Scott Ruggels

Official games had pregens, but I was there to play regardless, so I would sit down at Champions games in the open gaming room. I would quiz the GM about point totals, attacks and the like. Nine times out of ten, I would pull my favorite Champions character out, and proceed to school folks about tactical excellence. Local and Gencon GMs became familiar with Sgt. S. M. A. S. H. I have a thick character binder, so if the experienced Sergeant was too powerful, I had plenty of other characters, plus early build of him down to 241 points. We also had continuing Convention games, with characters made specifically for them, like Mark Arsenault’s Cop Show game, or Carl Rigney’s half convention/ half play by mail epic. I went to cons to play.

The Current "No Magic" fantasy game, is centered on Barbarians. They are temperate herd following nomads, that do trade with the empires they interact with. The current group have been hired as caravan guards, and they have run up against hostile horse nomads. That's the fight. In the background, barbarians have integrated into the the various empires after a couple of generations of worshipping the Imperial gods, and becoming sedentary. It happens in waves. The Caravanners are happy to have them as they have better skills for being out in the forests and grasslands they are traversing. They are also a talkative bunch.

Oh...... I will have to check my copy.. I recieved one, but I don't think I ever opened it...

I would say that this is accurate, as at the time Champions was a large percentage of the games being run at Gencon through the 90's. It was ubiquitous at the time. BBBs were in tall stacks at the Hero booth that sold out over those weekends, and there was "The Hero Auxiliary", running the organized convention games at Gencon. Those were the days.

Oh, we can blame those. However they do fit for D.I. and F.H. I think it was the Amalgamation into Champions that was possibly the problem. Too much Realism into the Superhero Genre? Maybe?

Sure. In the D&D Context, it is about how the various races in the 2014 Players Handbook have Pluses and minuses to various stats based on the race the player chooses. Humans don't modify their stats, but get two Feats. Other races just get one Feat, but have adjustments to their stats. It also sets the general alignment charts for Non- Player Races, and Monsters. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything was the first attempt to remove that, by allowing all races to be modified, and also not bound by the alignment table. As such they want to remove the meta of choosing the best race for the classes, so that anyone can be a druid, or an Artificer, or a Ranger. The New book is trying to push things further, by making things more P.C. Recent Adventures like Candlekeep Mysteries, and the new one about the Magic School, are very much about relationships, rather than combat. The Magic School one, even had a Prom. Source: https://www.polygon.com/22883750/dnd-monsters-of-the-multiverse-6e?fbclid=IwAR3_OnWWq6mrnJg3qYhaIWon4Am5uJW_FyQJkENXks0AsMCgqVHdZrSCx_U That Bloat isn't just skills. It's also some powers in 6th Edition, and other powers simplification was just awkward, like "Barrier".

That People Magazine cover was inspired. Well done!

It's been documented: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1637580991

I have had a lot of characters like this. The secret is to give them enough intelligence, and skills to make a roll or two when not fighting. But I have also underspent on characters just to reduce the number of disadvantages I would have to take. In fact my most favoritest character started at 241 points for a 250 point game. Thanks again for the write up.

With the CW up for sale, it's unclear what is going on , or will be after the sale. Right now, Broadcast Television as a whole, has a cratering viewership, aside from live sports, because of those 10 year sports contracts are still mostly in effect. But the CW'sa rating are pretty awful with Batgirl having nationwide ratings of around 3-400,000 per episode these days. All of the CW shows, save Superman & Lois have sub-par writing, and less and less competent productions. THis is a long drop from the first two seasons of Arrow, and The Flash. but that is now approaching a decade ago. I think the CW sale is going to take a long time and disruptions are going to delay a whole bunch of projects. I do hope JMS succeeds, but we'll just have to wait.

First Season of Superman & Lois is on HBO Max. Second Season just started, but it doesn't feel as "solid" as the first.

This is one of my biggest complaint about editions after 4th, where skills became a vicious point sink, because of the specialization. 1st Edition: Physician 14 or less. 3rd Edition: Medic : 11 or less, Surgeon 11or less. 4th Edition Medic 11 or less, Pharmacology 11 or less, Surgeon 11 or less. 6th Edition: General Medicine 8 or less Pharmacology 8 or less. Trauma medicine 11 or less, Thoracic Surgery 11 or less, Cardio Vascular Catheterization 11 or less, Teamwork 13 or less. It gets expensive. It's that specialization that just became a point sink, and detracted from the feeling of "Competence" that player characters had in previous editions. There is I think too much detail past 4th edition. and separating figured characteristics was not friendly to new players. THe figured demopnstrated to them what was important in the gem, which was CON, STR, and DEX. Without that, a lot of folks end up unintentionally building glass cannons.

I an currently laying two games of D&D 5e, on th weekends. Two different campaigns and GMs, but an overlap of players. D&D 5e, ad is currently is very streamlined, with not a lot of options, and is simpler than 3.5. The problem I have is that because no one was running Hero when the CCP Virus hit, none of the online options other than Tabletop Simulator, currently run it well, Until the Roll20 effort finally bore fruit just before Christmas. However about 5e, is that you won't like it, as it's D&D with races and classes, and levels. The arge population of normies out there was attracted to it, because of the Virus, and it was easy to run online. I don't have the bandwidth at the moment to run much of anything, but some of the D&D players want me to run Cyberpunk Red, because I know the rules fairly well. I'd like to run Hero, but there is a lot of resistance to it. As for the D&D games, well WoTC is making D&D more unattractive with it's hard progressive push in dismantling Racial Essentialism from the game, and introducing a lot of (to me, unattractive non- Combat situations). I am half tempted to write up a Celebration of Colonialism 5e adventure, just for spite.

The "communist states", all have to go through a segment of time as "Socialist States" until such time as the state can dissolve itself and turn over the reins of power to The New Soviet Man. Xi's anti-corruption efforts were mostly to remove his rivals, and now his kneecapping of the Chinese economy is to remove alternate centers of power. But the problem is that, like most dictators, he has a poor understanding of economics. I feel really bad for the Hong Kongers. I had relatives working in Hong Kong for various companies, but they all moved out, leaving friends behind , and they are not happy about it. (My mother's side of the family, and I , have been very anti-communist).

Finished off Season Six of The Expanse, on Amazon Prime. Was a satisfying end, but they had so much still hanging out there, that I would not mind more in the future, though I have heard the books weren't very good after the end of the Marco Inaros arc. Watched The Silent Sea on Netflix. Good Acting, excellent Set Design, and editing, but the script was a bit uneven. Not bad, but not as solid as other South Korean dramas I have seen of late. Generally have been watching Science Fiction on the streaming services, because I have been disappointed by the fantasy offerings, of late.

Personally, I am thinking that the Chimera project is not a wise expenditure of funds, when what Champions, or any of the sub rules need is something "big", that has almost a campaign sized adventure, a spray of adventure seeds, and a stack of written up villains, and monsters, for the adventure. Duke Bushido had something like this with an adventure in one of the threads here. What needs to be done is to produce more adventures with villains, and equipment. We can't assume that all the GMs are Home Brewers like they have in the past. Because it's in the past, it's not in the way GMs do things now.

I don't disagree, but Professionals demand professional pay rates, and Hero at the mment is a very low budget operation.

Kind of find this a little sad, but then I look at 6th edition and retreat back to fourth. I think I understand, but On the flip side I really have a hate on for heavy narrative systems, as I still gravitate towards the mechanical impartiality of Wargame based systems. I immediately understood Killer Shrike’s weapon classification system and yes it allows for building historical and fantasy melee weapons. I could slot in several. It seems to work.

Oddly, in my FH games, there followed a progression of competent, danger worthy professionals, into minor nobility with a lot of useful contacts. Rarely would I permit less than competent characters, as there were a lot of dangerous consequences out there in the world. Magic could be powerful, but trade offs limited its uses, so one never saw Isekai sorts of progression in power. We never got to Fantasy Champions, even more so, the recent no magic game, progression was by recruiting friends and Allie’s into you character’s conflict. I suppose it kind of parallels the Danger International character progression in that the characters become more skilled and teamwork becomes smoother over time, but it’s the favors and contacts that make their jobs easier over time. It’s a pretty anti- D&D way of running fantasy.

I’ll probably be there for a day. Maybe more, but we’ll see. I am up to date. I would be up for Hero, Mongoose Traveller, maybe some D&D. Depends on the game. Hope to see my usual crowd there.

Probably how troops without AT weapons handle enemy tanks, which is hide, give accurate reports on type and position to their superiors, and wait until it goes away, or until the superiors plan kicks off and the enemy tank blows up.

Merry Christmas all!

Personally? No. Fate points tend to be an indicator of a narrative based outcome system, and I kind of abhor those, again, personally. I much prefer dice determinist systems, with low to no fudging. Pre 6th edition Hero, or even Mongoose Traveller work fine for me. I am kind of the opposite to Ragitsu’s signature file, as I am a very tactical minded player. That being said, what you propose is a perfectly valid option provided the player injects some personality into the character. It’s just never a satisfying option for me.

It's also Xi clamping down on any sort of reform, and walking China back towardds more doctrinaire Marxist-Leninist governance: https://www.19fortyfive.com/2021/12/china-is-becoming-the-soviet-union/

Because if you don’t use Library tape, the page gets a sticky yellow stripe.