Scott Ruggels

So, without going on a long, tiresome philosophical rant, I'd agree with LL and others that selfishness is the Essence of Evil, whether for fantasy or any other genre.
 
"At best, you are a means to my ends. At worst, you are a stench in my God's nostrils that I must eradicate."
 
The egotism can sometimes be collective. Evil people can appear selfless, but only because their "I" is my tribe, my country, my cult of my god, etc.
 
There is also probably some self-serving lie to justify that egotism. Likely, several. I suppose one could postulate villains or whole "evil" races that honestly say, "Um, yeah, we hate everybody else and want to kill them and take their stuff, it's just how we roll." But I find it rather dull. I'd rather give heroes the satisfaction of knowing they have struck a blow for truth or some other selfless cause, not just, "We kill them because they try to kill us."
 
Dean Shomshak

Nomad: The Warrior is on Amazon Prime video. So I guess I may watch it tonight.
 
https://www.amazon.com/Nomad-Warrior-Jason-Scott-Lee/dp/B009RXXOQS

Here's the  map at high Res. Enjoy!

https://imgur.com/a/5IcmFXZ

Essentially, it becomes The Mandalorian season 2.5 starting with episode 5, which was a really good episode with no Boba Fett. I saw a comment elsewhere that lamented Boba Fett becoming a guest star in his own show, and another that said, "The Book of Boba Fett is really only a pamphlet." 

For me it boils down to two dimensions. One, motivation from arrogance, hatred and fear, versus humility, compassion and hope. Two, priority in all things is always to the self rather than to others.

The more that I read 5th Edition materials and rules-heavy/textbook nature of the writing style in recent days, the more inclined I become to retrofitting and simplifying my 5th Edition materials to 3rd Edition (my sentimental favorite), especially to have pre-generated characters that are easy to read for brand new players with some of the mechanics from 5th and 6th Edition such as MegaScale and Unified Power, respectively.
 
Thanks for the advice!!! 🙂

In terms of sentimental reasons, it's 3rd edition for me. It was my first introduction to Champions and the Hero System in general, and I ran my first Fantasy Hero and Champions campaigns under those rules systems with many happy memories throughout high school and college. The Adventurer's Club Quarterly publications were also a real treat for me since they were hard to come by back then...as I get older nostalgia seems to be more important to me than the latest rules edition, it seems. 🙂

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.

This is pretty much where I land these days.
 
And I (too) lost interest in "the conversation" long ago when it became obvious, to me at least, that all we will ever get is endless talk and debate amongst the old guard because the necessary resources are simply not available to do what needs to be done (which I still believe would primarily consist of an effort to create a setting that lots of people wants to play in, and turning it into an evergreen product line).

The Hero System will not survive a 2020's revision. Either that or it won't be The Hero System.

The problem of 2020s is the lack of patience to the screen addicted audience. The usual response to this is mechanical minimalism, usually accompanied with a more shared narrative control systems.  Putting these in, will break the backwards compatibility of the system, due to differences in the mechanics, and the assumptions. Focusing the next edition to the younger audience means making things more performative, due to the outsized influence of Matt Mercer.

For many of us, these high Narrative, minimal mechanical systems, aren't "games", they are "shared storytelling" which, again, for some of us are highly unattractive, and bear no relationship to classic Hero. The 6th Edition may be too far into the crunch, but it's still The Hero System, and backwards compatible mostly.  Even a modest push in the "modern" direction, like Champions Now, broke backwards compatibility, especially with it's narrative emphasis, and taking the game off the boards and moving combat into "Theater of The Mind". 
 
The Problem also with a 7th Edition, is "Who is going to write it?"  We would need someone to keep the system fun. Fun to read, and fun to play (like 4th Edition).

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

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.

OK, maybe I'll give it a try.  I'll admit I was avoiding it.  I have read the books and didn't want them to get a half-a$$ed "in name only" treatment, which is the new norm for series. 
"Remarkably close to the books" is a plus.  I will probably start it tonight.
 
As for Eternals. I finally finished it and I have to say I was underwhelmed.
The entire Tiamut sequence just failed.  From the looks of how small they made the head and fingers, Tiamut was far smaller (tiny even) than the earlier imagery hinted at.  Overall not even "it's a comic book movie" could pull enough suspension of belief for this one. 
There has been a lot of comments out there about how this would have been better as multiple movies or a TV series and I can't say they are wrong.  It definitely failed pretty much across the board as a movie.
Especially in the character development part.  They had a lot of actors that I have really enjoyed in other shows, but even they couldn't pull this one out. 
 
I haven't seen actors talent wasted this much since Lucas turned everyone into cardboard cutouts in the prequel trilogy. 
 

Just finished Reacher also..thought it was excellent.

It is a book rule that you can burn enough END to use STN, but that doesn't mean that you can kill someone by draining enough STUN from them.  It means that if they use enough END they can eventually knock themselves out, because STN can go infinitely negative.  END cannot.

Sort of....
 
In as much as everyone got mad, the mood dropped and stayed that way, and the game petered out within an hour.   While we met for other games, it was in the neighborhood of a year before anyone wanted to pick that one back up.  The entire time with that "well how were we supposed to know...?"  Nonsense.
 
How were you supposed to know what?  That the ship was likely in danger?  That you were hired to guard it and _walked off the job_?  That Lt. Sandbag stressed several times that the job wasn't over?  That there was a war going on, and the company you were working for was one entire side of the war?  What was it, exactly, that you needed to know that would have properly stressed "hey, you know, some really bad stuff could go down any minute?"  Or perhaps this is Ghost Rider 2, and we're playing the world's first inaction game....
 
 
 
 
Excellent catch, Sir!     Yes; this is my long-running Traveller-on-Champions wheels game.
 
 
 
 
Yeah, but usually "hey, that ship is our honest-to-God only ride home" had worked in the past as a motivator to at least post a guard. 
 
Didn't that time, though. 
 
 
 
 
 
I just wanted to say thank you for that.  The way, in my head, that this comment was stated was hilarious.   
 
I have had very, _very_ few TPKs, but I would like to share my favorite (though I really think that I have shared this before, many years ago).
 
It's a space opera game (Yes; Sci-Fi is my genre of preference.   Specifically, not Star Wars sci-fi).  One of the party members had managed several sessions ago to get his hands on a Phase Field generator.  This experimental Force Field generator is a body-worn protective device that, when activated, creates a phase field "bubble" of protection.  Anything-- physical or energy-- is phased and randomly expelled from some other part of the surface.  To skip the rubber science, it's essentially Missile Deflection, Area of Effect (could be cranked to a 10 meter radius) costs END, and a couple of other things that are not important for this story.
 
We had two Johns in this group with the unique distinction of being identical cousins.  That is their fathers were identical twins who, against the odds, married identical twins.   I won't pretend to be a scientist, but given what I did learn while going through my medical education, they are, genetically speaking, siblings. (purely genetic, mind you).  They are both named for their grandfather  (and they were just almost two years apart, and because of that, I find it a bit hard to forgive doing that to your kid, but that's neither here nor there).  They were strikingly similar in appearance, though technically there was no reason for that, as neither favored one parent more than the other.  Conversationally, we referred to them as "Old John" and "Young John" (or Little John), mostly because Straight John hated being called Straight John (Gay John did not mind being called Gay John, but Straight John was something of a spoilsport  >:-/  )
 
Anyway, the party is making their way though the prison (they are tasked with questioning and possibly having to exterminate a prisoner.  They have opted to spring him and help him get off world, because that's who they are: they are the good guys).
 
So we have the five players and two NPCs sneaking their way toward the auxiliary command to do a couple of quick overrides and create an express exit, as their presence (but not their whereabouts) has been discovered.    As they  step out into a _wide_ and empty corridor, they see nothing, and the group pushes ahead.  As the bulkhead seals behind them, they make their way to the intersection fifty feet ahead.
 
A lone staffer from the prison pops around the corner, sees them, and stops dead in his tracks, shocked.
 
Brent announced "I shoot him before he can raise the alarm!" and fires off his hand cannon-- his straight-from-Johhny-Dangerously 88 magnum (recoilless, as Jim DiGriz would have wanted) slug thrower.  BOOM!
 
The..  uh.....  the alarm...  has been raised.....
 
The security systems guy turns to see if he can open the bulkhead for a quick retreat; Old John wants to sprint dead-ahead beyond the intersection in the hopes of getting through it before any guards appear.  
 
Sixty seconds of indecision and guards arrive-- eight of them, with full riot armor and armed with stun cannons (before there were real-world shoots-a-wire-at-you Tasers, there weren't, so we had to guess.  These were basically weapons that fired arcs of electricity at incredible voltage and very low amperage: they were non-lethal, usually, sort of).
 
Right away Amy says "I activate my force field and crank it up enough to cover everyone!  John's right; we've got to make a run for it!"
 
Young John, who has been letting his mind wander to who-knows-what hears "John" and snaps to attention-- sort of.  "Full auto, Baby!"
 
Young John's character has a plasma weapon that can be toggled to single shot, burst fire, and what he calls "Full auto."  This is a setting that, with a single button press, will set the weapon firing full auto (5 shot autofire) repeatedly, until the setting is changed again or the energy clip is spent.   "Full Auto" was something he liked to do as he seemed to think it was allowing him to take "extra attacks," no matter how many times it was explained to him that it in fact did not do that, as he couldn't really aim save on his Phase-- it was just firing.
 
 
So the Plasma rifle begins to fire, unceasingly--
 
into the inner surface of the Bubble of Missile Deflection.
 
Roll Activation.
 
Neat!  Rolled a 4!
 
Oh!  Time to roll again...
 
Neat!  Rolled a 5!
 
Wow!  A 3!
 
It was grim, and it was hilarious.
 
Many dice where thrown that evening, most of them at Young John.
 
 
 

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.
 
 
 

I've committed many over the years.
 
The most recent one was a couple of years ago, running a Pathfinder game, a Paizo AP. It's pretty high level by this point in the game. I modified one of the scenarios from whatever it was to a "hell in the jungle" type situation where the PCs would be hunted through a jungle by a high level, hit and run monster. I was going for a Predator vibe. Being high level Pathfinder it takes a lot of work: going over abilities to make sure I understand them, and then creating scenarios the monster could leverage for greater effect.
 
The PCs take one look at the dense, hot, sweaty jungle and say "We'll fly over that." Because, being high level Pathfinder, everyone had access to flight. Wings, brooms, spells, Baba Yaga's magic mortar. My face must have fallen because the players were all "Oh. Well, we can walk through it, if you like." I said "No, no. This is on me. I'm an idiot."

Yeah I don't make bad guys pay for bases or followers unless its an official write up in a game product.  They just get what they get, it doesn't matter.  All that stuff does is bloat their cost total.
 
And having the super base as a focus for villain attacks sounds like a good complication for the base. In my humble opinion, bases, vehicles, and followers should be cheaper by their complication totals.  I know this can be abused, but heck almost anything can.
 
My favorite "villain attacks the base" story in comics is Fantastic Four 265 when the Trapster attacks the FF tower and... gets trashed by the base's defenses and AI.

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.  

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.

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

The last out-of-combat NPC death in my sci-fi campaign:
 
The Players have been hired to provide security for a cargo.   Not a bad job, as they get paid for time spent doing nothing but getting a free starship ride.  All the problems are believed to be on the destination planet: they will land on a small continent that is in the middle of a brush war, local natives against alien settlers  (three hundred years ago, the original treaty said "we don't want this area; we are happy with this small zone you gave us."  Then radioactives were discovered on this nearby continent.....)
 
Today, settlers and corporations have pushed into this continent to "negotiate mining contracts" (akin to how lumber contracts are being negotiated in the Amazon region).  Corporate supply ships are targeted semi-regularly sitting in dock at the port, so the corporation has taken to hiring contract merchants to bring in really important stuff-- preferably ships and crews who are already known to the locals.  The PCs are hired by the corporation to provide security for one such ship, which is carrying clandestine mining equipment (inspectors have already been paid to not notice).
 
Short version:
 
The clock starts running at touchdown.  By the end of the first day, all the contacts have been made.  By the end of the second day, arrangements to unload and convoy the materials are made.  By the end of the second day, one of the paid-off inspectors has made contact with his people: he is a sympathizer to the natives.  Ironically, he would have rubber-stamped the ship and cargo simply because he knew them and had dealt with them for years.  Being asked and paid to rubber stamp this particular ship and cargo made him curious.  He knows it's mining equipment and starts making calls.  
 
On the third day, the material will start being moved off of the ship in small batches, starting at about mid-day.  This all hinges on the PCs foiling a plot to blow up the ship at mid-morning.  Dock hands and other workers mill about constantly.  Two guerrilla fighters have managed to plant shaped charges at key points on the ship and even inside (especially anywhere that will damage the cargo, but the destruction of the ship is a sought-after prize: this ship is working with the corporation and must be used as an example-- a warning to other independents that they don't want to truck with the corporation).
 
This was the initial plot outline for the session: discover the sabotage, small firefight, and if all went well, make a lot of money and start the next arc of the campaign.  If everything went really badly, end up on the run for smuggling and who knows what else.  It all hinged on _one_ thing: actually provide security for the cargo.
 
On Day Three, the PCs decided _to a man_ to go sightseeing.  "Well, the arrangements are made, and the cargo will be picked up this afternoon.  It's still on the ship, still in danger, but the arrangements are made, so let's find a bar and see if we can start a fight (or whatever it is that Players want to do that makes little sense in the moment and wrecks even a plot this simple).   Two NPCs (one is a crewman on the ship who put in a good word for them to get them the job; a fairly new NPC).  The other is Lieutenant Sandbag (discharged), a jack-of-all-trades NPC who has been with the party for literal _years_-- not just game years, but real-world years.  He doesn't do much, as his job is essentially to have a lesser version of whatever important skill is held by the character of the player who didn't show up that night (wish I was kidding) and to periodically be the mouthpiece of the GM  (ie, the guy who says "I don't think we should do that" or "that seems like a really, _really_ bad idea.  Can we talk about this?").
 
Lieutenant Sandbag decides to opt out of the pub crawl:  "I don't know, guys....  We were hired to provide security until the cargo was picked up and to keep the ship and crew safe until they could get off-world.  The ship is still on the ground and the cargo is still in it."
 
"Yeah, but the arrangements are made, and they'll be here today.  It's as good as gone.  I wanna check out this planet."
 
"Suppose that's just the chance somebody's waiting for?  Waiting for the guys with the guns to leave the ship so they can storm it and claim the cargo?"
 
"It's just a bunch of heavy equipment.  It's not like it's got street value!  Just calm down.  Whoever it was, we've obviously scared them off...."
 
"Just the same, I'm going to stay here.  That _is_ the job we were hired to do, and it doesn't seem real hard.  The bars will still be open when the stuff is actually off the ship, right?"
 
"Suit yourself, Sandy."
 
 
 
So while they were crawling around looking for con jobs, the ship blew up.  (Sandbag's Concealment isn't very high, his Demolitions is poor, and while he did see two guys "messing with the engines," he didn't see the third guy coming up behind him).
 
 
What is different about this plot because an NPC died?   Well, lots of NPCs died: eight in all.  Two name-brand, and one well-liked with a long history with the group.
 
The adventure started with a clock in the background.  I did not turn that clock off because the PCs decided "eh; the job's half-done.  Good enough, 'eh Boys?"
 
What in this entire script would encourage me to provide a do-over?   
 
 

I haven't finished the movie yet. It is an slow slog of not interesting, but maybe it picks up later.
 
I really don't see any kind of issue with casting.  They were supposedly manufactured so they could interact with the native populations of earth.  So far all the scenes are either in modern Britain or what I believe is the Euphrates area, Babylon(?).  But the earth is and was more than just that area and I think they covered the bases OK. 
 
I question the purposeless injection of "look at how wonderful I am" idiocy of making one manufactured android deaf and one manufactured android in the form of a child.  There literally is no reason for it.  They could have injection a normal human aid/employee that was deaf or a child.  Or any of a laundry list of ways to inject their agenda into it.  But the super powered manufactured android who's purpose is to protect the planet until the Celestial hatches is going to be built at less than 100%!!!??? Yes the internet has already spoiled it.
 
Maybe she was damaged? But can't they self repair? Who knows, but the ham handed round peg in square hole was just more meh in the overall meh. 
 
I gotten used to the constant pointless and irrelevant insertion of romance/sex of all varieties, so beyond the fact that it served zero purpose beyond the producer/directs aforementioned "look at how wonderful I am" garbage. 
 
And before I accused of being an incarnation of evil.  I have had the same opinion of irrelevant garbage in action flicks since the 70s.  If you want to make a romance movie.  Make one.  Just label it so I can avoid it just like I avoid musicals.  But quit destroying great stories by forcibly inserting irrelevant garbage in non-romantic stories.......
 
 
Grrrrr.....rant over I guess.
 
But ye gods is the movie BORING.. ..