Edsel

Re: Shadow Angelus Remember that the city is capable of slow movement and does move seasonally to place the city in favorable weather patterns. I see the city existing in the area around San Fransico during the Summer and heading down to around LA or San Diego during the winter months. The ability to move also allows the city to monitor developing weather patterns and move from areas that are predicted to be subject to especailly high waves.

Re: Shadow Angelus I like this better. I think people would prefer something like your latest outline, it appears more natural and that would appeal to the populace more. You make some really good points. Since I see the logic for the wider channels I don't have as much a problem with being big as I did. We just need to keep in mind that since the majority of the populace uses ground transport and/or the previously mentioned commuter tubeways, these channels are going to have a good number of bridges and subsurface tunnels connecting either shore. Of course these bridges would be too small to show up at this scale. Plasma fields mean a lot of heat thus a lot of evaporation and that handles the rain issue nicely I imagine that there are some pretty large steam chimmneys in this city. Most would probably be near the edges of the city but some are going to have to be in the interior. Perhaps they can shunt the steam to the downwind sides of the city at will in an effort to prevent the city being as fogged in all the time.

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Re: Shadow Angelus Based on this scale how wide are some of these channels? They seem excessively wide. I had sort of envisoned a more expansive, but narrower network of canals. Of course at this scale many smaller canals may not even be visible. The large north-south canal almost makes the city look fragile. I would imagine that the entire area is honeycombed with steam tunnel passages beneath the canals so in reality it would still be structurally sound. I tend to agree with Susano that either a rounder or more regualarly square shape would seem more logical. The isolated canal areas in the north are probably connected to the exterior by tunnels, tunnels maybe even large enought to provide passage of vessels. One thing to think about is the "hydrolizers" that keep the city afloat and provide motive force. It would seem that these things can only keep a certain footprint afloat each. I envision the hydrolizers as being fairly large and each one supports a platform (perhaps round or square) these platforms are tied together to create the city. The question is then just how big are the hydrolizers and how much of an area to they support? One square mile each? Five square miles each? Is each platform roughly circular, square, triangular, etc.?

Re: Shadow Angelus We will go with the 100 + 100 in Disads that we currently have. You can get the bonus XP using the DEX rebate rule. I think that I will use the generous XP option for the first several sessions as we experiment with what does and doesn't work. Of course extra-game work (like making city maps, writing side stories, etc.) will likely earn extra XP as well.

Re: Shadow Angelus I have spent a lot of time today reviewing proposed character histories from some of my players. Here is something that the people following this thread might be able to help me with... One of the characters has included in his background a bombing that hit one of the regular police precincts in Angelus on April Fool's Day 2110. This bombing was carried out by an underground militant Clade rights faction. In the character's history this group is called RIGHTEOUS but no definition for that acronym is offered. I think it would be cool to either figure out a logical meaning behind that acronym or replace it with another one that does have a logical name behind it. You know something like FAD (Folks Against Discrimination) -- but something much cooler than that. Anyone care to make some suggestions? At least he quit making us call him Your Lordship at the gaming table.

Re: Shadow Angelus A couple of questions to those involved in the original Shadows Angelus I and II campaigns, I am pretty sure these can be answered without giving my potential player's any spoilers: 1. Were there any rules, like the resource pool rules, from Dark Champions for equipping the characters, or was it just handled at the discretion of the GM? Personally I am leaning toward the latter. 2. Were there any particular Damage Class, Active Point, Combat Value limits, etc. Imposed during character creation? Did these values change during the course of the campaign? 3. What were the Lace & Steel games all about? Was this some sort of gladitorial combat?

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Ever notice that when you start a project that you want to work on everything that can possibly gobble-up your free time decides to suddenly happen?

Re: Shadow Angelus A few comments on the map. I am coming around to Eosin's way of thinking on it. In the original campaign the timeline lists a completion date for Angelus. This makes it sound like the "platform" for the city was created as a single massive unit and then the city was built atop it. Over the years more "urbanization" has been added as additional population and industry move in. A more realistic model would be that the original platform was built, which probably is the nucleus of the city that exists in 2112. As the city needed to expand, the platform was probably extended as needed. In this theory a circular shape would not be very realistic. Where an expansion takes place would define the shape of the city. "We need to expand. We'll have to buy out the docks in sector 23 since we can get them for the lowesrt cost. Then we'll add another 180 acre expansion in that area." The city ends up being a hodge-podge assembly. Not ugly by any means, but probably of a non-geometric and somewhat random footprint. Eosin I like your map design pretty good. I think that almost all of the outer perimeter of the city would still be docks and the like. The section you have ear-marked as the Omega Sector makes since. It was a suburban area at the time of the event, so likely near the edge. After the event nobody wants to build adjacent to it so it remains on the edge to this day.

Re: Shadow Angelus So since the armor was specifically "wired" for a particular pilot does this mean that any sort of Perk or Talent was required to hop in a suit of armor and go? I have looked over Tyger's character sheet and it doesn't seem so. What TK rule? What did I miss?

Re: Shadow Angelus We always seem to have the most interesting posts just when I should be trying to get some sleep. I gotta be up for work in 7-hours. I'll have to digest the city design and post when I have more time for coherent thinking.

Re: Shadow Angelus I have been trying to figure out if there were any special rules or concepts that were used for magic in the original SA campaigns. Of course I have examined Jama's character sheet, her spells an the session story "All In The Family." Jama calls upon the spirits (Hantu) that dwell in all things. But she also states that that is how all magic works. All sorcerers, regardless of their tradition, call call on or borrow powers from spirits of one sort or another. Being primarily an Animist Jama calls upon nature spirits. She says that Hermetic magicians borrow the power of the "Celestial Angels." I'd like to know how that worked, if it ever came up in any of your games. I am assuming that this would be a classical western world wizard. If so, what sorts of game stipulations were made regarding how their magic worked? My guess is that our sorcerer player will be likely to go the Hermetic route, if I am understanding all of this Juju stuff correctly. I am going to have to set forth some guidelines for how to do that sort of magic once he starts asking. How did the Power Armor Blue Steel Special work in SA as compared to the rules in Kazei-5? Should it be simple powered armor or should it be built as a vehicle? Personally I am leaning toward the latter.

Re: Shadow Angelus This sounds pretty much like what I had in mind. With the futuristic tech at their disposal this sounds like a good plan. With enough high-technology (or nano-tech) I figure that just about anything can be broken down to its base components for re-use. The waterways of the city make convenient routes for shipping imports into the heart of the city, shipping exports out of the city to the docks, and also serve as transport lanes for things like waste products which ends up a assorted reclamation centers throughout the city. Reclaimed materials produced by the recycling centers then ship back out to various consumer industries along the same water ways. Heavy barges will still likely (in the 22nd century) be the most economical way to ship bulk goods like this. Some sort of a high speed tube system makes sense for mass transit. Such a tube system could be elevated in areas of the city and even dip down into the steam tunnel levels in other areas. Probably some sort of enclosed maglev system.

Re: Shadow Angelus You always seem to find the most amazing pictures. This is beautiful.

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Re: Shadow Angelus I am guessing that watson is the name Ross goes by on these forums? If so I will send him a PM.

Re: Shadow Angelus There is no hurry. Things are still in a state of flux. I spend as much time editing the stuff I have already done as I do expanding on things that need it. SA III would be okay. I really wonder if it will have enough variety to warrant a page of its own. I am even going with the 9th Squad of Precinct 13 for the character's group. It might almost be more of a rerun, than a different campaign.

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Re: Shadow Angelus Since I have a good trustworthy group who have promised to not look at the stuff on Mike's website, don't be surprised when I borrow a lot of the plot material from the original campaign. I mean its a darn good story so if my players are completely unfamiliar with the plot it is silly not to take advantage of it. Of course how the players choose to deal with the various plots will likely cause the story to take different twists and turns. In intend to start off with the first plot pretty much as the campaign recaps portray it. I do have other material that I intend (at this point) to use for additional plots later on. One thing that has amazed me is how some of the characters my players are planning have remarkable similarities to some of the characters from the original campaign. The closest is probably a female Crusader who is actually sounding very similar to Carpenter (aside from the gender issue). Eosin is basically running a highly talented normal with some interesting things I can exploit in his background. I need to work with the player who is wanting to be the Esper since it sounds like our views on how one should work are not jiving too well. The player in question is pretty new to the Hero System so I need to have a discussion with her about her character. One character will be a male sorcerer, another is likely going to be a male cyborg. In summary it looks like the group will be 2 females (one played by a male) and 4 males. A crusader, an esper, a sorcerer, a cyborg, a very talented normal and one who doesn't neatly fit into a classical archtype. (Sort of a semi-mystical melee specialist, I worry that he and the Crusader may be too similar). Of course it is early and this is subject to change. One concern I have is that the group seems to be a little too heavy on the supernatural side and too light on the high-tech side. 1EyedJack (on these forums) has been running a Champions game for us. Since it seems that everyone is liking the set-up for Shadows Angelus we will transition to that game before too long. We only game once every two weeks. It will probably take our current GM a game or two to put his campaign at a good stopping point. This means it'll probably be May 2nd, or more likely May 16th before we launch the Shadows Angelus campaign. This is fine by me because the more I plan and figure the more I realize just how much work I need to do to get things setup the way I want them. A final Note: Please be careful about posting links to the Shadows Angelus stuff on Surbrook's Stuff. I don't want to tempt my players or inadvertently have one of them learn something they shouldn't know.

Re: Champions Pronunciation Guide Yes it is certainly more proportionate and better drawn, but it isn't as colorful.

Re: Shadow Angelus Ironically Akira is one of the very few anime that did not appeal to me. I am not really sure why. I guess Akira and Full Metal Alchemist would the the two popular anime that I have never liked.

Re: Shadow Angelus Eosin, I can loan you Silent Möbius or Black Lagoon or Witch Hunter Robin or any of a hundred others. If you recall you saw the first Episode of Black Lagoon and I don't think you were very impressed. I particularly recall Eosin didn't like the freeze frame action in the anime. Revy flying through the air in the bar fight not moving as she did. Appleseed and Appleseed Ex Machina he liked but then the CGI was fantastic and it was further away from anime style. I heard rumors a while back that the success of the two OVA was going to lead to a TV series but I haven't heard much else. I am currently re-watching Silent Möbius to help keep me in the right frame of mind (and shucks I like anime). I am just about to start disk 5 of the 6. As for Angelus itself Eosin and I have been trying to calculate a possible size for the island city. Agreeing with some of Eosin's calculations here: I think right now we'd go for about a 28 or 29 mile radius city with a population density of about 100,000 per square mile. Tall buildings can hold a lot of people and still leave room for parks and other areas. This would give a population that tops out in the 75,000,000 range. About 800 square miles of city. I have also thought about making a map of the new west coast area of North America post cataclysm. Then I could plot the general route that the city follows north and south during the summer and winter. I could also plot out locations of artificial Islands and such in case I need that data during the game.

Re: Shadow Angelus Well, thanks to you all. I am borrowing heavily from the stuff you have posted but of course I am filling in the blanks on my own and adding my own twists. I am pleasantly surprised how well my gaming group is embracing this idea. Their input (their character concepts and backgrounds) are causing me to expand on a lot of stuff. The group seems pretty pumped I think it will develop into a splendid campaign. Our earliest possible start date is April 18th. Fortunately I am the only one in the group who has read through all of the Shadows Angelus stuff (I & II) and I can rely on my players to steer clear of the area. I will be using some of the scenario ideas as well as some stuff from other sources.

Re: Champions Pronunciation Guide I like this artwork. Purple, red, black yellow. Attractive colors.