Haerandir

Re: Elves It's been my observation that many people say they hate elves, when what they mean is that they hate "that guy who just absolutely has to play an elf in every single game/setting/campaign and who just won't shut up about how cool they are, and you get sick of listening to him, but he's been in your gaming group for 15 years and he's still playing the same damn character he was playing in 8th grade, only cheezier, and it'd be pathetic if it weren't starting to get a little creepy." The actual Elves themselves are largely innocent, but get caught in the crossfire.

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread I'm pretty much with Lord Mhoram. Of course, I prefer that mechanics and SFX have SOME nodding acquaintance with one another... But such things are usually easier to adjudicate on a case-by-case basis.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Whereas I am partial to El Vago. And fencing. I've got a few fencing medals around here somewhere, from when I wasn't old and fat.

Re: Old Thread and Astro-City As far as my favorite goes, if it came down to a no-holds-barred steel-cage grudge match between Tarnished Angel and Confession, I'm not sure which would win. However, I've made a Steeljack tribute character (Brass Knuckles), so I suspect that's which way I would lean.

Re: Julian May I was thinking about that today, myself. Personally, I don't favor the notion of using a Disadvantage to model that particular sort of thing. I find that it either winds up feeling like you're giving a player points for playing a weak operant (as opposed to a latent), or you assign a whopping Phys. Lim. to Latents and then are stuck with relatively limited granularity for your sub-levels of operancy. I'd prefer to make players pay points to be good at metapsychic stuff, and just create a Talent or something to represent 'metapsychic potential' and forbid people to increase it after character creation. Unless Culluket the Interrogator starts to torture them, or something.

Re: Julian May You know, I've loved those books since I was in middle school, and I've read them all multiple times. I've often thought of doing writeups of the characters and the setting, originally in GURPS terms, later in HERO. But I never have. I'm not surprised that no one else seems to have, either... It's a daunting task. There is an awful lot going on in those books. I mean, you've got hundreds of characters to consider, in 3 distinct time/place loci, with something like 10 sentient races, vast mental powers, psychology, theology, mythology, philosphy, physics, metaphysics, paleontology, advanced technology... Sure, there's no need to work it all out, but I find that every time I sit down and start thinking about what I'd like to cover, I get caught up in considering trivia like, "What do the Krondaku actually look like?" or "So, when you use the creative metafaculty to turn yourself into a dragonfly, are you really a dragonfly?" Then after an hour or so of that, it's time to go to work or something. *sigh* Someday!

Re: How's the Turakian Age working out for you? A more-pretentious-than-usual Elf.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... That's even cooler than the Inn of Vast Repute franchise.

Re: 6000 non NGD posts. Case in point: You're still talking. Another Marvel characteristic!

Re: 6000 non NGD posts. Oh, good, I was right. I had just pressed the button when I felt a disturbance in the basic forces of the universe. I thought I might have overplayed my hand. Must have been just a random critical shift, though.

Re: 6000 non NGD posts. Which is why I feel fairly secure.

Re: 6000 non NGD posts. Yeah, well, *I* remember, back before the Multiversal Critical Inversion Crossover, when you were 'the Wichitaer'. Your super-power was that you were from Wichita, KS. The universe was a pretty silly place back then. Thank Kang for time travel!

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Close, but it should probably be 'El Muerto Rojo'. Of course, Spanish IV was, what, 15 years ago? I'm probably off, too.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Saying Goodbye AGain - Rollins Band

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Dude! Beholders don't bash doors, they disintegrate them! This one clearly was not playing with a full duck.

Re: Top Five vs The Unknown Menace! The Fantastic Four + Dr. Strange. The FF are actually a really good, well-rounded, versatile, experienced team. Throw in Stevie because you need a backup deus ex machina in case something happens to Reed, and you're good to go.

Re: character design help, please (long) I think you've been too quick to dismiss Multiform. Assuming your 'powered' form doesn't exceed whatever the standard character value for your campaign is, you don't need to pile on Disads. It's a touch tricky, if you want your 'normal human' form to be a perfectly average joe, but it can be done. Assuming a standard superhero character (200 base + 150 Disads), design the 350 point 'powered' character you want, with the usual gamut of Disads, crazy powers and characteristics, etc. Then design the 'normal human' form, shooting for around 275 total points. Of course, a 275-pt. 'normal human' is pretty impressive, but no one says you have to spend those points efficiently. Don't be afraid to sink points into Skills, Perks, Talents, equipment and so on, particularly if you can think of reasons why the character wouldn't have access to those resources in 'powered' form (Contacts are limited to the Secret ID, powered form doesn't need Combat Luck, doesn't carry a gun or ride a motorcycle, etc.) Then, spend the last 75 points on "Multiform to 350-pt. character, 1 Hour-Long Fuel Charge (+0)." Voila! Just what you were looking for, and you've got the same amount of points in Disads you would have had, anyway. With a character like this, many Disads (especially Psych Lims) are going to be identical between the two characters, though you may have to get creative with identity-specific Disads like Secret Identity or Distinctive Features. Things like Skills will generally port over, too, though there can be some variation, depending on exactly how much (or if) the transformation affects the character's personality and mental capacity. Of course, the only reason this rigmarole is necessary is the time limit on the powered form. If it was just a case of saying 'Shazam' and turning into a superhero, you'd designate the super as the 'true form' and have him dump 5 or 10 points into buying your puny mortal form. But such is the cost of having a clever character concept...

Re: Looking for help - stealth suit powers? Some thoughts while I'm at work... Hmm... Let's see... Clinging would be good, lets you do classic spy stuff like climb sheer surfaces, cling to ceilings, that sort of thing. I can see it working several ways, SFX-wise... Magnetic grapnel boots, retractable climbing claws, super-advanced quick-decaying adhesives... Likewise, a swingline might make sense. Um... Invisible to HRRP is a good start, but you might want to extend it to include the entire Radio Sense Group (I believe that, as written, you'd still show up on radar)... Likewise, you could buy Invisibility to the Sight Group w/ Bright Fringe, for cameleon camoflage, or Predator-style light-warping. Clairsentience with an Inobvious Accessible Focus, and Expendable Charges, to represent bugs... Oohh! You need explosives. Some sort of Delayed Effect EB or RKA, perhaps.

Re: When/If/How It's a shame, because there was a spate of good Westerns (Unforgiven, et al.) a few years back... But it seems to have dried up about the same time HERO rose phoenix-like from its pyre.

Re: Psionic metal? As near as I can tell, Vibranium does everything, except for the things it doesn't do.

Re: Anatomy of a diorama I agree that it's illogical and silly. That's the point. It's not a clearly-reasoned position, it's an attempt to avoid lawsuits. Nothing at all stops me from going out and purchasing poisonous pigments and putting them on a Bloodthirster. But, anything marketed as 'for painting toy soldiers' is a 'toy' and thus falls into the category of 'may come into contact with toddlers'. Whether it's particularly likely or not, and whether the toddlers should be allowed near the item in question or not. Thus my comment about the general spikiness being a more immediate concern.

Re: Anatomy of a diorama There is also the ever-present fear that someone's three-year-old will decide to gnaw on their Daddy's Bloodthirster of Khorne, and come down with a terminal case of arsenic poisoning. Or something. Of course, once it gets to that point, one would think that the sheer spikiness of your average Bloodthirster would be a more pressing issue.

Re: City of Heroes: Freedom Phalanx Yeah, that's the comics in question. It was in the first Top Cow story arc that States became "a complete and utter pr#ck". I only read the first few issues, since that was about the time I canceled my game subscription, but I have to agree that Statesman in those issues was portrayed as being... a tad abrasive.

Re: [CHAR] Uncle Samedi If I was feeling REALLY ambitious, I'd do individual writeups for the Skeletal Soldiers, based on old war movie cliches... I'd have all the ethnic stereotypes... An Irishman, an Italian, a Pole, a Jew, an All-American Farmboy (or maybe a Texan), Frenchie, the Swede... It'd be glorious. It'd also be, you know, work. Bleah...

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities And, sadly, he didn't get to be in the Superfriends cartoon, so he doesn't get to go home using his 'various means of time travel'.