Scott Ruggels

I still “think” in Hero, and have ideas for science fiction and modern campaigns in my head. I intensely dislike minimalist systems, and I leave the table rather than playing them. The problem I have with Hero is not having any players close by. Online, the player base skews younger, and anyone born after 1991 is going to have an aversion to crunchy mechanics, as for them, the computer handles the crunch. The dark times of when MTG sucked all the money out of the TTRPG industry broke the habit. So I do GM, but these days it’s Cyberpunk Red maybe Traveller (Mongoose), but there is only tepid interest in doing anything Hero. As a player, it’s 5e D&D, as that seems to be the only thing other people GM. At least my Sunday DM homebrew the politics. But I am still thinking in Hero.

Jeremy Crawford explains in detail race and background changes.

Welcome back, Duke!!

The Take Aways I've had from this are Races are the rubber suit your character wears. Feats come from backgrounds. It's just a tweak. re-adjustment and overlay of 5e rules. That D&D Beyond will be your character repository, and that their Unreal Engine Gaming environment will most likely be subscription based, collecting from all participants and will duplicate a lot of Tabletop Simulator's features.

An unserious Post, but someone put a Tacticool kit on a caplock carbine:

Looking at it from all sides, the successful Crowdfunds were all due to having an already existing fan base, or were an idea that no one knew before that they really needed it. Without the fan base, that will go out and inform the masses, the project stalls out and dies, usually. Having seen a LOT of efforts in other hobbi8es as well as in RPGs, it really is a popularity contest.

Several lessons to learn from. So that is what happened to Chaosium.

I’d think it might be limited to languages that make it to space, like English, Russian, and Mandarin, and everyone else will have to lump it. Even civil Aviation demand English ( Outside of Russia and China). As for learning an alien language… welp, that leaves the Americans out. 😁

Having worked for several RPG companies I have a fair amount of experience at con with trading rulebooks with other company reps. Also as a bit of background, I was involved in the arguments on rec.games.frp.advocacy on the old Usenet, and was firmly in the simulationist camp, having a dim view of the narrative side as squashing immersion. So. Chivalry & Sorcery First Edition. FGU’s overly complex almost tool kit of a game. Beautiful publications, but combat was frustratingly long and complex. Hero was smooth in comparison. Other Suns. Another FGU offering, written by Nikolai Shapero. Mechanics were obscure, basically “Reversed Runequest. The second book was mostly background. Background played favorites so anything other than human was preferable. Patient zero for the furry fandom. Tri-Tac Systems I met Richard Tucholka at Origins, and we hit it off, and I did illustrations for his games, Stalking The Night Fantastic, Fringeworthy, and FTL2448 (modern paranormal, multiverses, and Science fiction, respectively). All of the games were based off the same system. That system was another overly complex system, like early D&D, but a lot more lethal. I could follow instructions, and do things when Richard would run games at cons, but I could not run them myself. I ran Hero instead. He and his Detroit friends revamped the system shortly before his death, but I had not the heart to crack the new books open when I received them after his death. Living Steel. Beautiful Art. Absolutely unplayable. FATE, FUDGE, Savage Worlds. Any system with only three stats is not for me ( except Melee/ Wizard). I’ve tried them, but the modern minimalism, to me feels like my character is on the set of a low budget film or TV production, improvising dialogue to the director-GMs plot outline. The buildings are cardboard, the props are cheap, and the mountains in the distance are painted backdrops. The escape, and occasional immersion I desire in a game, just isn’t there for me in these minimalist systems. Any game that does not give that living world feeling, be it because of railroading in a good system, or minimalist mechanics for me is a bad experience. Savage Worlds’ exploding dice mechanic was illogical to this gun nut, where a baby with a butter knife was the most lethal entity in the universe. I am also an anti-fan of fate points fate tokens or similar te-roll mechanics. The dice rule. I wish Sean Fannon well for his system, but I won’t return easily to his minimalist Superheroes. Basically any system that favors a narrative structure or is plot driven, I walk away from. There are others, but this covers what I can remember off the top of my head in the early pre-dawn hours.

Much better. Good quick glance format. Might be a little cramped for heroic modern merc action.

58, and started with first edition, day one, and have the flyer from Pacific Origins to prove it. 😁

Which ever is the fastest at the table.

That’s probably how to do it. My Champions experience predates Power Skills, and maybe even Brick Tricks.

“Just” a special effect? The problem I have with that, is the effect is pinning another character immobile to the ground. Very useful until assistance arrives to restrain the pinned character. If one is going to immobilize another character, I would ask, as a GM that it would have to be stattted out. Special effects to me are the icing on a cake, but the cake is the mechanics. Show me how, and let me decide.

SO what is expected to be released is Black Adam, Shazam 2, and on the fence, The Flash. With the new production protocols, Any new movies will be only theatricals, first, Then POD, Then Blue Ray, And finally HBOMax after 6 months. Zaslav is treating the Streaming release, the same as cable for films. However, productions for HBO(Max as first run, will now be treated like standard Television, in terms of budgets, with some exceptions (Game of Thrones, or other such "Prestige" Television).

Two example’s: The first example is from a novel written by MCA Hogarth. In that novel, a member of an alien species is found drifting in a life pod, by members of the localGovernment. In the Times, she interacts with members of the local community she picks up the language, goes through several adventures, and returns to her home world with a data capsule. After further adventures, she starts teaching her friends and colleagues Standard, which is a version of English spelled phonetically and with a slightly simplified grammar. At the end of the second novel of the series, a cadre of standard speakers, is part of the delegation that is meeting a federation ship landing at their starport. I have simplified the description quite a bit to maintain relevancy, but I liked the book even with its occasional fluffiness but there was a logic and presence in the book. Worth a read. The second example is trade. In traveler, if you want to trade with humanity, you learn Anglic. Because not many businesses, Dan to learn Varger dialects. Those that do tend to live on Vargr plurality, or majority planets, or our academics. The counter example, is from the current cyberpunk red campaign, where due to a failure of robotics and a general hi mistrust of AI, the orbitals, purchase GMO Neodogs. These dogs come in a few different varieties, but they are all near human intelligence, with some limits, being that they are still mostly canines, and our bread and engineered for certain traits. As such, they cannot speak, so they can understand various languages depending on their course of learning. The orbitals themselves, often pick up a SL, to communicate when radio equipment is fried by solar radiation. It is also useful in a nightclub when there are many languages spoken, and the music is very very loud. The Neo dogs, because of their freaky squirrel or raccoon hands, are quite adept at ASL and use it to communicate with each other, without having to make any noise, they often tends to upset the humans.

Okay, this article is clearer, on why they cannot out and out cancel and vault The Flash. https://arkhavencomics.com/2022/08/09/ezra-miller-charged-with-felony-burglary/ I am including the next day’s article on the coming “Pop” of the streaming bubble. https://arkhavencomics.com/2022/08/10/the-coming-streaming-collapse/ Zaslav is concentrating on making Warner Brothers profitable and stable. As a result, the studio, going forward, may be more respectful of the character’s past.

What. people don't roll stat rolls any more? What?

We’ll see, but they added another charge to Miller today. I would not be surprised if they just scrap it, though the preview audiences and the executives seemed to think it was a fun movie.

The speculation is that he will be removed wholesale from the movie, and replaced. Who his replacement is, is unknown at this time, but the general rule is that if an actor is de-casted, then they have to be completely removed from the film for contractual reasons. He is still paid for his time, but no further pay from the movie.

I’ll make it easy and put the summary.

Time codes? There will be a fresh show at 9:10AM PDT

My source of Information: It's a bit long, but fascinating.

The Above plans are not accurate, but the real vehicle is quite a bit more complex https://stories.wf.com/innovative-vehicle-time/ https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=25449 (Unfortunately good plans for it, cost money:https://picclick.com/Wagon-Master-Wells-Fargo-Horse-Drawn-Wagon-Vintage-373844386274.html)

Yes, that has been since February. So around a 6 month Development cycle. Still, the Muzzle Velocity is in a Paintball range, but the use of commercial Batteries out to 300 shots, to me says that the bottleneck isn't in the batteries, but still in the Capacitors.