ScottishFox

It is a strange world - no doubt. My daughter does the same. But, some of this is going to be there personality as well. My daughter - doing an obscene number of hours on the iPad during school break has shown me countless drawings and animations in multiple apps. She'll download something and the next day be showing me things that are actually kind of fun to watch. Her thumbs are crazy fast and accurate. We recently blew a good chunk of her allowance savings to get her an Apple pen so she can draw better. She was previously frustrated by "finger painting" on the screen. Still, I am probably similar in age to you and share many of the same concerns. I force the little tyke into swimming and martial arts classes to make sure she retains ambulation in adult life.

My personal computer in 1990 had a hard drive of .... wait for it... 40 MB. And I thought it was more hard drive than I would EVER need. My current drive is 2,000,000 MB.

I'd say from a couple of decades in martial arts and having viewed a few thousand MMA matches since 1993 that the x2 stun rule is realistic. Even in matches where the guys are actively fighting each other a strike that hits one of the competitors without being seen is frequently a stunner or fight-ending knockout. Think European uppercut where the striker shifts outside your guard and punches up between your arms towards your chin (not the stupid WWE variant). I've seen this with kicks that look like they're coming for the body and when the defender drops his arms to protect his liver/ribs the kick catches him in the head without his neck properly tensed for impact. Instant sleepy time. Completely outside of combat I have to imagine it's even worse. A hard shot in the cranium with your neck and shoulders completely loose would be a game-ender. A gone-stiff skull-to-floor-impact-coming-up zombie fall. Mechanically, I like your solution. It's less likely to result in an instant KO which, while realistic, is not a lot of fun. I would also consider: * x2 stun on whatever gets past PD * target is 0 PD for purposes of reducing stun damage

I feel more that it's the death throes of the mainstream media as the world turns its eyes to the internet and long-form on-demand reporting instead of 2 minute yelling matches. Media right and left has ratcheted up their rhetoric to apocalyptic levels. Too many people are being caught up in the hysteria on both sides. Just the news from the last couple nights - and I'm paraphrasing only slightly here: 1- Fox - White supremacists aren't a real problem. - Actually, Tucker, they are. They are a problem. 2- MSNBC - Analyst uses numerology to deduce President Trumps secret white supremacist Nazi dog whistle subliminal orders. - Or, he could just be an obnoxious public speaker with bad manners. Both sides are so divorced from reality that it's frightening. Hmm, probably more accurate to say they are presenting stories that are divorced from reality. I think both sides know perfectly well they are saying the most insane sh*t ever in order to try to salvage declining viewership. Based on Joe Rogan's podcast and youtube views I believe his audience far surpasses any remaining news channel. Perhaps more than the top 3 combined.

I had a former co-worker who left the 7th layer of hell we worked on to go to a nice job. She called it Candyland it was so stupidly pleasant and easy and full of happy people. I half disbelieved her until I got my new gig last year. The percentage of people here that are friendly and helpful compared to not is really good. The job is challenging in some ways, but with like 25% of the stress of the old job. They'll have to remove me with a forklift. I'm staying.

A spot of good new for you, sir.

Additionally, that PD 2 Normal is eating 30 STUN per hit. This means the fight sequence is either instant KO or heavily stunned followed by KO.

I have to agree. As a wee lad in the 70s I had a comic with a Hulk vs. Superman crossover. And the Hulk TV show was a big deal for comic book fans.

If you already play Fantasy HERO then pick up Evermist. It's good. I don't see it being the kind of product that breaks HERO system back into the market in a big way. The production values (formatting, artwork, etc.) are not there. I used to buy some Vampire the Masquerade products back in the 80s even though I didn't play it. They were just loaded with great art and had a compelling setting to read about.

I find that Fantasy HERO armor works as a pretty good simulator though it can be a touch stun heavy for head shots. Still after watching a season of Knight Fight and seeing guys in full plate get KO'd by a single two-handed weapon strike to the back I felt better about it. One thing I will probably house-rule for my Fantasy HERO games soon is a damage boost for two-handed weapons. Currently they do not gain enough damage to match the DCV loss from not having a shield. Ex: Large Axe: 1-handed STR 15 / 2d6K. If wielded by a 20 STR character you're at 2d6+1K. Great Axe: 2-handed STR 18 / 2d6+1K. Same guy swinging it gains no damage and no reach and loses 3 DCV by way of lacking a large shield. At a minimum I'll implement a flat +1 DC for two-handing weapons possibly mixed with a 3pt STR MIN reduction. That would take the latter example above up to 3d6K which feels like a more reasonable trade for losing 3 DCV.

Blair Witch meets Ravenloft and has a Fantasy HERO baby?

He would be able to use about 5% of his strength and still risk brain damage or death against old man Vulture, Doc Ock, or any of the circus goons with a single hit. I know the target audience for comics used to be primarily children so the ethical and moral dilemmas were simplified to the point of pain, but the idea that you'd risk letting thousands die - including yourself - for fear of hitting Doc Ock just a little too hard is difficult to fathom.

OK, finished skimming through the book. Firstly, I like it a lot. That should be the big takeaway. The monsters, though several are lifted from the bestiary and other places, are great. Especially the new ones. The NPCs are also quite good. There are several interesting magic items included. One issue I had was with the equipment for the NPCs. They were all done as powers as though on the HERO Designer heroic template. Weapons do not have STR mins and NPCs are adding full STR to damage output often resulting in a 50% to 100% increase in damage over Fantasy HERO characters using weapons with STR mins. Ex: 15 STR Character using large axe (2d6k, one-handed, STR MIN: 15) in Fantasy HERO would normally get no additional strength damage and remain at 2d6k. In Evermist they will gain +1d6k for their 15 STR as though the weapon were STR min 0 and do 3d6k. Still, I like the flavor of the book a lot. I will use it soon.

Here's the incomplete speed-read skimmed it summary: It's a setting and an adventure. It's relatively short for an adventure book, but that's due to the setting and bestiary bits. Formatting is good, but a bit dated in appearance. Artwork is minimalist and not professional grade. Setting is haunted forest themed. The encounter lists & details are good. The adventure is enjoyable. I'll take my players through it after our current campaign ends. I don't regret paying money for it. It's not going to compete with Pathfinder / WoTC caliber products. It feels like a labor of love for the die-hard HERO fans.

Spiderman was a favorite of mine growing up, but nothing enraged me like the Doc Ock fights. The very first punch on Doc's entirely human skull would have put him into a coma if Spiderman was holding back a lot or exploded the contents of his cranium across the battlefield if not. No mere mortal should be able to withstand a single punch from a guy who is fast enough to dodge bullets and can lift north of 10 tons. The impact energy of his super-strength super-speed enhanced punch would be like getting hit by a 10 pound bullet. Instead Doc takes numerous shots to the face and keeps going like no big deal. !@#$!@#$!@#$@#$@#$!@#

Buying it now. I'll rip through it tonight if time allows.

I would recommend a variable power pool for this situation. Then he can set powers based on available gemstones and you and the player can work out an active power cap for powers based on gemstone quality. Maybe even power types based on gemstone type.

In a post-modernist world there is no objective reality and pre-2000 and post-2000 are just perspectives. Or... I just really wanted to include 13th Warrior. It was only 4 months off cutoff.

One thing we used to do - somewhat similar to this - for Danger International was only roll 1 die for Autofire hits after the initial hit location was rolled. Ex: Players autofires an opponent and scores 3 hits. The first hit location he rolls: 1,5,5 and hits the target in the chest. For the 2nd shot they roll a 3 as the 1 slides off the list for (5,5,3) a vitals hit. For the third shot they roll a 1 (5,3,1) as the 5 slides off the list for a shoulder hit. While still a little erratic it eliminated the bizarreness of head, toes, head, toes type of autofire chains.

That video was surprisingly good. Thanks for posting that.

You can take yearly mass shooting deaths for the entire country and then compare them to handgun deaths in Chicago alone and Chicago will win every year - usually several times over. The mass shootings are nightmares and I live in one of the states that just had one and we have relatives in the area. It is awful and I hope the perpetrators enjoy a lifetime of suffering in whichever state-run hell hole they end up in. But, if human life is what we care about and not clicks and prime time views then they are almost statistically irrelevant. We have much larger issues to tackle (organized crime, gangs, medical errors, obesity, cancer, etc.) that kill WAAAAAY more people than mass shootings. Still, I've had the what-to-do talk with my child and it does not involve curling up under a desk and waiting for death per school instructions.

This is why I'm not a fan of the current revisionism going on. Yes, our ancestors were horribly flawed. So are we. You can't hold the peoples of hundreds of years ago to modern standards. Hell, you probably can't hold your own grandparents to modern standards without deciding they are horrible -ists and -ics. Historical heroes were better in some aspects than their peers, but they were still products of those times and places. Applying modern standards makes villains of them all.

I fondly and horrifically recall the completely ineffective government safety protocols we were mandated through as a child. "When the nuclear bombs go off assume a fetal position beneath your desk and don't look out the windows." Man, that it surely going to help me survive a liquefying blast impact or the surface of the sun like temperatures. Also, we were like 6-8 years old during this stupidity. How to traumatize children - Make sure they know the Russians are going to nuke them into molten glass pits on the regular.

I feel compelled to cheat since my entry missed the mark by only 4 months and 4 days (Aug 27th, 1999) - 13th Warrior. It clocks in at 33% by way of critic reviews and I loved that movie. With exceptions for Avengers, LOTR series and Commando I don't think I've watched any movie as many times.

I've found a +2 Advantage cap to eliminate the worst offenders. The most common stacker problems I've run into are things like: * NND, Does Body, Constant + others on a low DC killing attacks * Cumulative, Increased Maximum, on 4d6 Dispel to a ridiculous level (almost 200 AP) * Low dice transform with constant, fully invisible power effects * Mental Paralysis - Which is just Entangle with enough advantages on it that it turns any villain into a DCV 0 pinata. I tend to run Fantasy Hero so this means head shots & instant death/KO. Ultimately the character creation is VERY sand boxy and characters have to be somewhat corralled or they will come up with serious campaign destroying cheese. Usually, good players won't do this, but there are some that find breaking the mechanics of any game system part of the game. HERO isn't an easy fit for players who want to break the game mechanics.