RJB

THIS is what I want it to look and sound like

Re: Items of myth and legend It's that last one that most intrigues me. Imagine your PC is approached by a government agent and his hot-babe daughter. He tells you that he wants you to find a piece of the true cross. After you get done laughing, you politely explain that enough pieces have been found of the "true" cross to build a ship. The agent responds that he found such a piece and used it to cure his hot babe daughter of smallpox. Unfortunately, it was lost in Cairo and is possibly now in the hands of Axis agents. The agent points out the military applications of the cross. Wounded soldiers can be instantly healed so that they can go back to the front lines and kill again and again. This makes hot babe slightly uncomfortable. Nevertheless, she asks for your help. The plot twist here is that hot babe still has the piece. She is working for the germans, but wont give it to anyone except Hitler himself. It's pure ego and greed on her part that will make kill any german agent that tries to take it before then, while tricking your character into getting her safely into Berlin. How you want to end it is up to you.

Re: How to portray alcoholism... Simple enough. Look up dependance in Fred. Substitute some other cha for stun and decide how quickly you want those points back. Only problem with this is that it means your character would only be functional when he's drunk. Is this what you wanted? If not you might want to treat it as a psych lim.

Re: Time Traveller in 1928 Is anyone taking this hoax seriously? I mean even if you want to dismiss the fact that there were no satelites in 1928, do you seriously expect me to believe that a time traveler/actress would cover themselves up on a bright sunny day and then walk right in front of a camera!? A time traveller taking the effort to hide his identity wouldnt do something so stupid, and NO actress would cover her face in front of a camera in Hollywood. This is beyond stupid.

Why am I reviving an old thread? Two reasons. First, Im in the hospital with pneumonia and Im bored. Second, when I argued I naturally advocated for my hero, as others did for theirs. It made for a lively, contentious debate, but did it reach any truths everyone could agree on? I dont think so. So I decided to compare the two men using only facts that have to be true. And let me be clear about this. Their respective deeds mean nothing. Doc and Bruce are known and measurable quanties. Their foes are not. Ever see the episode of Mythbusters where they try to find out how much force it takes to knock out a polar bear? And you never will. BIRTH AND EARLY TRAINING Doc is trained from birth,and could even have benefited from pre-natal therapy. Not impossible. He grows up to be aprox 6'8'', and is trained in numerous arts, sciences, physical fitness, and combat abilities. He gets the right amount of study, the right amount of exercise, and the right amount of sleep which keeps his mind sharp and immune system finely tuned. He is far ahead of Bruce Wayne in training. But dont count Bruce out! He would approach training with a single-minded fanatical obsession that would intimidate Captain Ahab! Reasoned training is no match for freaking nuts motivation. Bruce could and likely did learn more and train harder than Doc and by the time they are adults, Bruce might not have the same education, but probably had the same physical body (they did similar work) with the only difference being height. So who is better in a fight? PHYSICAL PROWESS: STRENGTH AND AGILITY So who is stronger? Doc has greater height=greater mass=more muscle. Doc wins. End of story. Dont count Bruce out though. Youve seen this before: Batman is in a warehouse facing tommy-gun wielding crooks. What happens? He charges, they shoot, he reaches them without EVER being shot, and kicks butt. Never fails. Doc on the other hand wears bullet proof clothing. Why? Because he knows he cant dodge a bullet. Doc would raise his hands and surrender and hope for an oppurtunity. Doc would have excellent reflexes, but Bruce Wayne has a reaction time that is barely even human. So how might they do in a cage match? Bruces superior speed means he goes first and hits every time. Doc would be able to retaliate and hit most of the time. Docs superior body could take more damage, which is good for him beause he WOULD be taking more damage due to Bruces speed. Who wins? at this point its too close to call. So what about training? Tactics Doc Savage knows boxing, wrestling, brawling, judo, and has a knowledge of anatomy that allows him to do everything from paralyzing a limb to the vulcan nerve pinch. Batman was basicly a boxer until the mid seventies when DC decide to cash in on the Bruce Lee craze, and insisted that Batman was one of the great martial artists. In the style in which he is portrayed, it doesnt seem like it. There are punches and kicks and throws. He has been know to 'karate chop' people by surprise to bring them down, and blocks very well. But give him the benefit of the doubt. Let us say that he has learned every martial art skill known. So we have two martial artists, each of whom have a skill the other cant match. So who wins? Batman has the advantage. With his superior speed, he goes first. If he can drop Doc immediately its game over. If he cant, he would face a retaliatory strike that, while perhaps not as skillful, would hit exactly the right place for maximum effect. Speculation So in a cage match, who wins? If I were a bookie I would give Batman 6-5 for the first five rounds. If it isnt over by then its Doc 8-7 as his superior physique would wear Batman down. One other thing. Doc has no weaknesses. Batman has one Achilles heel and its a big one. If Doc ever got hold of that cape... Comments are welcome!

Re: Pulparize It! Its a gorilla. It wantw white women. End of story.

Ooh, I am in such a good mood! I have downloaded the complete Street and Smith Doc Savage, and in another 20 minutes I will have the complete Shadow as well! With such pulpiness at my disposal I can (Dare I say it??) rule the world! I only have to read and memorize them all first... Let's see, 181 DS + 376(?) S / one novel memorized every two days = Hmm. Can I get back to you on that 'rule the world' thing? Say in 2-3 years? BTW, if anybody wants a file, just PM me and I will happily email it to you as an attachment. I think this is an excellent way to promote interest in these characters and aquire willing henchmen while I am at it.

Re: instead of Flying Cars, how about Flying Tanks? That is so awesome! I must use them in a pulp adventure! Yes! A grand pulp adventure that will put hair on the chest of any who are fortunate enough to read it, are past puberty, and are (hopefully) male. Here goes: In 1884, as faithfully recorded by ace reporter J. Verne, a man named Robur tried to conquer the world with his flying machine 'The Albatross'. He tried again in 1904 with his new flying machine 'The Terror'. And now, in present day 1924, the Skymaster has announced that he is actually Robur the Conquerer and is threatening to unleash flying tanks on the governments of the world unless they acknowledge him as absolute Master Of The World! But wait! Skymaster's base is a dirigible, and Robur is well known for his hatred of lighter than air machines? What is going on? What is going on It's not Robur. It's not Skymaster either. It's one of Robur's engineers who, after Robur's demise, secured the plans to a device powered by the mystery element radium!! The device produces unlimited electricity, but was abandoned by Robur because it also produced tremendous heat, far too much to use in an aircraft. The engineer had different ideas. By using it to superheat helium, he could create a dirigible that could lift the extra weight of the flying tanks, fly to heights unreachable by other aircraft, and the lifegiving rays of the radium (as harmless as sunshine!) keeps everyone toasty warm in the freezing stratosphere! It's up to your players to solve the mystery and defeat this madman!

Re: So....Dynamite jumps into The Phantom's boots..... So he's the last Phantom? I got some advice for him: Get laid ya weiner! If all your ancestors could do it, why can't you? What, you been taking steroids or something? I suppose that would explain the 'roid rage cover.

Re: Conan: The Current Movie in Progress..... meh. I have little faith in hollywood to do anything right. I will just wait for the animated version of Red Nails.

Re: Fantasy Hero vs Pulp Hero pfft. You two missed the point entirely. It's not about who can beat who, it's about slobby-drooling at buxom wenches while some elf composes a 3,000 verse song about how he feels about it. For great fantasy, give me 'Red Nails'. For a sure fire cure for insomnia give me 'The Two Towers' and a warm glass of milk.

Brightly Rosewater: Greetings! I am Brightly Rosewater, half-elven heir to the emerald petal throne of far-off Grjhosdfghj. My debating opponent is Gronads the Uncouth. Say hello, Gronads! Gronads: grunt Brightly Rosewater: That will have to do, I suppose. In any case, our debate today will be about the relative merits of Tolkenian high fantasy (grand scale struggles of good and evil with elves! Yay!) vs the pulp fantasy that was typical of the 1930s (bar fights and buxom wenches! No elves! Boo!) As I am far more articulate, I shall begin. High fantasy's treatment of women is to put them safely on a pedestal and out of harm's way, not slobby-drooly lusting after them while they're entangled in some tentacle monster! I say...yaaaarrrgh! OMFG!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!! Help! Help! Gronads is eating my liver! Get him off! Get him off! NOOOO!!!! Gronads: Anybody got any onions? Due to technical difficulties, our debate ends here.

Re: Nazi Germany's Secret Plan to Bomb New York On second thot, Ian was right about the acceleration: The Amerika Bomber "It would have burned an on-board load of fuel weighing about 90 tons," notes historian Geoff Steele, "and pitched up to about a 60-degree climb angle and remained under powered flight for approximately 3 to 4 minutes until the fuel was exhausted." At that point the vehicle would pitch over, and because of its forward speed and centripetal force, would go into what is in effect a low-Earth orbit at approximately 115 to 120 mile altitude. Unfortunately, to achieve 12,000mph in 4 minutes would mean accelerating 50 miles/sec! German engineers would surely have known this, so I think the history channel doesnt know what its talking about. BTW, that kind of velocity is just plain (plane?) wrong. Escape velocity is 5300mph, so something going that fast would not only achieve orbit, it would go flying into outer space. This is just sloppy research on somebody's part.

Re: Nazi Germany's Secret Plan to Bomb New York Ok, am I reading this wrong? Because it sounds to me like the boosters were meant to get the vehicle up to 12,000mph and then the ship flew on its own The Amerika Bomber The sled would have been powered with up to 15 of the V2 engines developed by another German engineer, Wernher von Braun. So the sled would have had to contain tankage for large amounts of fuel, to power the plane that was attached to it at speeds of up to 12,000 miles per hour. As the bomber reached a point near the end of the track, the vehicle would pull away from the jet-powered sled. It would remain unpowered for just a few moments before an on-board engine would kick in.

Re: Running a Dark Golden Age? This isnt so far-fetched. Characters like the Shadow, the Spider, the Phantom and Mandrake the Magician could as easily been done in the 20s. Your opponents would be communists, mad scientists, renegade German monarchists, Chinese (there was a lot of predjudice against the Chinese in the pulps), and South American revolutionaries. There are two cartoons you really ought to see for inspiration if nothing else: Superman- The Mad Scientist. First superman cartoon with a 'mad scientist' who bore a resemblance to Nikolai 'for the birds' Tesla. Jonny Quest- The Devil's Tower. There is no reason the bad guy couldn't have been a WWI criminal instead of a WWII one.

Re: Nazi Germany's Secret Plan to Bomb New York Its funny. I planned to do a write up of the Amerika bomber- the one that goes down a rail- until I tried to figure out the velocities involved. This is total bullcrap. This plane was supposed to achieve 12,000mph on what, a 2 mile runway? The acceleration required would not only pancake the crew, it would probably rip the wings off. If the history channel says the germans were seriously working on this, then one of them, either the germans or the history channel, had their heads located in an unfortunate place.

Here's a wealth system I devised for my own campaign: MONEY & Gadgets From pg15 of Pulp Hero: "...the gm must make sure the player doesn’t abuse his wealth to the detriment of the game" Baloney. Only a no-good vodka swilling bolshevik commie would tell a man he can’t spend his money any way he wants to. In this campaign, money can cost serious points, but you can do whatever you like with whatever you have! The amount of money you start with is based on a 2 week paycheck. For the ordinary character, it means you have $200 to spend on equipment for this adventure. Cash does not accumulate from adventure to adventure, and neither does equipment. If you don't spend any points on wealth, you will only have $200 worth of cash/equipment to start with. If you do spend points on wealth, you not only start with extra cash, but you get an equal number of free points to buy vehicles, bases, followers, or gadgets (SEE GADGETS) with. Note that you can buy these with cash as well as points, but the extra points give you some flexibility. 2pts= $400 12pts= $4000 22pts= $40,000 32pts=$400,000 4pts= $800 14pts= $8000 24pts= $80,000 34pts=$800,000 6pts= $1200 16pts= $12000 26pts= $120,000 36pts=$1,200,000 8pts= $1600 18pts= $16000 28pts= $160,000 38pts=$1,600,000 10pt= $2000 20pts= $20000 30pts= $200,000 40pts=$2,000,000 GADGETS Gadgets is a perk added to wealth. With this the player may have a limited number of free gadgets that may change during the game. The cost is: 20pts State Of The Art- The character may build anything that existed in the campaign timeline ie. if it's 1920, then the character may make anything that existed in 1920. Takes 5 hours to buld anything. 30pts Visionary- Like state of the art, but the character may build gadgets from up to 30 years in the future. Takes 24hrs and requires a lab. 40pts Genius- Like state of the art, but the character may build gadgets from up to 60 years in the future. Takes a week and requires a lab. 50pts Mad Genius- Build anything! Takes a month and always requires something that an NPC has and won't part with. FINANCIAL GENIUS Financial Genius allows you to start with a year income instead of a two week paycheck, so multiply any of the above amounts by 25. Furthermore, the number of points spent entitle you to an equal amount of points in vehicles, followers, bases and gadgets each. WEALTH EXAMPLES Kirk Mcguyver has 10pts of wealth and state of the art (20pts). He is trapped on an island with Hermann von Lizard. Using his gadget skill he invents a cannon out of a log, saltpeter, charcoal and rocks, and blasts Hermann to smithereens. Prof. Nutz is a Mad Genius (50pts) with precious little money (4pts $800). He may buy up to 4pts of vehicles, bases, followers or, sadly, gadgets. Debbie Dillitente spent 10 points on wealth and bought Financial Genius. Total cost is 30 points. Debbie gets $50,000 and 30pts of followers, 30pts of vehicles, and 30pts of bases. Doc Branz bought the maximum wealth allowed in this game (60 pts), and Genius (40pts). He gets: $50,000,000 4x 150pt followers (100 base and 50 disads) (cost 30pts) 20 pts of various followers 60 pts worth of various vehicles A base the size of a skyscraper (13pts) Another (smaller) base hidden in some arctic wilderness (13pts) 34pts worth of property in various parts of the world A war surplus U-boat $450,000 A dirigible $2,500,000 60pts of gadgets Because the U-boat and Dirigible were bought with cash, Doc starts each adventure with only $47,050,000 for as long as he wants to keep them available. Hope you find this useful, or at least entertaining.

Re: The Great Movie Serials: any favorites? Hee Hee! You've obviously never seen it! Google it and see if you cant find a video of it. It's fun and it will rot your mind! A winning combo!

Re: The Great Movie Serials: any favorites? *cough* J-Men Forever *cough*

A long, LONG, time ago when hero products still came in boxes and comics cost less than a buck (yes, THAT long ago) a number of game systems tried the 'programable adventure' format. For the younger among you, it worked like this: read a numbered paragraph, make a decision, then go to the specified paragraph. In short, the book was the GM, and the reader the player. Hero did this twice, once in Champions and once in Justice Inc. Should it be revived? Where I am (western Montana) there are no hero players at all, let alone Pulp players, and pbem just doesn't do it for me. Too darn slow. Who wants to try? I'll go first: Make a 100pt character. How you make it is irrelevant. When you are done, go to #5. #1 Roll your damage dice. If it is enough to stun Petrie, you escape from the table. now you may: Beat the crap out of Petrie Go to #6 Put him on the table and throw the switch! Now YOU take it Petrie! Go to #7 #2 The blinding pain from the proceedure drives you mad and causes you to go into cardiac arrest. You die. The end. #3 PULP HEROES DO NOT BEG!! Go to #2 ya pantywaist! #4 It is incredibly painful. Make an ego roll. If you fail, go to #2. If you succeed, go to #8 #5- You wake up. You remember the drinking and the sharp blow to the back of the head, but not much else. Looking around, you realize you've been in worse fixes, but you can't remember when off hand. You are strapped to an operating table. To your left is a tray filled with surgical instruments. Above you is some kind of ray device. To your right is Dr. Jennings Petrie. "HA HA! At last you are awake! Good! EXCELLENT!! It would be useless to turn you from man into superman without testing your pain threshold while we're at it! Prepare yourself! A boundless future of wonder awaits you, if the pain doesnt drive you mad as it has so many others!" Dr. Petrie starts turning on his machine. You must make a quick decision! Your legs are still free! Give him a good swift kick and go to #1 You think you can get your left hand free to throw the surgical instruments at Petrie. Make a dex roll. If you succeed, Petrie takes 1d6 killing. If he takes 4 or more BOD, he will retreat, and you are free. Give yourself an experience point. If you fail your dex or he takes 3 or less Bod, go to #2 Beg for mercy! Go to #3 Lay back and enjoy the ride! Go to #4 #6 Petrie blubbers and cowers like the lily livered ivory tower coward he is! You give him a thrashing he will never forget! Give yourself an experience point. #7 It worked! Petrie is a genius! The ray adds 10 to all his base stats, and these increase his fig stats! He is, however, even madder than before and wants to eat you. As he rushes you, he knocks something over and starts a fire. With the flames rising around you, the two of you fight like maddened beasts! Roll the battle! If you beat him in less than two turns, go to #9 If it takes longer than two turns, or if you lose, go to #10 #8 You feel the rush of millions of cells dividing, multiplying in your body as you become bigger, stronger, faster! Petrie's eyes nearly bug out of his head as you lift him by the throat with one mighty hand and go to #6 #9 Choking and nearly half blind, you make it outside and turn to watch the lab go up in flames. Surely, nobody could have survived that! Give yourself an experience point. #10 You burn to death. The end. I did all this off the top of my head in about 10 minutes. I can do something much longer, but I wonder if the forum will allow it. Let me know what you think!

Re: Shane Black directing and writing Doc Savage film. Sorry, but I'm not buying this. Too many films get lost in Development Hell for me to get worked up over this. Let them cast it, then I will believe.

Re: A Robert E. Howard moment..... There's an old saying: Never bring a knife to a gunfight. Kane has pistols. Kane wins.

Re: Tac-nukes vs. Nuclear Warheads Hi guys! Former CBR Spec here. I think you call it NBC these days. Let me give you a simple, practical formula for determing damage and range. First, Range: The rule is that 10x the yield = double the radius. So if the Hiroshima blast (12.5KT) had a radius of 3.5 miles, then 125KT = 7miles, 1.25MT = 14miles and so on. Next, Damage: As nukes are measured in tons of TNT, lets go to pg72 of Golden Age Champions. One pound of TNT is listed as doing 8d6, with each double of weight adding +2d6. From this we can extrapolate that your average suitcase-sized tactical nuke (say 1.25KT) would do 50d6 over a range of 1.75miles (1400"). The range multiple would be -1d6/28". A Hiroshima sized bomb would be 57d6(aprox) over an area of 2800" so the mutiple should be -1d6/49" A typical fusion device (lets make it 12.5MT just to save me the headache) would do 77d6 over 22400" which is -1d6/291" As for the bomb effects, these can be dealt with in very simple terms. The first thing that happens is the flash which crispy fries you. Assuming you're still alive, the next thing that happens is the air, superheated from the fireball and expanding at supersonic speed, blasts you to bits. This is easily recreated by simply assuming that the d6 damage is a heat explosion and the wind is double knockback. So how would it all work? Let's presume some nut explodes his suitcase bomb in a city. How would it affect an armored wall at ground zero, an armored car a half mile away, and Joe Normal one mile away. The Wall: With a 13Def and 7Bod it is totally vaporized along with anything on the other side of that wall. Nothing but shadows, folks. The Armored Car: At 400" distance, the blast would lose 14d6. As 8 of these dice are likely to be 6s, the remainder is likely to add up to 30Bod. As the Armored Car has 8Def and 18Bod, this means it's still melted, along with anyone/anything inside. If you want to allow that the vehicle isn't totally destroyed until it's lost twice its body, then the knockback (60-7avg=53") will likely do another 26d6 damage to it. This will be enough to leave the car scattered all over the road. Joe Normal: At 800", Joe takes a paltry 22d6. 8 of these dice are likely to be 1s, so Joe is likely to be hit by a 14Bod blast (Notice I'm not bothering with stun here?). Joe has a 2ED and 10Bod so the blast leaves him at negative 2Bod. The knockback (28-7avg=15") does another 7d6 to him and reduces his body to -7. Amazingly, Joe could live through this if he gets immediate medical attention. Hope you find this useful. BTW: Let's do a neutron bomb too. A neutron bomb is a fusion bomb with it's outer packet of plutonium removed, so there's no fusion. The practical result is that you get a 1KT size physical explosion, while the area that normally would be affected by a 10KT explosion gets turned into an outdoor microwave oven. Nothing protects from this, not even tank amor, which is why the Soviets were so pissed about it back during Reagan's 'Evil Empire' days. In game terms, it would look like: 50d6ex -1/28" if non-organic. If organic, then it's 50d6 -1/56" NND. Just roll the dice once and remove as many dice as needed for each target. No extra knockback for organic targets. In the case of the above examples (wall, car and Joe), the wall and car take exactly the same damage and knockback. Joe takes 28Bod and is fried. Were all three objects each 2 miles away from the blast, the wall and car would be completely unaffected, but Joe would still take 13Bod.

Re: Empire State Building Both are absolutely correct. Check Wikipedia.

Re: WWYCD: Registration Payback Dr. Fiend says: Once again Foxbat proves himself to be the fool supreme! An oppurtunity to have a database of the strengths, weaknesses, even identities of those costumed do-gooders, and he wants to oppose it! And he has involved others! Can his mindlessness actually be contagious!? Sycophantic Assistant #3432, contact Thunderbird and offer him anything to have Foxbat sanctioned!