Toadmaster

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore You left out Canadian Bacon, typical American, no wonder the whole world hates us.

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore You know that bacon wrapped cinnimon roll actually doesn't sound too bad, covers all the tasty food groups, salt, sugar and fat.

Re: 1970s-era Police Campaign Lots of social issues, and conflict over changes. Race / gender - civil rights movement, ERA, race based militant groups (black panthers, white supremists etc), obviously still a touchy issue so it probably goes without saying, tread lightly in a game unless you really know your players. Political activity - militant groups justifying their crimes as political activity, SLA, Weather Underground etc, protests galore (pick a cause), terrorism (home grown and international), vigilantism, gutless politicians / corrupt politicians (some things never change), crusading politicans (who frequently prove to be gutless and / or corrupt in the end). Corrupt government officials and / or police. Drugs / alcohol - use, sales, distribution (still issues with "shine" in many parts of the country). Porn - the porn industry was becoming more main stream, usually a minor feature in most movies but frequently makes an appearance. Organized crime - rise in street gangs but mostly "the mob", also corrupt union leaders and mob lawyers were popular subjects. The "system" - science vs "art" of criminal investigation, rules vs instinct, and cases being thrown out for technical violations were popular themes in the 70-80's.

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore Yeah, I saw that in the wiki article. I might have to hunt down an authintic one sometime, but I think the one with thousand island dressing would ruin the experience.

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore I'm green just thinking about it. I like rollercoasters and such, but am not a fan of the whirl rides, add in tilting and its right out. I don't even like the teacups at Disneyland much.

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore That Luther burger sounds horrible, but you never know. I thought the Monte Cristo sandwich sounded scary until I ate one, yum. It is essentially a ham, turkey & cheese sandwich on french toast with powdered sugar & raspberry jam. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Cristo_sandwich I see there are some variations. Now I'm hungry.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Richard Pryor Live on Sunset Strip, Richard Pryor Here and Now is next up on the list. I remember seeing these in the theater, just as funny now.

Re: A Thread for Random Videos Arlo explains his Motorcycle song

Re: Death Race It looks to me at best inspired by Death Race 2000 rather than a remake. Does look promising though as long as expectations are held in check. The Transporter movies were fun as long as your sense of belief was under heavily sedation.

Re: Ratchet & Clank HERO? Yes, that was the third game. I believe you are talking about Courtney Gears.

Just wondering if anyone has done or seen a Ratchet & Clank conversion for HERO. It is a game series for the PS2, it also happens to be my sons favorite game. It is a fun game world too, lots of weird weapons, weird critters and weird bad guys. http://www.us.playstation.com/ratchetandclank/

Re: Membership in a Powerful Men Club? Both, membership only would allow access to powerful people, perhaps even a minor favor due to being a fellow member (tickets to a minor political rally, means to contact a smuggler etc), but no special leverage to get them to do a thing about the PCs problems. The higher the cost of membership the more likely access to the more powerful members. Contacts would provide some personal attachment to specific (even if generic in game terms) members of the club.

Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished? Ivan's war was really interesting, its really amazing, Stalin not only put the Soviet soldiers in a terrible spot, he stole thier history too. It is nice to see some of it coming out before all the veteran's are gone.

Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished? Nice list, I've read several of those, have a few more on my to get list and a few I haven't run across. WW2 history is a particular favorite of mine. I've finished a few this year Ivan's war - Catherine Merridale. A post Soviet history from the Soviet side of WW2. The USSR seriously "adjusted" their history of the war for decades to the point many veterans don't know what is true and what is fabrication. The author interviewed many veterans of the war trying to piece together a more accurate history from the soldiers point of view. I found it a very interesting book, the Soviet soldiers really had it bad caught between Hitler who wanted them dead and Stalin who really didn't care if they lived or died, and had no tolerance for failure or disent. The Korean War - Max Hastings. Supposedly one of the better histories of the war. Really worth reading, Korea is known as the forgotten war which is too bad, it really made an impact on the rest of the century and how the cold war developed. Biggest Brother: The Life Of Major Dick Winters, The Man Who Led The Band of Brothers - Larry Alexander. A biography of Dick Winters the company commander of Easy company, 101 airborne. I found this a really worthwhile book, it is a good book on leadership, it also shows how WW2 impacted that generation, how men were pulled from rather ordinary lives, put into extraordinary situations and then returned to fairly normal lives. Beyond Tranquillon Ridge - Joseph Valencia. A history of a wildland fire on Vandenberg AFB in 1977. Three firefighters and the base commader were killed early in the fire. A good book, but not sure how interesting it would be to a non-firefighter. The author was a young firefighter at that fire. Under a Flaming Sky, the Great Hinkley Firestorm of 1894 - Daniel Brown. The history of a group of forest fires that destroyed several towns in northern Minnesota, and killed somewhere between 400 and 800 people. Another interesting book about a little known US disaster. Triangle, the fire that changed America - David von Drehle. If you are into politics I definately recommend this book. It is about much more than the Triangle Shirt Waist fire, it has a lot about the democratic political machine, the labor movement, crusading high society, pirates, swordplay, true love... sorry got carried away. Anyway the fire and the aftermath made big changes in our politics. I'm currently finishing The Johnstown Flood - David McCullough. A history of a dam failure in 1889 that destroyed several towns in Pennsylvania killing more than 2000 people.

Re: Music to Kill Zombies By Discovery channel has an interesting concept of "new". The AA-12 was in 1st ed Morrow Project so 1983-ish? 25 years and its still "just about ready for the market" maybe someday it will be released. Still it is a Bob Bitchin zombie blaster, nice choice and vid.

Re: DC ruleset used for modern (non costumed) gaming? If you are talking about waiting until 6th ed comes out, personally I wouldn't. 6th will either be a small change easily used with other versions or something completely unrecognizable as HERO. Either way it won't hurt to have a copy of 5th ed. Plus 6th ed is at least a year out.

Re: DC ruleset used for modern (non costumed) gaming? HERO works just fine for non-super hero games. I haven't really had much opportunity to really play 5th ed much, but I've used 3rd ed and 4th ed HERO for a ton of "modern day" games, espionage / techno thriller type (James Bond, Tom Clancy etc) games, post apocalypse games (converted Aftermath & Morrow Project, plus some home brew settings), monster hunting games (converted Stalking the Night Fantastic), Call of Cthulhu (ish) games, military action games etc. It tends to lean towards the slightly to very cinematic but if you use the extra rules or tweak it a little with house rules it does "gritty" fairly well. I like it pretty much straight from the box as the PC's are fairly hard to kill but not so hard to hurt badly. Players tend to learn pretty quickly that cover is a great thing and wading through gunfire is a bad idea.

Re: 20s or 30s? I agree 100%, rep for you.

Re: Indiana's pistol There isn't a really clear shot of the pistol but its definately one of the larger Browning designs 1911A1 or High Power. The smaller Browning pocket pistols have concealed hammers and a different look to them,it looks to be the right size for the HP or 1911 as well.

Re: Music to Kill Zombies By Weapon: Remington 870 12 gauge pump shotgun (shotguns were made for hunting zombies) Music: Living Dead Girl - Rob Zombie (come on now you had to see that coming) Sidekick: Duke Nuke'em (of course he would probably kick my ass for calling him a sidekick)

Re: Pistol Damage Class By Caliber Not really, he had some decent ideas but was quite a jerk which made any kind of discussion frustrating to say the least. In the end not worth it.

Re: Is combat in HERO strategic? Back to the original question, yes HERO has tactical combat. Strategy and tactic confuse many people, all games have strategic combat, not all have tactical combat. Strategy is what you want to accomplish, example destroy the enemy outpost threatening the town of Hamlet. Tactics, how you accomplish the above.

Re: Do you have any "deal breakers" when it comes 6th edition?

Re: Do you have any "deal breakers" when it comes 6th edition? No offense taken from me. Sorry if I misunderstood what you were trying to say.

Re: Do you have any "deal breakers" when it comes 6th edition?