Scott Ruggels

You will need dice larger than they can fit in their mouths.

Canned tuna, fresh tuna, they are still both fish, and I want beef!

From small acorns, mighty oaks grow (years later).

I tend not to play popular music in my games, preferring to score the game like a movie, and play mostly scores, and of those mostly Jerry Goldsmith. I mosatly run Fantasy Hero, so anything with electric guitars and peppy vocals just doesn't fit. Instead, I'll play Things like> The Wind & The Lion Capricorn One The Thirteenth Warrior Mulan The Sand Pebbles Plus others from other composers.

Range Video.

Here is the "on the range" video, of the gauss gun, firing out in the desert near Tucson (after a lengthy technical explanation.) Interesting to note, that I , myself, can never own own or operate this device, as I have a pacemaker, and the energy dump into the coils generates 5 times the magnetic field of an MRI machine, and would, to put it delicately, cause problems. So I guess I will stick with powder activated slug throwers.

My Character grew tentacles, and the Speedster grew a third eye. (Kidding) Oh we emptied it out, redid the walls and conduit, moved a relative into the house on the topside and added our own electronics. One of the players was an IT professional (Silicon Valley in the 1990's, go fig), so we were never hacked. and rarely had intruders, but the base was basically for lab work, and communications with members of the group on patrol, so they could get back up quickly. Different teams had differnt priorities for their bases.

Depending on the GM influenced how detailed the bases were, but some of us players loved designing the bases and tinkering with the maps. Bob Simpson, as a GM had each team get their own base. One of our teams took over a Viper base after we cleaned it out (and changed the lock. It was the base from "What Rough Beast", from the Adventurer's Club. Westguard, our original Team had a base under a mall in Mtn. View, CA. None of our teams were without a base, but solo heroes rarely had one. We occasionally used the city Fire Department's training area to do team exercises and rescue practice.

Listening to the video, the manufacturers are confident in the battery technnology. THe problem, they say, is the capacitors, and that technology is not as advanced. As Ian says, it's a 1903 Wright Flyer, in terms of the techy, but they expect Capacito0r technology to improve that that will increase the muzzle velocity in future iterations of the weapon. Right now it's basically equivalent to a wrist rocket in terms of muzzle energy, but will improve with time.

Watching the Reacher series on Amazon. Remarkably close to the books. Also Alan Ritchson makes a much more book accurate Jack Reacher than Tom Cruise did. As a Mystery, lots of twists and turns, but there is also the satisfaction of seeing a 6' 5" muscle dude beat the hell out of group of thugs. I recommend.

Well as long as Peter Parker is having fun, go for it. Interestingly, there are lots of games starting up from the Unofficial Hero Discord, there's a lot of games with around 4-8 players per game, at all sorts of time zones.

Depends on the campaign. If you are part of a team, you pay your share of the cost of the base. This is for an Avengers or X-Men style team. If it’s street level, like the Defenders, everyone has their crappy, Hells Kitchen apartment, and beats answers out of people rather than using a lab, or a team vehicle. More Dark Champions than regular Champions IMO.

New way to hold a two handed weapon, more of a boxing stance, than wrapping yourself around the weapon, traditionally. https://youtube.com/shorts/-hbPbirzgco?feature=share

Um... Nothing at all. Though, were your results campaign ending? Classic Traveller scenario, though, but they players had no investment in the ship. it wasn't theirs, and in that situation. If it had been, they tend to treat it like a b rand new Porsche, that hasn't been paid off.

We discussed the use of a retcon, but, the players decided to walk. What can you do?

My notes from the incident:

Killed a beloved NPC to demonstrate a villains trap. Players objected, then quit. End of campaign.

I saw that this morning. What “Tacticool” looked like in 1911. Interesting bnote how ruined the French Economy was after WW1. What had cost 30-40 Francs before the war, cost 500 after.

I am troubled a bit, by the "Vancian magic", once again being grafted on Hero.

During it's trading heyday, several large, and secure warehouses were constructed opposite the docks. They have ornate brick and stucco facades, slate roofed, many with the names of trading companies that have long since gone defunct sculpted over the large entrances. The windows are narrow, and a normal human will not fit through them, even so, they are barred. The doors in front are huge, made of thick, oiled and studded oak logs, with one small sally port. So far, only one has been lost to fire, with the rest still owned, and in decent repair. The landlord knows exactly what he has here, and has a very dim view of thieves, and will hire bullyboys to snuff out any thievery, or suspicious activities around the buildings. Is it out of a consideration of his renters, or removing the competition? Most people are quite happy with his services, and storing cargoes here costs a reasonably inexpensive rate per month. However anything flammable is stored at double rate, otherwise he is quite content to mind his own business. Again there are other ornate buildings along the waterfront, that have been subdivided down into small shops, and chandleries, and brothels. Only the Harbor Master's and Customs office is as it was in the glory days, and edifice of cut stone of a peculiar color, and a tall green copper roof., though it is woefully understaffed. Otherwise only a few of the docks are fit for tying up to, with a stone quay in front of the green roofed building.

Operative word is "was"...

Another exploration into Amazon, I found a Chinese Animated feature, "Jiang Ziya*" What I have heard, is that the Director spent time at an American animation studio )Either Dreamworks, or Pixar, I am not sure), and the training shows. Visually a very lush film, and quite stylish. Interesting character designs, but many of the shots are composed like paintings. Because I have worked in animation I tend to search out animated films, as a form of professional courtesy, and I sometimes find gems like this one. The story is quite Chinese, but it's very engaging to look at. *Jiang Ziya was probably a real person, who served the last Shang Emperor, Zhou. The film pushes everything into mythical realms.

Yes, based on Critical Roll. Someone went back through the old Twitch Streams and figured this was the first time they killed a Dragon, so when they were around 7th Level. Apparently they get more skilled as they play, as the cast of players are basically Matt Mercers Cartoon Voice over colleagues. Later seasons they apparently are more competent. But yes, this is where the ridiculously Horny Bard became a trope, that and several others. Critical Roll has be cited by lots of folks as the popularizer of D&D< and it's downfall, by giving regular folks a "template" for their characters. Your observations at the FLGS, match what other people have had, but while it might be damaging to the hobby, I think Magic: The Gathering, and other CCGs are what sucked the money out of the hobby and nearly put it all to sleep after the mid 90's. At to the Eternals. It looked awful, so I avoided it. Too much representation and gender4 swapping and not enough Jack Kirby.

I gave Vox Machina on Amazon a try. The first three episodes. Generally, I cannot watch critical roll, because like sports, I would rather play than watch, and the sessions just go too long. This was a show that had the interactions edited to digestible chunks and then animated. As an animated representation of fifth edition D&D, it worked quite well, however, the tone was all over the place, and I wasn’t much a fan of the characters. The constant bickering, and incompetence wasn’t very entertaining for me. I just sat back and watched the villains, and the quality of the animation. Definitely not for kids. It’s lewd and crude, with a lot of F bombs. I will continue watching it out of morbid curiosity, but I don’t know if I can recommend it.