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BoloOfEarth

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  2. NGD Scenes from a Hat

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat

     

    NT: OddHat has had a bad couple of days. How can I make him feel better ? (difficulty: besides sex)

     

    Challenge him to a game of Strip Twister.

     

    (Hey, I can't help it if it leads to sex...)

     

    - - - -

     

    So, yesterday I heard a commercial for (I kid you not) Christmas ornaments commemorating the killing of Osama bin Laden. Which leads me to...

     

    NT: Christmas decorations or gifts that don't quite fit the season.

  3. Create a Villain Theme Team!

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

     

    Like Paradox Timely, Relocator is a bit of a contradiction. He says he's in the "removals" business, in that he removes people from existence in the future. However, he is decidedly not a killer. Instead of stopping someone from existing by killing their ancestors, he goes back to before those ancestors met and simply moves one or both of them elsewhere (or more to the point, elsewhen) so they have no opportunity to meet and have children. He isn't often cruel about it, either -- he typically leaves the displaced people with money appropriate for the time and place he's dumping them, as well as forged identity papers.

     

    Nobody is exactly sure what set of people he's trying to erase or why, and he certainly isn't saying. However, his machinations have occasionally caused changes in the lives of TED personnel.

     

    Relocator has the ability to displace other people in time and/or space by touching them, though sending them far in time and/or space requires more effort. If alerted to danger, he can protect himself by creating a displacement field around him, sending anything (and anybody) touching him slightly into the future (usually five minutes).

     

    [Edit: Note that Relocator can't move himself in time or space, just others. He must rely on others like the Lord of Time to get him when and where he wants to be.]

  4. NGD Scenes from a Hat

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat

     

    And not one person did. SOB !

    Sorry, but I keep getting "You must spread Reputation blah blah blah". If you'd only post good stuff once in a while, this would be so much easier! :winkgrin:

     

    NT: How on earth are the Olsen Twins some of the richest celebraties in the U.S. ?

    They invested their TV and movie earnings heavily in Bain Capital.

  6. Create a Villain Theme Team!

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

     

    Here you go:

     

    The Maestos are 7 theme based villains who share a similar motif. They are all inspired by art. The can be based on particular art movements, particular artists, different media such as sculpture, painting, music, architecture or anything else that would be considered art.

     

    Thus far, there have been 5 members submitted: Rapture, Snap Shot, LivingSculpture, Devin Charlie Webster, and Primo Ballerhino.

  7. Create a Villain Theme Team!

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!

     

    Sarah Reinhoff was a mutant, cursed with rough greyish skin and a horn-like protuberance growing from her forehead. True, she was very tough and strong, but that's not what she wanted to be. She wanted to be soft, lithe, and graceful. She wanted to be a ballet dancer, just like her mother. So she practiced every day, always in private to avoid the insults and teasing from other children. She was sure that if she could get good enough at ballet, people would overlook her physical deformities and see the beauty within her.

     

    Alas, no matter how good a dancer she became, it didn't matter. She mastered ballet, but people continued to denigrate her appearance rather than appreciate her art. The beauty within her began to die, replaced with an all-consuming hatred for others. Eventually, she learned to turn her ballet into a form of combat, leaping and spinning around, high-kicking those who insulted her.

     

    When she heard about the Maestros, Sarah saw them as kindred spirits and sought them out to become their speedster-brick, Prima Ballerhino.

  8. What elements should a great superhero setting contain?

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: What elements should a great superhero setting contain?

     

    Well' date=' its not like shows with costumes haven't been cancelled or "costumeless" shows haven't done well (Smallville, Louis and Clark, Alphas, etc).[/quote']

    Louis and Clark -- weren't they the ones that headed that expedition across the continent to the Pacific with Sacagawea at the start of the 19th century? :winkgrin: Sorry, couldn't resist.

     

    Golden Age already mentioned innocents, but I'd expand that to all NPCs -- a great setting includes a cast of more-than-two-dimensional extras, whether as innocent victims or as competant help or hindrance for the heroes. Some of the best TV shows and movies I've seen have included interesting side characters that were nearly (or sometimes even more) compelling than the main protagonist(s) and antagonist(s). The same applies to RPGs.

     

    In my last Champions campaign, I required each player to provide me names and one-sentence descriptions for five NPCs that his/her character interacts with either frequently or infrequently. Family, friends, coworkers, old college buddies, whatever. This was done with the promise that they wouldn't be regularly endangered and become 0-point DNPCs. They really helped flesh out the world, IMO, and some of them became beloved enough to make very regular apperances.

     

    [Edit: one of my favorite scenes in Lois and Clark was at the end of an episode, where Perry White and Jimmy Olsen are chatting about Lois and Clark's relationship, and IIRC Jimmy says something like, "Do you ever feel like we're just bit players in a story about them?" ]

  10. NGD Scenes from a Hat

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat

     

    NT: Extracts from the speech the turkey' date=' who is spared by the President, gives[/quote']

     

    "After the Revolution, the great American patriot Benjamin Franklin tried to get turkeys named the national bird. Had he been successful, you'd be eating Bald Eagle right now which, you really should know, is not only tastier but also much healthier than cooked turkey." (away from the microphone: "At least, healthier for the turkey.")

     

    NT: Side dishes to go with our Deep-Fried Bald Eagle.

  12. NGD Scenes from a Hat

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat

     

    NT: Subtle signas this is a bad place for your child's school to send him on a field trip.

     

    "Teacher, what does that mean -- 'Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here'?"

     

    NT: The devil has decided to revamp Hell to make it more attractive (at least, to outsiders). What does the new sign out front say?

  16. Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities

     

    I thought we were trying to figure out why sexism may still be a problem in geek culture.

     

    I got the impression that we're not trying to figure out why sexism is still a problem, but rather open people's eyes and minds to this fact (because a sizable percentage of males don't realize, or perhaps don't care, that it is a problem) and maybe in the process figure out how we can reduce sexism as a problem.

     

    There seems to be a fairly large portion of gamers who simply don't know how to act around others. This isn't necessarily sexism. Even if it is, we should not be particularly surprised.

     

    Surprised, no. Disappointed, yes. And if such sexism is being exhibited by a given individual, then: Regretful, yes. Ashamed, yes.

  17. NGD Scenes from a Hat

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat

     

    Two-Face

     

    He did say to stick to fictional characters. However, since yours applies to pretty much *every* politician, we'll give it a pass.

     

    NT: Best supervillain to have as President. Stick to fictional characters' date=' please.[/quote']

     

    Foxbat, naturally.

    NT: Well, Foxbat needs a VP, and unfortunately the Exo-Skeleton Man was born in Canada. So who is it going to be?

  18. Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

     

    I went to U-Con this weekend, had a great time in some fun games. Started out in mudpyr8's d20 Hero Novapunk game, where we started out midway through a "routine" break-in and data-theft. Of course, as soon as we download the data, the alarms go off and the guards show up in an elevator. We quickly dispatch them.

     

    Edge (our Ronin): (OOC) I pick one of the guards, and use my katana to chop off one of his hands and his head.

    GM: All of the security is dealt with by psi-jacks. With him dead, his psi-jack is useless.

    Edge: (just looks at the GM, his entire expression saying, "So?")

     

    Edge doesn't want one of his hands busy carrying the head, so he gives it to Tangent. We go upstairs, where we are met with a dozen guards (6 to either side) and a businessman in a white suit.

     

    Man in White: You have something that doesn't belong to you.

    Tangent: I throw the head at him.

     

    Tangent uses his Code Jacker ability to temporarily stun the Man in White, and Killswitch rushes forward to stick his gun barrel under the MiW's chin.

     

    Killswitch: We're leaving, Colonel Sanders, and you're coming with us.

     

    With this Mexican standoff, our negotiator (.Sig) starts to talk our way out of things.

     

    .Sig: (to the Man in White) Let's go somewhere more comfortable that we can talk. If you're feeling threatened, you can bring some of your guards.

    Edge: (mimicing Killswitch holding his gun barrel to the MiW's chin) Y'know, if you're feeling threatened.

     

    Impressed, the Man in White offers us a job to investigate a South Pacific island that only shows up for a fraction of a second on satellite video, and isn't in any database. We fly a VTOL, overcome an attempt to re-direct us away, and land on the water to see if we can build a better firewall on the VTOL's autopilot. As we're floating there, a pteradactyl flies up. A fight ensues, and the pteradactyl is dispatched. As it is in a death-dive into the ocean...

     

    .Sig (to Edge): I'd get as far away as possible if I were you, before that thing hits and explodes.

    Edge: Explodes?!

    .Sig: I know that I'd load my pteradactyl with explosives.

     

    We reach the island to learn that we are completely cut off from The Machine (the world-wide networks, internet, etc.). So, no GPS available.

     

    Edge: I take out my knife and start marking trees as we're walking along.

    .Sig: My dog marks trees.

    Edge: It doesn't have a GPS either.

     

    Unfortunately, I was having too much fun to write down more quotes, except for the following:

     

    Killswitch: I wish you guys would stop telling fate how to kill us.

     

    - - - - - -

     

    My next game, Saturday morning, was a Car Wars game. I'm apparently the only player to sign up, and am talking to the GM while we wait for anybody else to show up. He's got it set up pretty neat, with modified scale-model cars with turrets, guns, and missile launchers glued on, and burned out building models scattered over the table. If you're not familiar with the game, it's set in the near future, where gasoline is rare and nearly all vehicles are plastic-armored and run on batteries, so they're somewhat slower than we're used to. Oh, and as the name implies, frequently travel is punctuated by battles between cars. There's even car battles for sport.

     

    I'm talking to the GM about the last time I played a Car Wars game at a convention -- over 20 years ago.

     

    Me: It was an arena-type race, and one of the players was a complete newbie, so my friend and I were explaining the rules and helping him figure out what to do. Everything was going great and everyone was having a fun time.. at least, until the GM pulled out this gasoline-powered, nitrous-enhanced vehicle with a steel ram plate. It was a complete Mary Sue thing, he just started smashing through everybody. Took out three cars himself, and was heading for the newbie. After the GM rammed and took out the newbie, my friend, who had been keeping track of the damage the ram-vehicle had done each time, asked, "How much front armor does that thing have?" When the GM told him, my friend said, "So that last ramming breached your front armor. And since it's a gasoline engine, you have to roll for fire, right?" The ram vehicle not only ended up on fire, it exploded, and all of us players posthumously awarded the kill to the newbie.

     

    (The GM smiles politely but doesn't say a thing. Shortly after, he quietly removes a pickup truck from the table... and I notice it has a ram plate glued to the front. I mean, what are the freakin' chances?)

     

    - - - - - -

     

    Next was Avengers vs. Mayan Gods. I played Thor, working alongside Black Widow and Iron Man. Two other players played Mayan gods Kukulkán (the serpent god) and Wayep (god of darkness, cold, and mischief). Iron Man's player did a good job of not only playing Tony Stark's snarkiness; he also did a fair job of imitating his voice from the movies.

     

    When we arrive, all power (including cars, radios, etc.) is not working. Not thinking of this, Thor is looking for a taxi.

     

    GM: You'd think the storm god could "hail" someone...

     

    After we meet up with the Mayan gods, Kukulkán is talking to Thor when Iron Man interjects something.

     

    Kukulkán: Be silent, mortal! Your betters are speaking! (smashes Iron Man aside with his tail, sending him flying)

    Thor: How dare thee harm my companion! (smashes Kukulkán with his hammer, sending him flying)

    Kukulkán: (gets up, brushes himself off) I did warn him to be silent. And can you honestly say you have not been tempted to do likewise yourself?

    Thor: (long pause) True...

  20. NGD Scenes from a Hat

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat

     

    New Topic: Notorious supervillains and their 'guilty pleasure' songs.

     

    Lex Luthor really loves dancing to "Gangnam Style". Actually, when all his underlings join in, it looks pretty cool.

     

    New Topic: Dancing With the Stars has found a way of bringing fictional characters to life to be their new stars next season. Who will they use?

  23. NGD Scenes from a Hat

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat

     

    NT: Signs the people where you live are weather weenies. E.g., here in Seattle, it's 44F at 0930 and people are complaining that it's cold.

    As soon as the first snowflake falls in Michigan, everybody begins whining about when spring will arrive. Oh, and they forget how to drive in the snow. Every frickin' year. With all this brain damage, you'd think this was Ohio or something. :winkgrin:

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