misterdeath

Michael Jackson's attorney vowed to fight those charges. What the hell is he supposed to do, if not to fight those charges. He's the frikkin Defense Attorney. It's is job. Jeez. What a moron. D

Re: Re: High Dex characters aborting No, you're both right. You can't abort in the Same Phase you've taken an action. So, if you were on Phase 12, MartialArts Man throws his kick and BrickGuy and fails to put him out of action. On his Dex in Phase 12 BrickGuy grabs a car and pastes MartialArts Man, who can't do much other than take it, since it's the same phase. If it were different phases, then sure, you can abort to your next action. If it's the same phase, you're fragged. D

I have just got to get OutKast's Speakerbox album. Fortunately, I've got a Tower Records gift card (got it from my boss yesterday). D

So, I walk into work today, and get called into the conference room. My boss tells me that "You've been doing an amazing job, and we decided you really deserve this." And he handed me my Promotion in Grade. I'm now a "Specialist" which means a 7% pay bump (and a little more work, which I'm already doing). I wasn't expecting this till June, if ever. I'm pretty stoked. Funny, I just noticed that all of my promotions have been in the Half Year. Supposedly, Promotions and raises can only go on at the beginning of the Fiscal year. The advantage to doing this my way is I get the June increase, then a big bump in December. Hmph. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. D

Re: "We´ve seen their faces, but who are they?!" Easy. Take Takofanes. Add 10 points of Com. Add 50 points to his VPP. Add KS: Rap Music 15- Change some of his disads. That's pretty close. D

LOL. Shhh. That's talk for the NGD boards. D

Mantasi: The mantis people. Leshi: Forest spirit, but looks mostly human. Myceton: The fungus people. Pakasa: The Cat People. Shedu: winged bull with man's head. Uthosa: Fish People. Edit: The Goblin and Hobgoblin seem to share a picture (it's on the hobgoblin side) There is a list of the monsters sans pictures. I understand Mon's concern. Fortunately, I've got enough D&D books to grab something that'll work... D

1) Before. A lot of people house rule the other way, but the actual rule is to figure the Stun Damage, then subtract Defenses. 2) Yes. Making an attack ends your phase, no matter how much of it you haven't used. 3) No. see above. Attacking ends your phase. In the next phase, you could Abort to Dodge/Block/Defensive Action of Your Choice. That would take all of your next action, though. D

Why, oh why MTV do you punish me so. An entire series of shows (5 of them) talking about Limp Bizkit's new album. Why? Who cares. Limp Bizkit, on a good day are inane, and on a bad day, stupifyingly horrific. They pay you (again) to put that special on, or was Jessica and Nick unavailable. Limp Bizkit. Bah. Fred Durst. Double Bah. D

Ok, I've got MMM and read it, and here's what I thought of it... On first glance, this book, seems a little thin. I think that's not valid based on the wealth of information inside. This book, to put it in D&D speak, is the Monster Manuel II, or the Bestiary II if you prefer Hero Speak. It's got a relatively standard grouping of monsters (Goblin, hobgoblin, orc, ogre, troll, giant etc) along with D&Desque monsters (what's a Fantasy Suppliment without a Dark Dwarf, Dark Elf, and Nasty Psionic Underground race--although this one isn't Cthuloid based in appearance). It's got some different critters, which, to me, go more to show the flexibility of the system. You've got the Banewolf, and the Calopus, which are wolves with powers/abilities, which example the different things you can do with the system. There are some ... unique critters (three different types of magic eagle/bird things, a watery ooze with flame powers! come quickly to mind). So not everything is something that a D&D player has seen before. It's got some more templates in the back. Need an Ork Barbarian, grab the Ork sheet, bolt on the Barbarian template, voila, instant monster. What I found the most interesting was the "example characters". At the end of a lot of the monsters, they give an sample of what you can do with the character. A Badass Hill Giant Merc, or a Great Temple Guardian Naga for two random examples. Again, it highlights the flexibility of the system, plus it gives you plot seeds. The very back of the book contains "Human Adversaries". need a bandit on the fly, poof there he is. The artwork is pretty neat. I can't think of anything that makes me go "ick". I'm not an artist, don't play one on tv, and don't feel very qualified to say much about it, other than "I liked it". The cover is sweet, and unlike fantasy products from other companies (ooh, look, pretty picture), you can actually figure out what/who is on the cover (pg 48). I think you might, if focused on a more humanoid based campaign, be able to use this as your primary monster book. You're lacking animals, and lots of dragons, and demons and things from the Bestiary, but there are magical animals, some dragons and demons, and most of the "fantasy humanoids" you're going to need, with enough other stuff to keep the PCs on their toes. I like it. It's a good book to me, and for me. D

Well, you're probably going to have to leave things well enough alone. The New Champions Universe bears some resemblance to the Old 4th edition Universe, but not a whole lot. King Cobra doesn't exist yet (see Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth http://www.herogames.com/Products/STAST.htm ) The IHA isn't as powerful/established as Genocide, and the robots are slightly less powerful. However, the heroes are, IIRC, less powerful than some of the mutants listed too. So, if you're happy with the old universe, and willing to put up with not having new material, just stick with the old one. You can wait a little bit longer, and see if something else strikes your fancy, and convert everything then. D

I like the new Chocolate cookie, Chocolate filling Oreo much better than the Butter cookie, Chocolate filling Oreo, which I like much better than the Chocolate cookie, creme filling Oreos. Chocolate Chocolate Oreo's rule. D

PC to Ogre, the last standing member of the merc villain team, "We would never have beaten you, if you hadn't outnumbered us by so many." D

Why do people drop their pets out in the country, rather than taking them to the pound? "We don't want kitty to die, and she'll find a good home out there." I live out there. Damnit, I'm getting sick of watching good cats die of Feline AIDS and Feline Leukemia because they caught it from one of the other stray cats in the area. By dropping your cat where you did, you condemned it to a life of pain and suffering, asshole. Unless we can catch it, and try to get it help. Which takes time, that we might not have. Goodbye Charlie. I'm going to miss you. Sorry I couldn't do better by you. I hope we made the last months of your life happy. Sleep well. D

Depends on the group, really. In my most recent former group, the other players were in "escapist/hack and slash mode". I found running for them to be tedious (they didn't care about mysteries, about personalities, and with the comment "oh, 30 minutes of role playing was enough" lets you know where they stood on that.) Playing with them was a hoot though, because I could also indulge in my violent adolescent power fantasies too. In the group before that, and with my current stuff, I prefer running. The players are cunning, and smart, and like to role play, so I like being all the different aspects of the world, and trying to keep things consistant. As a GM, I like crafting interesting interactive stories. If the group I'm in won't allow that for whatever reason, I prefer to play. D

New books don't show up in the online store until a month after they hit the shelves, in order to give retailers time to get some sales in. D

I finally came up with a character that has something similar to Quantum Mechanics Control. Firestorm. Back in the Prof Stein days. Look at all the things he could do to get an idea of the kind of things this character could do. D

Simple Quantum Mechanics, from a chemistry standpoint. http://www-theory.chem.washington.edu/~trstedl/quantum/quantum.html http://www.mtmi.vu.lt/pfk/funkc_dariniai/quant_mech/ Depending on how much you can control the equations, you can make an atom/molecule/energy field/practically anything, do whatever you want. I would think the Transform any Molecule/Element to any other Molecule/Element would be childs play for this character. Other things, perhaps not so easy. D

Use the rules in Ninja Hero... D

The guy at the gaming store said Next week on Friday. That should mean the end of this week, right? D

What Kristopher said. Quantum Mechanics is the study of how molecules are put together/interact. Off the top of my head... Molecular Conversion/Transmutation (changing the atoms/molecules). Teleportation (tunnelling). Heat/Cold/Electromagnetic energy manipulation (speeding up/slowing down/shedding or absorbing energy levels of atoms). Disintegration (disassociation of molecules) . D

Open letter to whomever is doing the radio commercials... Stop using mock-Arnie voice to shill your cars. Especially one using those catchphrases. I don't particularly want to go to the "loan terminator". Nor do I want to say "Hasta La Vista" to high prices. And, I certainly "won't be back." Just stop. It's not doing you any good, even if I was so inclined to buy a new Chevrolet, I certainly couldn't understand the bad accent enough to figure out which Dealer you were. It's just lame ass. So, knock it off, sh** for brains. Whew. That feels better. D

the vast majority of Forgotten Realms novels, period. D

This week is "Merit Bonus" time here at work. Everyone's getting called into the bosses offices and getting their percentage. Some seriously depressed faces coming out of the office. Of cource, I probably got the best review I've gotten here, and a 4.75% bonus. If I keep up the good work, promotion probably on the next half year. I'm a little stoked. Plus friday is the Holiday Party, free booze on the company. Whoo! D

Wheel of Time by Jordan. D