellar

Hyperion (yeah, I know)

Starlord

Power Star

Sam Solar

Re: Superhero Images

Without a catsuit thread anymore' date=' [/quote']

 

More's the pity.

 

A gothic Valkyrie I did

 

So many straight lines, so little time.

Re: Superhero Comics & D&D Alignments

While I'd agree for the Golden Age (Mr. I led the JSA for most of the 1940s) and Silver Age Hawkmen, I'd have to disagree in regards to the modern "Hawkman the Barbarian" character. I'd call him more Neutral Good.

Re: What are _____ like in your game?

At one point I was contemplating a setting without traditional demi-humans, but where the Neanderthal didn't die out, and basically filled the "orc"/"goblin" role. I would have also set an island out beyond something akin to the Wallace Line and have a race of "halfling" akin to Homo floresiensis. I considered researching other proto-human races to fill in the "elf" and "dwarf" roles.

Re: Ultimate Scrapper?

I'm old. When I started playing Champions, they only listed four archetypes: brick, martial artist, egoist, and energy projector. And the difference between a martial artist and a brick was how you avoided damage: a brick sucked it up; a martial artist avoided getting tagged.

I'm glad Hero has expanded the list (though Patriot doesn't belong since any Patriot is going to be something else besides.) But I do think there's a danger of over-doing the quantification.

Re: Ultimate Scrapper?

Backinaday there was a drawing of Spiderman lifting a platform on which was standing Thor, Hulk, Thing, Hercules, Colossus (I think), Namor, Silver Surfer, and a few other heroes. The caption was that they were the heroes who were stronger than Spidey. There were not a lot of them.

 

I wish I could find the picture.

It was (at least) on the back of a Marvel Treasury Edition (those big tabloid sized reprint books) dedicated to Spider-Man.

Re: Sure signs that your player doesn't want to be in your 350 pt champions game.

I was (am) running the super-team that fills the RCU's Avengers/JLA niche. Savinien was running the ex-government supers vs government conspiracy group. Another friend, Jim, was running a small-team-trying-to-protect-a-city campaign.

We met one would-be player who submitted a character to each of us. A good Avenger/JLAer type to Savinien. The ex-military super, to Jim, and the lesser-powered works-best-with-a-small-team guy to me. I swear it's like he had three characters that would fit well in three games, and he rotated each one GM to the right.

Re: Sure signs that your player doesn't want to be in your 350 pt champions game.

Why can't we shoot those players?

Re: Elves

But can elves bake cookies, still?

Make toys working as slave labour for some fat dude with a fondness for venison?

Re: Ultimate Scrapper?

Spider-Man is pretty much a reverse of the hybrid of the archetypes. Webbing not withstanding, he has Brick-like attacks, but defensive abilities like a martial artist.

Re: Are HERO gamers more wedded to more "realistic" game physics?

BBB was realeased August 1989.

Re: Elves

Which would still hurt like the dickens. Unless you're Uncle Scrooge McDuck.

Re: Ultimate Scrapper?

My guess would be it's not gone into more detail because such a character is a hybrid of archetypes. He has Brick-like defenses, but attack abilities like a martial artist or perhaps a weapons master.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now?

Superman Returns soundtrack

Re: Elves

Greeks were worse. I mean' date=' Zeus scores with teh hot and sexy chicks in the form of what? A bull, a swan, and a shower of gold?[/quote']

 

A bull and a swan are kinky enough but what exactly is the difference between a "shower of gold" and a "golden shower"?