Scott Ruggels

a few more.

Since people liked the last one. I will share some more:

this was the Humans are Great! post on Tumblr and Imgur.

3 hours ago, zslane said:

I have similar tastes as you, Scott, though I'm not as fond of "merchant captain fiction" as you are (which is one of the reasons I could never quite warm up to Traveller). 

What I don't care for:

• Post-apocalyptic or dystopian settings
• Magic/spellcasting
• All Grimdark All The Time
• Low-level, gritty "losers in space" or "fugitives from society" campaigns
• Transhumanism (i.e., cybernetics and genetic enhancement)

I guess in retrospect I like the essential feel of original Star Wars (the first two films in particular), but with a good dose of Starship Troopers and BattleTech, and a dash of Warhammer 40k thrown in.

Gee, you don't like me?  *sniff*  After a recent medical issue, I became a very low level cyborg, with a couple of implants.

Actually with an article I read online about the cloning of organs from the donor's original tissue, coming within 5 years, I think that organ replacement will become Routine, soon after that.  e are a long way from Limb regeneration and replacement, but Maybe by the end of this Century.  Our defense department and DARPA are researching "Reversible" Military enhancements, so that we don't have "killer cyborgs" wandering the streets after their discharge, though  other nations, with less ethical governments are looking at enhancements that aren't necessarily reversible.  Genetic editing already happens with CRISPR, for removing genes responsible for hereditary illnesses. again the ethically challenged may look at opportunities, once they can edit a person's genome like a word processor document.  Designer babies?  definitely. Designer underclass? ooOOooh.

18 hours ago, Brian Stanfield said:

And to think we did all that stuff without complaint because it was fun!

Still is fun!

1 hour ago, Duke Bushido said:

Ah-!

 

Thanks Scott

Glad to be of help. 

1 hour ago, Duke Bushido said:

To be honest, the thing I remember second-most about that game was how it read (never did play it; we had the Champions system  ) like a more-fleshed-out version of Expendables (which was like Paranoia with the humor gone: "How long will it take the GM to kill you" was the driving design concept, I think.

Shapero was one of the early adopters of the 3 D&D books, and ran a long running campaign in Los Angeles that was notorious for the clever ways he would use traps and spells to a hive TPK results. He was truly Gygaxian, in that the game was a battle of wits between the players and him. He was the epitome of the Adversarial DM. It’s no surprise that Other Suns reflected that style of play. 

1 hour ago, Duke Bushido said:

I really do wish Talsorian had managed to snag the rights to the Starrigger setting!  Sourcebooks!   At least, if it used the system from the very first Cyberpunk, or something sooner.  None of that Fusion nonsense.  (You know, Fusion wasn't bad.  I just still suffer PTSD from that period when we all thought New Millennium was the direction Champions was going in.)

It it was discussed in the time frame, of all of us sitting around Pondsmith’s dinner table while working on one of the CP2020 sourcebooks. It was long before Fuzion. 

1 hour ago, Duke Bushido said:

I'll have to check that Imgur thing out.  Though that may not ever actually happen.  I have the hangedest time navigating over there.

I will see what I can find, and drop a link tomorrow. 

1 hour ago, Duke Bushido said:

But thank you so much for all this information.

 

Duke

 

More than welcome. 

On 9/28/2018 at 8:47 PM, Duke Bushido said:

...

In the end, I tested the waters by moving it more and more outward, beyond the beyond, and worked in more and more frequent aliens the further they moved away from known or at least "vaguely aware of" space.  We ended up with a universe that was sort of a reversal of comic book and sci-horor convention: humans were the fastest, strongest, hardiest breed in space, and a force to be reckoned with even in small groups.  It seemed to appease the Fantasy guys (who just wanted to see lots of different creatures, and kill them-- not the sentients, of course; my own sensibilities wouldn't allow for random murder hoboing), and the Champions guys rather enjoyed themselves-- they were defacto "super" again, at least for a while.

There is a recurring meme on Imgur, named,”Humans are tough”.  Lot of neat little story fragments and vignettes on just such a topic. 

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During the eighties, John DeChancie wrote something that wasn't fantasy and wasn't military fiction and happened to pass in front of my eyeballs.  Like most of his stuff, it wasn't fantastic or earth-shattering or even, objectively, particularly "good."  But it was ridiculously _fun_, and I loved it.  I had started with the second book, ended up hunting down the first, and waited patiently for the third to come out (the ending of the second made it clear there would be a third).  Wished I hadn't picked up that third, as it was essentially a couple hundred pages of tying up lose ends, but hey-- I still enjoyed it.

Starrigger was a favorite of Mike Pondsmith (of R. Talsorian Games). He explored getting the RPG rights to the series, but to no avail. 

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Wait!  I know one influence.  It was a thin sci-fi RPG, product of the late 80s, I _think_.  Brown and white cover.  The idea was that animal genetics were spliced into humans-- or vice versa-- to create cheap, relatively expendable explorers tailor-fit for the unique climates of newly-discovered worlds.  The players were expected to be these explorers in hostile environs.  I didn't balk at the idea, because it would be another twenty years before I found out what a Furry was.

 

 

That game would be Nial “ Nicolai” Shapero’s “Other Suns”. Published originally by Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU). that game had the movers and shakers of what would become Furry, a couple of years later, working on it. Art was by Ken Sample, and Ms. Po Cheah Shan (sic). The genesis was the players of Shapero’s Killer D&D campaign wanted to play SF, so they discussed it and cobbled it together. Shapiro, being a Northrop (before Grumman) engineer, as well as a LASFS member in good standing, kept things mostly plausible. But his writing and adventure ideas did serve to fire the imagination. That game stayed in my mind for a long time. It’s influence is still somewhat evident in the Paradox Universe of Writer MCA Hogarth currently written today. Dave Bryant, himself another artist described what could have been the early years of that universe with his Double Helixers, and he, Gallacci, Sample, were the early beginners of Furry Fandom, with MARC Merlino of the CFO. The mascot of the CFO, the Skiltaire, a mustelid with antenna, became a race in Other Suns. 

I detailed how I would handle mine, here:

The thing about mine, is that I do A LOT of reading, and have for decades. As such, opposite of one of the above posters, I like my SF crunchy, and full of well thought out tech and gadgets. Though too much math bores and frightens me, I prefer it to “Space Fantasy” and Planetary Romance. Thing have to be plausible and messy, so that leaves out the Socialist Utopia of Starfleet, or the “hand waviness” of Star Wars. I gravitate towards military SF, and some of the merchant captain fiction, but as s math-o-phobe Things can’t devolve into Accountancy Hero (after character creation XD). The style of play would be “modern” adventure with things projected 150-250 years in the future. 

All in all, plausible, messy without being dystopian, and conflict driven. 

Oh yes, the Vic Dal Chele silhouettes! I ran off a mountain of those character sheets simply to have practice of doing the colors. We found out early that you had to photocopy your “edits” ( at the time done with Pilot Razor Points and White Out) because the Prismacolor or Staedtler markers wouldn’t color over the White Out. Even those with minimal artistic skill, joined in at the table, wth a pile of colorful markers and a few comic books for “reference”’designing heroes and villains for fun and future use. Good times... good times 

On 10/17/2018 at 10:37 AM, Lord Liaden said:

Not trying to start a fight, just genuinely curious: Do people who believed in 2016 that President Hillary Clinton was no more palatable an alternative that President Donald Trump, still hold that view today?

Was not entirely happy to vote for Trump at the time, as Ted Cruz was my candidate. At the time it was "Anyone But Hillary", for me.  Now I am actually pleased with Trump's accomplishments and policies. Living in SoCal, the thought of a wall, is real.

I rarely played characters that had it <__<; (Felix9 in "Allies" was an old PC of mine. He wasn't a "Hero", just working for the "good guys" in the most expedient fashion possible).

Some of the landscapes I have collected over the years as background references.

Does he have a held action to use to abort? I would allow a held action to abort to dispel, but not as an abort to dodge unless the spell did not require gestures, or incantations. 

Well, since someone else brought up anime, My Hero Academia (which should have its own thread) brings up the issues of property damage and injury. The Heroes in that universe have to be licensed, and all “powers” are heavily regulated and bureaucratized in typical Japanese fashion. Also, culturally they are uncomfortable with self defense. The Hero’s do their best to put the villains down, leaving the police to perform the investigation and evidence gathering. The pacifistic nature of Japanese society in the face of superpowers they can barely regulate leads to pressure for the Hero’s not to over react. For all their awesome power, the Heroes show. A lot of restraint. 

51 minutes ago, Zeropoint said:

An interesting example is the .460 Rowland which is a hopped-up, over-powered .45 Auto. Its bullet diameter and overall cartridge dimensions are identical to the .45 Auto--the only dimensional difference is the case length, which is 1/16" longer. This is only there to prevent the round from chambering in .45 Auto barrels, which are not designed to handle the higher pressure of the .460 Rowland. They could have had two distinct cartridges with entirely identical dimensions, although it should be obvious why that's a bad idea.

 A bad, and also historical idea.

 Once upon a time in the United states. 9mm Parabellum was just a European curiosity, laughed at by real men that used .45ACP, as god intended.  Parabellum was just a rimless .38, they thought, and ignored it.. until...

WW2 came along and American G.I.'s faced the 9mm Parabellum Cartridge not only from Lugers, but also the various axis sub machine guns, such as the MP-40, and the Beretta model 38. The Luger became a prized souvenir as were other 9mm's like the Polish M-35, the Astra400, the P-38, and the Browning Hi-Power (and not a small number of MP-40's too). Also among the souvenirs collected by the stalwart GIs was the M1910 Glisenti, also known as the "Italian Luger".  The pistol was noticeably weak, so it was chamber for a proprietary cartridge, 9mm Glisenti,  WHICH WAS DIMENSIONALLY IDENTICAL TO 9MM PARABELLUM!!  So the returned GI's would take the Italian pistol out to a range or the desrt or the wood or what have you, chamber a round of 9mm Para, and after a few rounds, the pistol would either come apart, send the slide into the shooter's face, or explode.  Remington, a purveyor of ammunition saw this, and backed down the charge of 9mm parabellum in the U.S. to around what the Glisenti round had been. It's still at this level today. This means my Luger doesn't feed properly, unless I buy 9mm +P, or 9mm listed as "Submachine gun" ammo, because that is the original charge that 9mm Parabellum was supposed to have.

When Champions 1e came out, I was in high school, and I was already in a group that ed "Advanced Melee/ Wizard, and Bushido. After the con, we all returned with out copies of 1e, made characters, and started running. We never looked back on Melee/Wizard after that.  Also at the time was the middle of Chris Clairemont's run on The X-Men, so we loved the complications. Our Champions world was mostly made of  Hero products, with a dose of Marvel attitude and such.  We traded GMing Duties, and this became something of a shared universe.  Being a bit mathtarded, I tended to GM the least for Champions, mostly because I wanted to play, but I GMed enough that I put my stamp on some of it. It was basically made up of mostly the Hero official product, and what ever the Adventurer's Club published. (I Do remember one of our players becoming dramatically unhinged after his more perfect than perfect hero rant into the Gilt Complex. Wasn't my doing.) We  would use book villains, but each of us had their own custom villains, that they would crack out if things got too predictable.   The setting was the San Francisco Bay Area, where we lived, but back then the cold war was still a thing and the locality had a number of military bases, most of them closed now, so there was a bit of a cold war influence.  While we didn't use Marvel Heroes and villains, we did occaisionally file the serial numbers off if we wanted to try out a type of character. However we did use a lot of  Marvel  plots. At the time most of us in the game had vast comics collections, and could pull some scheme together from our long boxes. all in all, it was fun, until the group fell apart when everyone left for their various colleges, though we would still get together at conventions or a time.

Then I got invited to the fantasy Hero Playtest, and my attitude towards GMing changed.

Yes. the 1E character sheets were a modified two collumn layout rather than three.

 My character binder is in storage, so I can't fish out the sheets (and honestly it's been a couple of decades and they have probably adhered to the inside of those old style vinyl sheet protectors.) But I will see what I can dig up.

3 hours ago, zslane said:

Methinks more people should play Spore... ?☺️

Not No Man's Sky? XD

5 minutes ago, marediv said:

The 80s one never seen the more recent one.

Two recent ones. The 2011 reboot was fairly good. The 20-19 is a badly drawn comedic mockery. The 2011 was cancelled because no one wanted to masks toys of it. Apparently it’s toys or mercy that keep the cartoons flowing. Too bad because toy sales are in a serious decline, in the face of video games and small screens. 

He was a mythical creature, raised by a top scientist, and his bodyguard.... Johnny Dragon Quest.

On 5/13/2018 at 9:19 PM, wcw43921 said:

Comedy seems to be a lost genre with regards to RPGs.  As mentioned earlier in the thread, Paranoia is making a comeback, but TOON?  Ghostbusters?  Teenagers From Outer Space?  Nobody seems interested in thoroughly unserious roleplaying.

Comedy itself is a lost genre, these days. 

I worked as Freelance artist for Hero, starting with the first iteration of Fantasy Hero. Back then I wasn’t very good, but Incould manage with slight co inking techniques. Even then, I knew I had slightly better figure work (the wizard with three arm joints casting a fireball notwithstanding. Hey it was 3’am, the day before Fantasy Hero went to the printers, with the art director brainstorming ideas as I sat there at the Hero drafting table trying to stay awake. ) but Mark was >THE< Champions artist, since 1st edition l. (At least until Storn Cook).

I remember using the Vic Dal Chele character silhouettes on our character sheets years after we moved from 1e. We liked how more dynamic poses. A good base to start from, until I got pestered by the other players to do custom artwork. Ah memories

The most alien of aliens, aren't so much what they look like, but how they think. As a counter example, let’s take a look at Japhet, from The Orville. Physically he is a yellow gelatinous blob about a foot in diameter, that generally manifests a mouth, so as to communicate with his fellow crew members. (In the voice of comedian, Norm McDonald). However his reactions to the episode plots and his fellow crew mates, and his interest in the ship’s Doctor show that he shares the traits mentally and other most of the humans in the cast. He is a lonely, status conscious, technician, with insecurities that motivate a somewhat short temper, marring an otherwise easy going, blue collar attitude. The show has  better than average makeup and all of its aliens look great. However the Most alien of aliens is Commander Bortis. He’ s frustrated by the delay or imprecision that his coworker’s  humorous asides cause. His delivery is always precise and respectful. And his species reproductive cycle and exclusivity makes an an interesting subplot, but on the whole, he is less alien than a foreigner attempting to play tabletop with Americans (My German GM on roll20 goes ballistic when interrupted by players.)

the Alien-ness of something, is how they think, how they respond to stimuli, and their motivations. The problem is balancing the goals and intent of the players with the desire to make things Alien. Current events display that even slight differences on motivations and thinking cause a lot of conflict. Also, narrative based decisions would tend to favor  aliens that are somewhat relatable, simply for the fact that the plot has to go somewhere; rather than being halted  by incomprehensible aliens.  This is a big reason that I had no living Aliens in my aborted Star Hero campaigns. Cyberneticaly or genetically enhanced humans are weird enough. The Expanse, as well as the Alien movies; show that even a brush with an alien eco system results in horror. If that is what you are going for, knock yourself out. XD

I tend to run Fantasy, mostly these days , but I have an SF setting, that I have wanted to run formal one time. Rich Tocholka, was a boss of mine and we talked a lot about his game FTL2448. The well worn feel of it appealed to me and the authenticity and humorous treatment of bureaucratic issues kept things light; though it was a very dangerous system. So the attitude and flavor would be borrowed from that, but the Aesthetics would be borrowed from Aliens, and Outland (The Grubby Baseball Cap School of Science Fiction, where Corporations answer only to shareholders and most work environments are OSHA violations , but the pay is good.  

Most of of my reading in the past decade has been War History, and other nonfiction. SF these days Selena lot less adventurous and hardware centric than it used to be. But for my campaign, Starship interiors Look like Submarines or Missile Silos, and Jump Drive is only available to Large Corps and the Military, but In System ships are as common as Civilian Aviation is now. No Aliens seen yet, but Isolated human colonies can get pretty strange with the genetic mods, implants, and occasionally cultish Utopians trying to distance themselves from the mildly distopian and indifferent mainstream.  Beam weapons are mostly vehicle mounted, and Space Warfare follows the model

mostly put forth by Steve Gallacci@s Albedo Comic (with a little of Paul Gazes).  The Expanse is also a bit of a recent inspiration to get me to think about this again.  AI exists, but is heavily regulated and is too large and distributed to place in a humanoid Robots. Robots them selves are perhaps as smart as dogs, and far less fractious. Habitable planets are very rare, so most coloni s are constructed man made environments. It’s definitely not Star Trek. But SR, isn’t as popular as Fantasy, or Even Superheroes, so most of this is still, just notes.