assault

Re: Anywhere but your own country Well, you did ask... This is a setting I'm working on, not one I have run yet. Wonder Boy was active in the 1930s. The Super Hero Club were active in The Future. The Future is, of course, when we have flying cars, colonies on Mars, robots, rayguns, jetpacks and all the other cool stuff we were promised we would have by now. Yes, it's the early 21st Century. In a parallel universe, of course. In more boring campaigns, it's always the present day.

Re: Pulp Era Journalists So, a "Lois Lane" type might have freelanced for the Podunk Herald while she was at college, and worked as a secretary over her summers at the Metropolitan Daily, managed to bring in a couple of scoops, and attracted the attention of the Crusty Editor for her enthusiasm and commitment (and well-turned ankles), becoming a gossip columnist at the ripe old age of 21. A "Clark Kent", on the other hand, is probably more of a freelancer, who managed to wander in off the street with the scoop on the latest Mystery Man. Of course this scoop wasn't dumb luck... He could be about the same age as the "Lois Lane" type, who might be quite annoyed by this hayseed coming out of nowhere "stealing her stories". Finally, of course, there is "The Nephew". Good old Uncle Randolph got you a job as a copyboy. If you take advantage of your opportunities, you will get ahead... One thing I have noticed is that a lot of "foreign correspondents" seemed to have been exactly that - people who wrote letters from overseas. The main requirements seem to have been being on the ground, being literate, and being known by somebody who knows the editor... --- So I think the answer to my question is: a journalist can be any age. While, realistically, older characters are more likely, pulp journalists, especially PCs and special NPCs can be any age you can handwave an origin for. Cool. And now I will admit that this is for a Pulp Champions game, rather than a true Pulp game. I've just worked out how old "Clark Kent" could have been in 1938...

Re: WWYCD if a supers-eating wave swept reality?

Re: Pulp Era Journalists Hmm... I found this link: http://www.courierpostonline.com/125anniversary/carty.html I'll keep digging.

I've been thinking about creating a couple of journalist characters. What I would like assistance with is how they would have become journalists. While at least one school of journalism existed during the Pulp era, it appears that most journalists learned the trade some other way. Googling various historical journalists has provided some hints, but very few have their early careers outlined in useful detail. Basically, what I like are people's opinions on what would be the youngest age at which it would be plausible for a character to be a journalist at a major metropolitan newspaper (New York Times equivalent), and the shortest path by which they could have got there. Any thoughts, comments, links, whatever, are welcome.

Re: WWYCD: A spooky ghost Let's split up and look for clues!

Re: Anywhere but your own country

Re: Anywhere but your own country I'd have to go for the USA, just for the chuckle value.

Re: WWYCD if a supers-eating wave swept reality? A Super-Eating wave? It sounds like a job for Tenzil Kem!

Re: WWYCD: A Bomb for Two Cities Ah. I get it. You're speaking Yoda's dialect. Understand you do I.

Re: Help me name my team; Part Three: Australia Grey Falcon

Re: Not quite a WWYCD: YWUA your PC... Well, Assault is pretty close to invulnerable, so I'd be fine. On the other hand, if he found himself in my body, he could be in serious trouble... I'd probably be a bit more tentative than him, until I was exactly sure what it felt like to not be damaged by normally fatal stuff. Then, assuming it wasn't too unpleasant, I might start enjoying it...

Re: WWYCD: Registration It makes more sense once you remember that "Villiage" is actually spelt "Village". Madness is optional.

Re: Okay Class: Make me a Fighter. I haven't got time to stat him out at the moment, but here is a character concept I am rather fond of: The Fisherman This character sits on the border between peasant and pirate. A more powerful version could be a Hidden Heir to a Kingdom. He or she is basically a Viking, although it is easy to modify the character to be from any seafaring culture. (Eg: Heroic Greek, Celtic, feudal/medieval, caribbean buccaneer or whatever). Variants: The Forester: Replace sea related skills with forest/hunting stuff. More powerful versions: the Hidden Heir version can have all the Heroic attributes you would want. This could include things like defensive magic (divine protection or magical blessings), or being a Berserker. Martial arts like wrestling, boxing, brawling, knife fighting and even Pankration are all quite reasonable. Examples: Havelock the Dane http://www.pantheon.org/articles/h/havelock_the_dane.html Perseus http://www.mythweb.com/heroes/perseus/index.html etc etc...

Re: Want to look at my new Map? Yeah. I'm inclined to go artsier. While I might have to resort to a "realistic" GM's map, the only things players would see would be either "things drawn by monks" or "things drawn by working ship's captains". Or detailed local maps, where appropriate. Incidentally, on the map you posted: I was struck by how few forests there were. Was this intentional?

Re: WWYCD: Registration In the new case, my character would be willing to comply as long as he could use a cutout. That is, he would hook up with (form) a team, and allow the government to contact them. No direct contact would be acceptable, but having a team TroubleAlert would be OK, and perfectly functional.

Re: Want to look at my new Map? I'm kind of sort of considering doing up a fantasy world for myself, and one of the things I have been thinking about is what style of map to use. I don't really want to use a modern style map. They wouldn't exist in the setting, and they don't contain any information that I would want to know about. Then again, there are some very old maps that come close to a "modern" style. So I'm kind of vacillating. To make it worse, I'm not entirely sure what the scope of the campaign would be. Once you have sea travel happening, the game can spread out very quickly. Even an enclosed, Mediterranean-style sea requires a huge amount of land surrounding it, which needs to be at least roughly sketched out. Limiting the scope doesn't help much either. It requires extra detail in the local area, and you still need at least some notion of what is "out there" in the wilder world. (Incidentally, for a fine example of a localised campaign, I would suggest the old ICE Robin Hood book, one of the old dual-statted Hero and Rolemaster Campaign Classics series. The "Hero" stats would need to be carefully reviewed and revised, of course, since they are actually 1st Edition Fantasy Hero stats, IIRC.) Anyway, what kind of map styles have people used in the past, and what has worked best?

Re: WWYCD in the event of an approaching army

Re: WWYCD in the event of an approaching army So... these civilians don't know how to fight... Why not? It doesn't matter. If there are any significant number of males of military age, my character will offer to teach them how to form a shield-wall. If not, he advises them on the best way of hiding. If there are a bunch of men who could fight, but aren't willing to, well, they're not his problem.

Re: WWYCD - a deal with the devil Assault: "WTF are you talking about? Who are you, and why are you wasting my time? Get out of here before I kick your a**. Clown."

Re: WWYCD: Registration Assuming I had a character who was a US citizen: there is no way they would register. They would mostly continue on as before, assisting in emergencies when required, and not making waves. If anybody started bothering them, they would take a holiday in Cuba for a while. Again. (In my CU, Cuba has "registration", but is also a safe haven for oppressed mutants etc.)

Re: WWYCD trapped in a quarantined, plague-infested city? Assault would wonder why he was having his time wasted... His immunity to disease would make him a natural for working inside the quarantine, but the ridiculously contrived situation with the little girl would be interpreted as GM self-gratification.

Re: WWYCD: The Vanishing!!!??!!! OK, here's Assault's master plan (based on the assumptions in my previous post): 1. Find the Inter-Dimensional Imp. 2. Take him to the pub and get him drunk. 3. Talk him into entering a Karaoke contest. 4. Get him to sing a rousing chorus of "K - L - T - P - Z - Y - X - M!" Thus the world is saved once again. Plan B would involve cupcakes.

Re: WWYCD: "Dude, you stole my shtick!" Assault would carefully check his counterpart for signs of a goatee... And be more careful about shaving himself, just in case HE was the evil twin. Once his mind stopped boggling, though, he would probably go back to Plan B, and invite his counterpart to the pub. If that doesn't work, there's always Plan A: Gratuitous Random Violence.

Re: WWYCD: The Vanishing!!!??!!! It sounds like a case of Inter-Dimensional Imp disease to me... Or whatever other version of powerful Inter-Dimensional entity you prefer.