The Monster

Re: Lance of Faith

Re: If you act, as you think . . .

Re: Royalty Character If she's from "some obscure European land," you might not even need to go all the way to Head of State - since her status as princess would rarely if ever come into direct play. Diplomatic Immunity might be enough for game purposes, and would avoid the complications and duties HoS would imply: she'd still be a royal and probably even have some kind of ambassador/consular title. As far as Public Identity, I don't think it's necessary, depending on how you want to play it. If she constantly refers to herself (and is referred to in the news) as "Wondra, Princess of Upper Corruptia," then, yeah that's definitely Public. But if she goes just by "wondra, Woman of Spent-Uranium," and draws no attention to her royal status, you could get away without Public. Of course, anyone who looks into it at all (even a simple Wikipedia check) would spot a blurb on her social connection. Complications caused by just having HoS might be as relatively light game-wise as the lesser-known British royals; a bit of spotlight always on, and some scheduled social/cultural appearances, but just bought as a Fringe Benefit, it should be primarily a benefit. Goodo for wangling invites to parties, cutting the line to nightclubs, opening doors, and so forth. It's an easy jump to building a whole set of disads, though, if you want to bring it in as a significant plot point: Watched/Hunted comes to mind, both by the 'secret service" of her country, US Departments of State and Homeland Security, as well as hostile agents from at-home rivals or rival nations. Her nation could have a reputation for poverty, violence, or disease ("Corruptia? Isn't that where the Melting Eyeball Plague came from? Eeew!" or "Oh, I've heard of that place - it's where the government tanks just ran over all those protesters a few years ago - it was all over Youtube."), which might lead to Reputation or even a Social disad. And, of course, you can take just about any level of DNPC the GM will let you, to cover anything from troubles at home to special requests by the nearby embassy to occasional tourists from home who suddenly appear on the battlefield. There's lots of potential disads and plot hooks, depending on how you want to build it. But agin, a fringe beneift is supposed to be a benefit, so unless you take some disads, it should largely be a matter social status rather than a source of difficulties.

Re: Help with Fire Elves Fire elves.... there's fire above (the sun) and fire below (magma). Take either or both as your symbolic links. The former lends itself to Oddhat's desert-nomad idea, the latter offers the smiths - though you might not want to step on dwarves too much. Fire elves could be able to glow or cast light at will. Being linked to primal energy, they might have a transnormal quickness of action. Immunity or resistance to fire is a natural suggestion; perhaps their bodies simply don't burn, making funeral pyres impossible.

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane? But the point is really moot, since nobody can afford the infinitely high ticket prices (not even for budget class!)!

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane? ...the problem is, on an infinite plane, it takes the attendant an infinite amount of time to get to the light switch...

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane? This puts me in mind of the old Lunar Empire from Runequest (IIRC). Reinterpreted to this idea, make it possible (by some arcane/technological/divine procedure) to relay sunlight from place to place, like mirrors or prisms, so that the light of the sun can be brought to places otherwise blocked from it. These sites (presumably mountaintops, for maximum reach) would be crucial to expanding and maintaining certain kinds of life and civilizations. Of course they would require maintenance and protection. Furthermore, (speaking of prisms and such), the sunlight might be manipulated to produce certain effects, subtle and not-so-subtle. Bright light for growing most crops; muted light for some religious or artsy areas; even sunlight with the UV filtered out so you don't get sunburn. Day/night cycles in many areas thus become subject to the whim of the authorities. ("didn't pay your Sun Tax? SOrry, we'll have to shut it down. Goodnight, everyone!") ........................................... Another possiblity is that 'sunlight' actually comes from certain minerals, which are rare and deep, and only rise to the surface at volcanoes, spewed up as magma. With certain techniques, the stuff could be gathered and transported. Not a day/night solution per se (though each barony could have its own 'sun' - a lighthouse!), but could be fun to work through implications.

Re: Handling day and night on infinite plane? Do it like a discworld - a hole in the middle (yeah, yeah, there ain't no "middle" of an infinite plane, shaddup!). Two possibilities: One, the sun rises and sets in the hole, bobbing up and down like a cork. True daylight only comes to places where there is a direct line-of-sight to the sun, which changes at various times of day. The 'leeward'(?) sides of mountains are in perpetual shadow. (You also end up with a natural explanation for true 'lands of darkness' which are situated so that direct sunlight never reaches; and the farther away from the sun you are, the more likely you are to forever dwell in darkness.) Two, the sun is always "up" at least partway, like a lightbulb on a pedestal. To get a day/night effect, either the sun has a light face and a dark face and rotates, or there is something around the sun rotating (or traveling on a track of some kind) which cuts off sunlight on a regular basis - traveling mountains, or a parade of mythological creatures (which, as I think about this, could be the basis for a zodiac in this realm...). Note that the periods of light/darkness need not be regular.

Re: Weird villain idea. I need some input on. Some VIPS have doubles to act as stand-ins or distractions, so they can avoid attention and/or possible assassination attempts. This guy could be brought in as a post-mortem double, to replace some prominent official after his/her death (whether by accident, assassination or 'disposal' by manipulative underlings), in order to stem panic or to provide a 'puppet' in place of the original. (IIRC, there have been some movies - both comedies and dramas - based on this idea...) This guy could also make some money with a psychic-medium scam, where he appears as the recently dead friends & relatives of rich people, and arranges for money to be distributed according to his preferences. For that matter, if he's clever and fast enough, he could wend his way into emergency rooms and critical-care facilities, and replace people just as they die, in order to make odd 'deathbed' requests regarding finances and such. Then he just puts the dead body back in place, and goes his merry way.

Re: Steve Reviews INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL Quite correct ( I just looked it up). I had never read the name, just assumed on hearing it that it was short for Solomon or Suleiman or some such, a common enough name for the Middle East (where we first met him). Anyway, if I were to pick a 'least favorite moment' in the film, it would be the final sequence where the valley disappears - way too much exactly like the final sequence from Mummy 2, with the whole valley swirling like a toilet flush. I do agree that Cate was completely wasted. She was little more than a second-rate Bond villain (complete with 'theeck Roosian acksent'). Pity. Frankly, John Hurt was also wasted; he's capable of so much more, and the character had more potential. But it was what it was. A wild ride for a couple hours, and a coda and salute to the series. At least it didn't have ewoks................................

Re: Do you use minis? We use Heroclix. The 'Mister Suitcase' of our group got excited and modded some of his extras so that they are actual minis of our PCs. Way kewl. And there's almost always a clix that approximates the villain/s of the week. Various other RPG minis and toy soldiers fill out NPC ranks, and Matchbox/Hot Wheels vehicles (a bit small, but good enough for scenery/brick ammo) round out the table. We typically have a hexgrid on the table, but I've run just using open surface and a tape measure. Range and distance is a problem, but most of our fights have been either indoors or in urban areas, which have highrises limiting movement and sighting. Stuff that goes off the map either just leaves or takes a short time to return; if the whole fight goes long-range and/or mobile, the tactical display becomes abstract anyway.

Re: Urban Fantasy dead horses. ...note all the following is raw opinion, idiosyncratic and arbitrary - I don't claim you can't make good, valid, UF any other way, this is just what I would want to do... Stuff I wouldn't feature in a UF game if I ran one: --sexy emo vampires. I *like* Stoker's Dracula, and think it's been badly maligned and misused. --ineffectual Church. My impression of most UF is that the Church (generally Roman) is either totally ineffectual, or it's the heart of a huge, vile conspiracy. Either way, there's a tendency for everything supernatural to be 'true' except religion. Bah. --magic as technology. Magic should be atmospheric, odd, and mysterious, a definite alternative to the scientistic mindset. Shadowrun goes as far or farther than I really like to mix the two. --modern 'occultism' works straight out of the box. My personal take would be that maybe *some* of the stuff works as it is, but most/many people claiming to know the Truth would be at least as muddled and contradictory as many people are about religion and what it actually, historically holds as Truth. Just because Crowley et al. wrote it don't mean it's real. In my opinion, the best urban fantasy RPG setting I've actually read is probably Unknown Armies, maybe followed by In Nomine. Of the White Wolf stuff, my vote goes to Hunter; but I know I'm an odd duck. While 'D&D variant in modern times' (be it d20 Modern, Dresden Files, or whatever) sounds like it could be fun as an occasional, I don't know that it would really inspire me for long.

Re: Steve Reviews INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL I enjoyed it. Yes, it could have been better. (What? A whole adventure in the Amazon and no piranah?!?) I think it served its purpose very well: a salute and coda to the series. Self-referential enough (and cross-referential: I'm sure others noticed Ford's line 'I've got a bad feeling about this...'; and does anyone think that having 'General Ross' involved with the bomb test sequence is just a coincidence?) ) to be amusing without being too heavy-handed about it. Karen Allen was a lot of fun to watch: not much for her character to do, really, but I always like watching an actor really enjoying a part. And I missed Solly: it would have been nice to at least have a tip of the hat to him, like they did with Brodie and Henry Senior. If anything, the SFX were a bit heavy - apparent influence from Mummy and National Treasure (which were, of course, inspired by Indy in the first place) in a couple shots at least. I think part of the impact is lost because there have been those other movies with the same flavor, successful in their own right.

Re: Has anybody played "Spirit of the Century" This is true, it requires certain skills & attitudes among the people involved. But pulp, probably more than any other genre (except perhaps horror), requires a certain mindset and skills among the players & GM, regardless of the rules. And poor GM or poor players can ruin any game. In general, though, I agree with you - rules-light systems generally strike me as little better than 'make some stuff up & roll some dice,' for which I need not spend $15++ to learn how to do. I think SotC is at the bottom of my tolerance for rules-lightness, but it does seem to do what it's intended to do - provide a fast, pickup-type game for pulp adventure. I wouldn't use it for a campaign, or for anything but a one-shot adventure where I wouldn't be able to rely on either teaching better rules or knowing that most of the players already know those better rules. For regular and sustained use, I like more crunch. SotC is an arrow in the quiver, not part of the regular ammo load.

Re: Non Cliche Supernatural Professions Exterminator (as in rats & bugs) - gets to go into all sorts of icky places and deal with all kinds of messy things. Delivery driver (already mentioned, I know, but could cover everything from pizza to medical supplies to FedEx). Setting support staff, i.e., people who operate at low levels or 'offstage' in the campaign setting: orderly at the nursing home; home-care provider; janitor... Telephone lineman - works in both urban settings (manholes, highrise-building cabinets) and rural (remote pole lines) A vaguely coplike variant would be utility inspector, who checks things out to make sure they're working & up to code. (By extension, repair techs of all kinds.) Professional photographer, who could turn up anywhere from weddings to funerals to scenic locations (and making records of all sorts of unusual events). Very similar to 'freelance reporter,' though. Field biologist - with environmental laws as they are, this could be anywhere from a rural/wild place to a city park to an industrial site. Again, somewhat PI-like, but with a rather different bent. Social/political activist. Dealing with all levels and branches of society, in order to motivate involvement, squeeze out cash for The Cause, or making sure those in need get what The Cause has to offer. An advocate for the homeless could be an interesting lead-in for a horror adventure. (/edit) oh, and before Cancer beats me to it, if you want a remote setting for the game, an astronomer often spends time in *very* remote and isolated places - observatories. Things get really bad when the horror follows them into the university office!

Re: Has anybody played "Spirit of the Century" I've played it a couple times, and as a rules-light system, it depends greatly on the creativity and involvement of the players and GM. For Pulp, I consider this a strength, because so much of Pulp is about flavor and verve, rather than mechanics (I say this as one who's been running a very successful Pulp Hero campaign since the days when it was Justice, Inc.). Our group has actually adopted SotC for a horror scenario we'll be running at Dragonflight this year. Horror has a lot in common with Pulp, being more about flavor and atmosphere than hard-core mechanics.

Re: You know the GM has it in for you when... The nameless minions have weapons that are just as powerful as your best Energy Blast.

Re: Music from out of this World Glenn Miller

Re: Fighting against more speed Bring a buddy. Don't assume the rules exclude team play. ...you did say 'besides multiple attackers' - but I think that's the way to go. If he spends 16 points on DEX/SPD, you should be bale to spend 16 points on a Follower with a netgun. As already pointed out, fighting someone who's just like you but with better stats is hard to overcome.

Re: Ramming Speed It strikes me (no pun intended) that part of the equation would need to factor in the effects of whatever method the ships use to avoid or resist impacts from random space debris. Even without man-made stuff, there are some things out there which can move pretty fast and hit pretty hard; presumably, ships have some way to counter those. If it's primarily detect-and-dodge, then a ship deliberately built to ram would be a highly unusual cosntruction: the ship has to be nimble enough to actually hit a target that's capable of dodging high-speed objects without interrupting its normal activity, while at the same time being sturdy enough to withstand a heavy impact itself. If there's a speed-versus-weight issue at all (and even Star Trek has some), that could by itself render the proposed design moot. The only way to use your ramship woul dbe only after the target's engines or detectors were crippled, by which time normal weapons would work just fine anyway. If the ships are sturdy enough to just tough it out under occasional meteor hits, then you might have something. At space-combat speeds, my guess is that the impact energy is so high that the ramship would itself be crippled or destroyed unless there was a huge difference in ship size (the image of destroyers ramming PT boats in WW2 comes to mind). Even where the ramship isn't KO'd, it coul dbe very hard to design systems that could compensate for the unpredictable velocity shifts from a collision (unpredictable in the sense that you can't predict, in the design phase, the dimensions of the target) - you very likely would end up with a damaged ramship that goes spinning off in a random direction until engines can compensate. My summary? Even if it's possible, it would be so difficult (without invoking handwavium and/or trans-Star-Trek force fields) that it would be ineffective in all but the most unusual situations.

Re: How to make a sword who weilds you. As usual, I'll throw from out in right field... Make the character as an AI: INT, EGO, skills, powers, etc., but no physical stats. All powers of the character must have Focus: Sword. If the focus is damaged, one or more powers can't operate, as per usual with Foci. (Just to be snickety, for a magic item to be picked up and used by any random looter, it has to be Independent, not just a Focus.) This allows you to make the sword itself a good ('+1') sword to anyone who picks it up - the real power of the sword character can be controlled or revealed as the character wants, regardless of the wishes or abilities of the wielder. To control the wielder, I think you'd pretty much have to go with Mind Control; the 'break control' issues are less demanding of specific GM design, and it allows some flexibility between sword and wielder. For example, some wielders might be totally opposed to what the sword wants; others, however, might be quite happy to go along, especially if, say, influenced by a little Persuasion (moving the required MC target from 'opposed' to 'doesn't mind'). (yeah, this is basically a riff on the old 'Spirits' rules...)

Re: A Blasphemous Idea for HERO 6th The problem with making a thin rulebook is they'd have to use expensive, thick paper to make it stop a bullet. Or go to a full metal jacket. (Hmmm...'FMJ Hero'...I might pay to have one of those...)

Re: I need Post apoc Gang names A few names of rock bands come to mind (some just local, some not so much)... Rhino Humpers Butthole Surfers Motley Crew (semiliterate gangbangers probably *would* spell it correctly!) Devil's Funboys The Incomplete Gaza Strippers Templars

Re: Character Portraits as Card Stand-Ups Fathead!

Re: S.H.A.R.D. - Super Hero Acronym Resource Directory GUNS Galactic Underground for Nasty Surprises a SF hacker/prankster group