Scott Ruggels

I am impressed at what it did on your prompt. I can see how useful it is. I suppose you could run it through Hero Designer if you really needed the numbers to add up, or we’re going to use the character in Tabletop Simulator, but that can give you a very good start on villain creation. 

Watched "The UnderDoggs with Snoop Dogg and a buch of kids.  The most foul mouthed "Bad News Bears" movie ever, but this time featuring Peewee Football, rather than Baseball. Snoop Dogg is not the finest actor, and the writing was "abrupt".  Not recommended.

35 minutes ago, Cancer said:

No real news here, but spiffy image

Beautiful.
 

I don't think that's a good idea, with Tencent, being ye another arm of the Chinese Communist Party. On the plus side SOcial JUstice will be removed from the property, but on the other it will be nerfed to cater to Chinese sensibilities. But since having shifted the weekend games over to Pathfinder 2 I won't miss anything.

On 1/4/2024 at 5:28 PM, tkdguy said:

I'd be happy to run HERO again, assuming my players aren't expecting a superhero game. I'll do fantasy or scifi instead.

 That's how I do things as well. I haven't run superheroes since high school. Now I will ply them, but running, them. no. I am too mean.

10 hours ago, Steve said:

I’m wondering what a silly, chaotic and evil campaign would be like.

Paranoia?

I have to admit that Byzantium has a certain attraction. I am running a pre-Islamic Persia, and Byzantium travelogue, with no magic. And the players have added tons of minor conflicts, and romance. It’s not one for one, but it’s been fun.  

Stokes space is moving ahead quickly, but China's Landspace may be moving faster.

8 minutes ago, Susano said:

stares at the character sheet for Commodore's ship

It has EDM and FTL?

 Well Electronic Dance Music is important for those speed runs in a star ship. Sets the mood.

I would be the outlier in the other direction, around 1580-1604, with developed gunpowder weapons, pike squares, burgeoning nation states, and exploration and conquest. Magic is becoming another branch of science, and trade and banking are developed. Poor quality kings may cause spasms of Republicanism. Gender equality only applies to player characters.  

2 hours ago, tkdguy said:

 

I'd much rather go with that. The campaign tells the characters' stories.

Exactly!

On 1/19/2024 at 12:14 PM, Ragitsu said:

Even worse, with the ease of access permitted by a wider (electronic) forum, there are non-fans with their cause-of-the-moment who..."contribute". These are folks with a passing interest in the hobby at best (even that is an extremely generous appraisal) and a knack for inflating their numbers. Folks who either cannot or will not separate fantasy from reality while they tilt at windmills and ardently attempt to convince others that they should feel guilty about chopping up orcs, gathering coin, saving princesses and whatever the **** else topic is trending in the most en vogue online article. If it's not simply a matter of individuals having precious little else to do with their time, then they are those who stand to profit - one way or another - from the faux-controversy fomented by these contrived "issues".

 

Predictably, as it gets filtered, excessively analyzed and approved through a real-world (and frequently twenty-first century Western) anthropocentric lens, tabletop gaming gets watered down a little more in the never ending quest to traverse that boundless field of eggshells.

 And they wander through fandoms one by one, to make sure the geek world complies.

THe oldest continuous celebration I think is Persian Nw Year, where people leap over bonfires. It was originally a Zoroastrian celebration from ancient Persia, and the muslims kept trying to suppress, to no success. Dtill celebrated today.

13 hours ago, Rich McGee said:

A fan of Sturgeon's Law, apparently.

Who isn’t? 

Korean TV Series on Netflix. The Ongseong Creature. It takes place in 1945 first in Manchuria, and then in Korea, where nefarious Japanese Scientists are conducting human experiments on hapless Korean civilians collected on trumped up reasons, THe first Lab is destroyed, so the scientists move to a towns Hospital, the OngSeong hospital. Nearby is our hero, a well to do operator of the towns Pawn Shop, called the Palace of treasure. He is known as someone who can get the right information, item, or person for the right price.  Charming, and sharply dressed he is a stand out in the community.  Entering the scene are a pair from Manchuria, a father and daughter "sleuths" (Bounty Hunters), looking for a particular woman, who has ben missing for 10 years.  And then there is the monster.... It has the whole group of types in the casst. THe corrupt policemen. Angry Japanese Soldiers, a Femme Fatale, Revolutionaries, and the town's "Network"
. All in all, well acted and very pulp.

Not a movie, but a Korean TV Series on Netflix. The Ongseong Creature. It takes place in 1945 first in Manchuria, and then in Korea, where nefarious Japanese Scientists are conducting human experiments on hapless Korean civilians collected on trumped up reasons, THe first Lab is destroyed, so the scientists move to a towns Hospital, the OngSeong hospital. Nearby is our hero, a well to do operator of the towns Pawn Shop, called the Palace of treasure. He is known as someone who can get the right information, item, or person for the right price.  Charming, and sharply dressed he is a stand out in the community.  Entering the scene are a pair from Manchuria, a father and daughter "sleuths" (Bounty Hunters), looking for a particular woman, who has ben missing for 10 years.  And then there is the monster.... It has the whole group of types in the casst. THe corrupt policemen. Angry Japanese Soldiers, a Femme Fatale, Revolutionaries, and the town's "Network"
. All in all, well acted and very pulp.

Some places make Election Day a holiday, so there is one day everyone can vote, and the civic virtues are championed.