Jagged

I am sitting here screaming "No" at this thread. I think skill levels of all types can only be balanced within an individual campaign against the other players and to a lesser extent npcs. If one player takes physicist as an int based skill while another takes science, one player is at an immediate disadvantage imo. I also think combat skill levels should be used to enable how a player feels their character should work. Like your defensive swordsman above. Once they start getting loads of skills I would start pushing to merge them into globals or characteristics. And lastly as an aside: many moons ago, when challenged to a duel at a larp, I did parry thrown daggers and arrows. Skill levels or missile deflection?

Except the 20 somethings don't have disposable income any more. Too busy saving for the deposit on the house they will never afford

Indeed, one of the leading hypothesis is that we were more social and maybe were able to support each other when we came into conflict.

At lot earlier in the thread was a suggestion that our dominance over other terrestrial lifeforms comes from our brain size. Well there is an extensive review of our position on the Neanderthal going on in the academic community. Their tools may have actually been better so we can't claim we were smarter. They were stronger, so how come we are still here and they are gone? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46988399 Might be luck.

My wife did that last week. Think I need a new microwave. "It's a timer! Why spam the minute button 10 times when you know it only needs 3 minutes 30 seconds?"

That could be the plot for Nightcrawler 2

Tried that earlier, but you told me what I thought,so that was the end of that.

So "going round in circles" or a "thorough evisceration of COM" ? Can't be both can it?

Totally missed that.

It is also my experience that trying to achieve that level of balance is pointless as the real deciding factor is the player running it. As a GM I had some players whom I need never worry about. But I was always careful what I let @Sean Waters run ?

Change all the photographs to photographs of other people. Stretch goal: replace all photographs with photoshoped versions of the originals. All with varying levels of difference / weirdness.

There was an episode called Kitten Kong

Hammerspace? https://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1062 It's a favourite comic of mine

Sadly not playing. But have a planned game that would be 4 or 5

Is that a follow-up to the Goodies? No one other than old UK citizens will understand that

Nightflyers on Netflix. Only a few episodes in as I tend not to binge watch, but it is keeping me hooked. The GM in me though, does get distracted by the universe they are in and I want to know a lot more about the world and it's background.

I put this here just to document my own, similar obsession: http://hero-id.co.uk/hotm/ Unfortunately it is yet to turn into a viable game ☹️

This is an example of why I am not posting on this forum any more.

Been following this thread for a while now. Nearly posted a few times. Wrote long posts that never got submitted because threads like this are why I left these boards for over a year and now I am back only really post in "Non-gaming" and "General roleplaying" forums. Still, here goes: "Mechanically best" - no idea what that means and care even less. From my point of view 6e changed loads of things in Champions that gave it its flavour; To solve problems I never experienced; Which when explained to me made me wonder if those games had a GM? Worst still, those problems were placed ahead of the real problems that Hero System suffered from, which was all about getting people to play the game. If you spend any time in other gaming forums you will know that the "consensus" is that Hero is Complex, Hero is Slow, GURPS is better. Did we do anything to change that? We produced a big, enourmous, blue book. ? At a time when the market direction was for small and simple and quick and old skool. Great job! Finally I think "The Story of COM" is very representative of where its all gone wrong imo. No new player ever had to ask what COM was. It was a dirt-cheap points sink. It provided 10 minutes of fun at the start of every campaign while we worked out who was the prettiest. Now we have "Striking Appearance" ? I think we built a game that was perfect for a small group of people on this forum, which is unsellable to the general gaming public. Harsh, but I think true. At least we have some pretty covers again.

I am not sure why computer games get so maligned for "Boss Fights", the comics did it first. I usually hated them for many of the same reasons. Basically feeling the author was cheating to allow the battle to take place. The mention of City of Heroes (*sigh*) reminds me of their attempts. Apologies for the digression Their original Archvillain battles were so boring, tons of players wailing away against a big bag of hit points Very dull. They got more interesting when they scaled them back and made them more player-like.

I'd support the idea of a "modern" pulp setting and disagree with the comments that it is counter to the aesthetic. There are quite a few genres out there at the moment that attempt to mix an old-world sensibility with up to date or futuristic technology. It has grown quite naturally from steampunk. I am thinking of things like Penny Arcades Automata, the "Kids-on-bikes" genre or even things like Netflix's Riverdale and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

For me it has always been about "ease of use". As a GM (and as a player) there is simply so much more easy to use source material for fantasy than there is for supers. This has become more true over time (or rather as I get less and less free time). I also use Maptool (a virtual table top application) to game and although it isn't a necessity, it does make me want to build all the maps before I start a session. Which frequently leads to the problem that even with neophyte Super Heroes they usually have the ability to travel large distances and go places you haven't considered. *sigh* If I want a tavern, blacksmith, alchemist's lair or virtually any fantasy environment I can think of, chances are you can google a high quality map for it. Attempting the same for a modern environment turns up far fewer results. All of which eats into my most limited resource: "Time".

Hampton Court?

Some forgiveness may be offered if they are hard of hearing themselves. That is rarely the case though

People with no volume control. It's usually loud kids but then you spot the parents and realise that they have no volume control either. ?