Edsel

Re: How Long Does It Take To Fall? I always thought falling velocity in earth gravity, in the Hero System, assumed an increase of 5" per segement until the falling body achieved terminal velocity of 30" per segement. So at 20" altitude the car would fall 5" on segment 1, 10" on segment two and then the last 5" on segement 3 at which time it would have a velocity of 15".

Re: Shadow Angelus I emailed this to Eosin but I will post it here too for the benefit of those who are following the conversation. OK, black text is new. Red text is stuff Eosin previously said. Green text is stuff I previously said. I’ll work the magic into the story. I’d contend that the US would care less about the pacific ecosystem at this juncture. 10-20 million dead in the US alone? Another 30 million refugees… Holy doodoo Batman we’d be lucky to even survive as a nation much less spend trillions (quadrillions?) cleaning the worst disaster in the history of mankind. We can certainly go the “nuclear clean up” way but it doesn’t seem to hold much water. I’d instill a mystery here… something that forces one to wonder what was actually going on. It certainly doesn’t have to be nuclear, that was simply the first thing I came up with. It also needs to be something that promises so much wealth that spending any amount is worthwhile. Angelus, until it reaches the self sustaining point, would be more costly than any five wars we’ve ever fought. That is why I made the Espers click off here, they are a resource that is valuable beyond mere money. That hunt for the fountain of youth or psi or R’yleh is what Angelus has to have to become believable – note that the players and readers don’t have to know what it is, it only has to be painted in such a way that they buy into the hunt. Your call, I am perfectly willing to re-write it as the great eco-clean up or to brainstorm some alternative to why they spent so much money on Angelus. Your logic about the espers being the cause for such a large initial draw to the area is pretty hard to argue with so I’ll go with it. I still think that espers have been occurring worldwide, but for unknown reason a highly disproportionate number seem to awaken in Angelus. That would certainly draw the interest of many nations, megacorps, organized crime, etc. The national issue is one of the driving forces behind the UN deciding to make Angelus an independent city-state beholding to no other nation on earth (esper détente, so to speak). As for the nuclear problem… It is quite a problem. Salvage would be prohibitively expensive. I doubt even the sorcerers and newly emerging espers would be able to make it more affordable. It could be that to this day there are teams working to combat the problem of leaking nuclear sites on the ocean floor. Immediately after the disaster only a few worst leaking sites were salvaged or contained, even that took months. In the 80 years since the disaster they have surveyed the areas of danger and only the ones that are leaking become priority jobs. Where containment is holding, the site is allowed sit until resources permit or a leak is detected. This could mean a thriving black market in non-weapons grade material; all sorts of salvage teams try to make cash by recovering the stuff and/or pirates and outlaws try to recover the stuff to sell to the highest bidder. It is real law-enforcement concern since non-weapons-grade material can be further refined once it is recovered. I imagine any lost nuclear weapons would have been a priority for recovery, but there are probably still some missing. There were some mutations that occurred. In fact studying the greatly increased incidence of mutation of sea life is what initially attracted several bio-tech megacorps to the area. Their discoveries led to the development of the technology that created the Clades. Do you know what caused the Earthquake? If not, I’d suggest that we include all kinds of wild theories as to what caused the quake. Entities, Espers, Magic, Superweapons, all very likely candidates for a large section of the population to believe (or in the case of Entities a large percentage of those who know about them). No one seems to know what caused the quake? Was it natural? Magical? Something more bizarre? Even I don’t know yet but it is a good mystery to leave in the setting. I can always formulate a cause, if needed, for a scenario. They almost all live in Rho Sector, “The Kennel” could be the worst district in that sector. OK. By description Epsilon is Ghetto and Rho is lawless. I kinda figured the free Clades ended up in Rho but the corporate work class clades would need to be where they could get back and fourth to work. I have no doubt that Clades working for corps are probably housed by the corps somewhere nearby. We both agree here. I’m misunderstanding something here. You have said magic has always been around but that Esper abilities are new. This statement is saying that magic was weak and went full tilt after the quake. Those two statements don’t seem compatible on the surface. Here is my current thinking on the subject: The first inkling of esper abilities surface back in the 1930s when ESP became a parapsychology term. The incidence of espers has been rising every since, but the quake seems to have accelerated the process especially in the Angelus area. First for unknown reasons and later probably because the esper density causes others to spontaneously awaken. Another factor is various mega-corps and other groups experimenting to try to artificially awaken espers and/or augment those that they get into their employ. Magic has always been around. In the distant past it was very powerful. Through the ages the power of magic has waxed and waned. During the medieval era magic was at a low point and most sorcerers went “underground” due to things like the Inquisition and witch hunts. It wasn’t until the last 100 years or so that many sorcerers began to practice above board again as the superstitious hysteria about magic gave way to a more rational society. Science was used to study magic and thus the proof that such a thing exists was finally proved. In the 19th and 20th Century there were numerous sorcerers who made their livings as stage magicians and such. They practiced magic but pretended it was smoke and mirrors until the public seemed ready to accept true magic. The sorcerers and their descendants had a centuries long tradition of hiding their abilities so their emergence into the mainstream took a while as the newer generations eventually shook of the veils of secrecy that had been built-up over many generations. Magic began to rise in power again near the dawn of the 20th Century and this trend has continued for the last 200 years until magic is now once again a powerful force. The increase in espers does seem to have some sort of tangible connection with the quake. Who is to say? It could be that the increase in the ambient magical power in the world had something to do with the mega-quake. Espers are the second most discriminated segment of the population behind clades. People view espers with suspicion and fear, for all you know that normal looking guy could be reading your deepest memories or modifying your behavior. True most Espers are not telepaths but the general populace lumps them all into the same group. There is also the problem that telekinetic espers tend to cause a lot of collateral damage. Sorcerers are accorded a celebrity status. It takes knowledge and study to be a sorcerer. People have enjoyed the entertainment value of stage magicians, they don’t mess with you mind and magical powers often look cool. Sorcerers are much less likely to cause unintentional damage. I think I just pretty much covered the printed document angle. Don’t understand the comment. I just meant that I had copied everything from the hero boards into a word document already. Of course I imagine my formatting sucks compared to what you probably have.

Re: Shadow Angelus Got another one of the characters mostly completed this evening. The only woman in our group will be playing a female Japanese Telepathic Esper (Aurora Mokushi) with some precognitive abilities. We have a rough idea of her background which the player intends to fully flesh out now that the concept has come together.

Re: Demolition Dunphy: Where's the Love?! I always liked D-Man. In fact in one of our Marvel-based Hero games I played the character.

Re: Shadow Angelus It looks cool but technically it is "Shadows Angelus" I left off the "s" in my initial post so this whole thread is missing that "s". Of course to capture a real anime feel it needs some kanji in the background.

Re: Shadow Angelus

Re: Shadow Angelus My Big List of Replies. Since my mom was seriously ill for a few days, I was pretty preoccupied. I copied a lot of the posts from the last several pages into word and inserted a bunch of comments and replies. Rather than post a gigantic post here, which would mean a lot more typing for me. I have simply attached a copy of that Word document for interested parties to download and examine.

Re: Shadow Angelus Yep, I never liked the idea of transplanting traditional fantasy races into high-tech settings. Strangely the Clades don't bother me I guess they seem unique enough to me due to the replicant-like factor. The corps have a lot of political influence. Most of them own a councilman or two. If a single (or a few) companies are caught doing bad things they are in real trouble. It the majority of the Megacorps are behind something it may not be so easy to get council approval for an investigation. The assorted Corps control the lion's share of the money that flows into the city's coffers.

Re: Shadow Angelus

Re: Shadow Angelus I am at the state library and only have about 10 minutes free time. 1. Map of the West Coast: Has one been posted? If so I haven't seen it. 2. Mass Transit: I had understood we had agreed on a tube-like maglev system. This could go below ground level in area (tunnels under the canals) and above ground in other areas (bridges and links between large important buildings, etc.). 3. Angelus Design Essay: I need to print and read this before I can comment. 4. I have no problems with the sector locations as your map currently shows them. 5. Espers/Magic: The timeline in my latest document to the group addresses this somewhat. Magic was first, Espers came later. Magic may have always been around, just not know. Espers seem to be a more recent developement. 6. History: Another thing I want to read in more detail before I can comment. 7. Problems with 700 Terrace? Sounds like a cool idea. It would be a large building even by Angelus standards but probably not quite in the top 10. Ought to be fun tearing up a high rise tomb in a battle with an entity or two. 8. I like the directions idea. Angelus specific CPS (City Positioning System) could use some sort of carrier wave from cells across the city. The ethnic neighborhoods sound neat too and can add a bit of flavor. Sorry. I am out of time now. I hope I have more time to read an post when I get home.

Re: Shadow Angelus

Re: Shadow Angelus By the start of the campaign the nucleus of the city has been around for about 70 years. There are bound to be many second generation inhabitants and probably even some third generation. But there will still likely be a large immigrant population and 2 or 3 generations will make for strong ethnic ties. Overall I like what you have been doing. I certainly haven't had time to work on the physical and social aspects of Angelus. I have had a lot of personal stuff going on lately. I still need to get the vehicles into Hero Designer and look them over. I need to start plotting outlines for plots that will unfold once we get started.

Re: Shadow Angelus I sent Eosin the opening part of the story which contains the actual theory. I don't want him looking at the rest of it since it contains spoilers for stuff I may want to use. Remember I have told my players to stay away from the SA and SAII sites since I intend to use a lot of the plots there once I get my game going. I may even follow the original campaign as near as I can piece it together. My campaign will be an alternate version of the original SA campaign where my players will become the newly rebuilt 9th Squad.

Re: Shadow Angelus It is a well written thumbnail of a background. It also makes me wonder what the attitudes towards Espers ought to be in Angelus? In the world of Kazei 5 the term "Esper Weapon" is coined. It is a world in which the mega-corps have their own Espers and programs designed to recruit and/or develop more, often at any cost. I get the impression of lots of cut throat industrial espionage. It is a world where mega-corps has as much power as most governments; really gritty stuff. In Shadows Angelus you have Sorcerers and Espers. The background material I have read leaves me thinking that perhaps the realities for Espers are not quite as harsh in that setting. After all you have a competing class of characters (Sorcerers) and you have a real big bad to worry about (Entities). I had just decided to tone down the grittiness of the Esper world in my background document for my Shadows Angelus campaign and now based on Eosin’s background I am uncertain if I ought to do that. To those of you who participated in the original Shadows Angelus campaigns, how do the public and private lives of Espers differ in the two settings? Is there a noticeable growth of the Esper population in the Shadows Angelus setting? Are various groups experimenting to produce and develop new Espers just like in Kazei 5?

Re: Shadow Angelus I am tempted to have it shot onto vinyl like I did the big Hudson City map or perhaps laminated so we could use overhead markers on it.

Re: Shadow Angelus Yep. It's gorgeous!

Re: "Neat" Pictures

Re: "Neat" Pictures We have a pond out in back of my house and usually attract swarms of redwings during the summer. Occationally well get a treat and spot a yellow-headed blackbird.

Re: Shadow Angelus I am sure that this one is the best one yet, but it is much smaller scale when I try to download it. Small enough that some of the text is unreadable. The map posted just previous to this one was about twice the size.

Re: Shadow Angelus I am still not sure how Espers have anything to do with the developement of electrogravitics. Espers are merely people with mental powers (psionics) how did this help usher in the maglev technology? I like the map. I think the number of canals and there placement is just about perfect. Having a larger scale map of this could be quite useful. Remember I can print up to 36" wide on the color plotters at work. I'd love to be able to take this map, import it into MicroStation and then I could add layers in the drawing for things like hydrolizer locations, transit tubes, major steam tunnel connections, points of interest and the like. Of course at a larger scale we can fit more data on to the default map. It might be nice to mark the locations of all the Precinct houses, draw in the perimeter walls surrounding Omega Sector, etc. Lots of possibilities, we just have to decide what to add and how.

Re: Active Point Levels In the game I am currently planing I have imposed a 10 DC limit. I think that I may use the DC plus AP limits I have seen here. Perhaps something like 10 DC and either a 62 or 75 AP limit (thus allowing either +1/4 or +1/2 of non-DC-adding Advantages).

Re: Shadow Angelus I recall reading in the Shadows Angelus stuff that the 13th Precinct was the one closest to the Omega Sector.

I have heard semi-conflicting points of view from two gamers who I respect as both players and games masters. Both of them are very well versed and experienced with the Hero System. 1) The first person said that in a campaign they participated in (250-point characters) there was an active point cap of 60 for all powers except those that were bought through a VPP. Variable Power Pools were limited to a 50 Active Point cap. The logic was that the versatility and flexibility of a VPP makes them too powerful if they were allowed the same 60-point limit. 2) The other stated that in a game with a 50 Active Point limit in which the characters were limited to 200 total points, any character is better off using a multi-power or elemental control because a VPP is too expensive to construct. His philosophy was that this makes the VPP weaker in comparison to powers built using other frameworks. Which of these points of view do you subscribe? Or perhaps you have a different point of view.

Re: Shadow Angelus I'd say they put up walls around the whole of Omega Sector. Perhaps the docs to the east were saved. You wouldn't want anything slipping into the ocean or a canal because who knows where it would surface at. Of course that probably still happens occationally. So where do you think the 13th Precinct should be located? A, B or C, or perhaps somewhere else.

Re: Shadow Angelus Surprisingly I was able to do so.