Scott Ruggels

And people wonder why I dont know the difference!
 
 

 
Good news!  The adress doesnt take you to the video.  It dows take you to several pages of videos, and some of them were interesting, but apparently I have to install the Twitch app to watch them?
 
There is probably a work-around for that, but my phone refuses to acknowledge that, so if you'd kindly just tell ne if anything interesting came up, I would aooreciate it.
 
Thanks, BJB!
 
 

Not to defend the game, but isn't "mutually incompatible technologies thrown together" the weapons and armor lists for most fantasy games?

More info
 
 

So, a question about Tech levels.   A low tech level means they can't make stuff above a certain level. However is it a case of knowledge, or resources, or a combination of the two?   Tech Level 8 planet with a class B starport and on the X-Boat Route. They may not have the money or the manufacturing base, or even the population to support any tech level above 8, but... They would definitely have the knowledge of technology, and possibly have items imported from higher tech systems, just no ability to locally repair it, unless they pay for a service call and move the items to the starport to get fixed on board a factory ship.  Otherwise, citizens of  the local planet would have to watch the Imperial Equivalent of "Game of Thrones" in a technologically downgraded format for their local nets?  I would assume that the X-Boats would be carrying  culturally significant items from the Imperial Capital to systems along the route, with the news being up to a year out of date by the time the X-Boat reaches the edge of the Empire.  So the B Starport, Tech 8 System (Probably growing a lot of food for export, or providing resources), would be reasonably well informed, just a bit lean, technologically?   
 
The next version would be a "Disconnected" colony that has slipped back to Tech Level 5, due to war, population decline, or economic collapse, and it's star port has slipped back to an open field with some markers and a Gap Transmitter beacon, and no services and no local expectation of any real traffic, other than the occasional visit by the ISS.  They may not have the knowledge other than vague rumors or how the higher tech stuff worked.  Am I "reading" this correctly?
 
The final one would be a Tech level 3 planet crawling slowly up the ladder, that has no starport, or any groundside industry, other than food production for it's local populace. 
 
For the first example. could we assume some importation of higher tech items, from entertainment systems among the rich, or Military Hardware for enemies both foreign and domestic, or  Higher tech motors, to be assembled into otherwise domestically produced vehicles? (For a premium?)
 
For the second, They would have a reasonable memory of their history, but no ability to create anything past basic radio, and most of their entertainment would be live music, and primitive recordings. But they have huge gaps in their knowledge due to their previous electronic record having evaporated due to EMP or simply time? It's aqll printed material now.  So they know what a grav vehicle is, and that they used to be on a Starship trade route, but have lost the knowledge to maintain, repair, or build a starship or a grav  vehicle.  Their accent, speaking "standard" is quaint".
 
The last example I have no further knowledge of, but How far back would the other races fall? Similar? less, or more?

 

Just touching on this:
 
Classic Traveller never went into detail about what went into a tech level.  Personally, I never found that odd, as most games of the era either "left it up to you" or figured you could understand the underlying logic well enough that it wasn't worth detailing on their limited budget.
 
I say that to point out to any younger folks (young folks playing HERO!  Ha!  I slay myself!) that this sort of thing was _so incredibly normal_ that the tendency was to assume that there was something already stated that gave you the information you needed to answer your question (word processors, digital documents, and a sharp drop in printing and publishing prices and options have changed all that, though).
 
Anyway, we always assumed that the tech level- much like the law level- could be seen as a result of the other statistics rolled, and didn't really bat an eye at having to use that information to "figure out why" either of these were like they were:
 
High water percentage? Less-than-ideal atmosphere?  High population?
 
Well most likely any and all resources were being pumped into keeping people alive- food production, shelter-- that 20 percent land mass might only be half arable- or habitable at all- and the overpopulation has resulted in a sub-standard educational system, and the higher-tech items are specialized toward farming, building arcologies, and air purification; not starships and weapons.
 
 
Low population, fifty-percent landmass, good air?  Even a High planetary population, with so much land, could be a very frontier-esque world, with no single settlement of more than a thousand people: not the ideal situation for think tanks and large-scale industry.
 
 
Again: I am not saying we were _right_ (and honestly, more recent versions of Traveller may have mandated certain reasons; I couldn't tell you), but it worked well, was kind of fun when you had a tough combination, and we still use it today.
 
 
 
Oh- meant to add:
 
We usually allowed a variance, particulalry on balkanized world's (perhaps a hundred years of warfare has pulled the citizenry away from high-tech pursuits and toward more urgent survival technologies?) that the tech level was the average; there was always a chance to find a place here or there whose tech was one level higher, and perhaps two levels in a very narrow field or via importing items related to a specialized on-planet need.
 
 
 

Wow.
 
 
That... Uh...
 
That should certainly take the fight out of them....
 

 
 

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My son uses it.  You know kids: they want all that flashy high-tech new-fangled stuff.....
 
(Grumbles incoherently in 2e....)
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More info
 
 

How Tony Stark Spends his experience points seems to mirror how veteran Champions characters spend theirs. 
 
 

Telepathy, Transmit Only, Line Of Sight Range?

So on a lark I created a 3e character at 200 pts. I also used the recommend guidelines in the book but I used the minimum stats. I did this just to see the interplay of numbers and dice. Now I just had a battle against 3 UNTIL agents. Although Warboar went down, it was interesting and fun. 3e has some more wargame tactical elements to keep track off such as Range Modifiers change based on if Autofire was used.  Warboar did survive a 6D6 AF that hit him 6 times from one attack roll!  Warboar only has 40 STR and a whopping CV 6 plus one level for Punch and another for move bys and thrus.  It hurt him missing that Move Thru by one too.

Mortem or Vita?  Which?
 
HMMM!  I am getting a Al Qadim Shair type feel for this school (They are genie summoners who could use their lowest type genie to hunt for spells for them.  So they had a HUGE spell selection BUT it took time to cast each spell, like minutes or hours time)
 
 
OK you are going for some classics used in a lot of games.  Is there a limit to how many schools you can learn?  Are there certain counter schools, like if you know Vita you can't learn Mortis?
It has promise and I'd like to see more!

Developing superpowers In statistically significant portion of the population would be bad. Western nations would lose their philosophical underpinnings with regards to equality, and would either go totalitarian, or dissolve.  Less developed nations would factionalize into might makes right situations. The unpowered would hide, and the labor market would become unstable.  Civilization would collapse, or regress into feudalism. Rule by Kryptonian level thugs or powered sociopaths would become the norm.  

It all depends.  There is no fixed, correct answer.  
--"Superhuman" doesn't equal "godlike"...and Superman is INSANELY powerful.  Obviously, it depends on which one you're talking about, but he's several thousand points IMO, in Hero.  (EDIT:  built a mostly reasonable version.  Characteristics and powers are coming out at about 1300 with, I think, almost all the big stuff included.)
--One of the critical, huge scenes in WtC happens very shortly after the Event.  I don't recall if it's in the first book;  it's definitely in the RPG, and I believe in one of the books eventually.  Atlas, Ajax, Touches Clouds, and the rest of those who would become the Sentinels walk into a Congressional hearing about a bill to restrict supers.  Ajax gives a speech that is awesome..."we will stop them."  And that's the start.  
--What's the draw to be a hero?  Celebrity status like nothing else.  In both Hayes' SPU and WtC, popular culture is completely swept up in hero culture...and in WtC, villain culture, but not per se of the "go out and STOMP" villain types.  Those are in super prison.  
 
Push comes to shove...if suddenly very powerful supers (I like to build SPU characters at around 600-650, with 16 DC attacks max) arise in today's polarized, nervous, and hair-trigger environment...then honestly?  I think a billion people would die inside of a couple years, and infrastructure collapse would happen in many places.  But that, in itself, could lead to a transition whereby heroes form...and knowing that the entire planet came VERY close to being obliterated, a semi-stable arrangement could be reached.  In WtC, Cuba was taken over by the Tyrant...who might well be called godlike, his powers aren't made clear.  He has absolute control...but he's not there to exploit.  It's described as a mostly free, almost libertarian state.  OTOH, there's Juarez, which is still an ongoing war zone that spills over onto both sides of the border.  
 
But some of what you're thinking...it's self-correcting to a degree.  Mind...it's bloody UGLY.  I kinda think that's why Harmon skipped 10 years forward.  In Hayes' SPU, where powers became public and more common in the late 50's, there was an extensive stretch where hero vs. villain battles were VERY frequent, and VERY bloody.
 
Another interesting series is Drew Hayes' Villain's Code.  In SPU, heroes are heavily restricted and seriously trained.  In VC...they're not.  In some ways, it's like The Boys...and yes, there's more problems.  But one of the subthemes in VC is that a chaotic situation where people run wild, at some point *some* form of control will develop.  
 
  

Not familiar with 6th Edition rules, as I am a 4th Edition guy, but these seem quite reasonable.
 
 A couple of gun nut concerns.  Powder activated weapons carry their own oxidizer inside the cartridge, and work in a vacuum decently enough.  The problem would be in environments with flammable atmospheres.  Cartridges are usually air and water tight, and last about a century give or take depending on the quality of the packaging and the cartridge itself. I cannot think of a planetary atmosphere that would neutralize the self contained chemical reaction. Powder cartridges are initiated by stored mechanical energy (springs), causing the primer to detonate. Elementary, I know, but It comes out to Energy requirements. There are limited electrical detonated military ordinance but that is for specialized applications, usually Naval. There was a commercial hunting rifle offered by Remington that used electrically detonated ammunition. It was a commercial failure. Batteries and firearms are a poor match due to a lot of variables regarding declining charges, outside temperatures, corrosive chemicals inside them and fragility. This is why “smart guns” are a non-starter. Yes, sighting systems often require batteries, especially those using exotic spectra, but those are mostly for  specific mission requirements, and even then, pleas from soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq to their families to send them batteries, was noted. 

Back to your weapons.  Good designs. But these are Rail rather than coil guns? Rail Guns “push” the projectile along rails ( which apparently wear with use) , and Coil guns “pull” the projectile through the gun like a maglev. I would think the coil principle would serve better as the size and quality of the projectile would be less critical than using the Rail principle.  There is some discussion between the accuracy of each method, with Navy experiments favoring the accuracy of the Rail principle. I would suggest that magazines contain the fuel for the piece, as well as ammunition, as they can be balanced to the ammo requirements and simplify maintenance of the weapon itself, and allow for long term storage of the weapons. Having its own internal power generation obviates the battery problem, and as long as the weapon can maintain a capacitor to initiate the reaction It can be stored but ready as soon a the user slaps a magazine in.  So, how much do the various weapons cost ( for heroic games)

Mages have a couple things to balance out having to pay for spells.  When a mage attacks is based on EGO instead of DEX.  Since EGO is cheaper and is the mages primary stat, they tend to act first.  Mental skill levels are cheaper than normal combat skill levels, so the mage pays less for those than the fighter.  Spells also get an additional -1 limitation in addition to any other limitation just for being a spell.  This puts the minimum limitation on a spell to a – 1 ½.   That puts the cost of a 1d6 RKA to 6 pts, throw on a few more limitations like gestures, incantations and side effect it drops to 4 pts. 
 
Mages have one big advantage in that they get more than just basic damage.  Being able to add advantages and use unusual forms of attacks is quite powerful, so I don’t want to give them too much.
 
I will be adding more details latter including what magic can and cannot do.

Part of the issue is that I've played 6th Ed so little. My old gaming group transitioned over just about the time I moved two counties away. So there's going to be a learning curve for me in terms of both character creation and GM mechanics. 
 
I'm pondering pulling out the old pregens for 3rd Ed (Crusader, Starburst, et. al.) and using the Character Creation Cards to generate simple 6th Ed versions of the characters. I'm also looking heavily at the Appendices from Champions Complete.
 
No idea if anything is likely to come of this, but it's fun to be thinking in this direction again.

True! However, Conan doesn't belong in a Champions campaign. And, Champions morals and mores don't belong in Hyboria.
 
Different genres and settings have different operable moral baselines and mores. The play groups should be comfortable with those, of course.
 
Not every genre is for every group, or even for every reader. It boils down to different strokes for different folks.   
 
This isn't super-redeeming, but he also gives the victims of his piracy and armed robbery the chance to surrender and comply without violence, too. He'd rather not murder you for your loot... (facepalm!).

Mechanics: OK, whatever.
 
As a player, though, I'd want more information on what sort of things this magic can and cannot do, beyond "no Holy effects." And what is the nature of magic? Quasi-psychic power? Spirit invocations? A quasi-Hermetic system of supernatural forces, channeled through a system or symbolic correspondences? Elemental? True Names? This is what makes magic vivid and distinctive.
 
Though I may be unusual in this interest.
 
Dean Shomshak

I think what makes Conan tolerable is he is essentially a Robin Hood type character: he mostly preys on corrupt sorcerers, nobles, and other neer-do-wells. But he is honorable towards women; in Beyond the Black River he is protective of the settlers; when there are two sides he almost always ends up on the right one. I don't recall him ever preying on ordinary people. On the other hand he doesn't give his unjust gains to the poor either; he just takes them from other people who don't deserve them either. He's also a mercenary and a lot of what he does is either fulfilling a contract, or climbing the ambition ladder. Again not the most honorable profession, but he pursues it in a generally honorable fashion. When serving a good Lord or Lady he's loyal, and twin serving a wolf he follows the wolf's code. Basically he double crosses those who double cross him, he baits them into it often enough but their own corruption is always their downfall. You root for him because you know he's not going to cause much collateral damage among innocent people, but he's going to ruthlessly clear out everyone else who is similar to himself. And really as Lords go he wouldn't be such a bad one because he's relatively benevolent and disinterested, he just wants to be top dog but has little interest in throwing his weight around, or indulging in foul degeneracies.

Feels like that holds true for many of the DC writers