FireTiger

Re: What happens whena ctuloid monster swallows an elder star? Let's see... I have handy the 4th and 5.5th editions of Call of Cthulhu. The 4th ed. mainly describes the Elder Sign's use in sealing a portal. That was a major theme in Derleth's Trail of Cthulhu stories. (Which also seem to be what the board game Arkham Horror was based on.) 5.5th ed. expands on that, mentioning, that The results of someone (or something) swallowing one would vary a great deal based upon the power level of the critter, I'd think.

Re: Genres HERO GAMES may want to avoid (intended to be humorous) Yep! Originally available as three separate small RPGs; Macho Women With Guns, Renegade Nuns On Wheels, and Bat-Winged Bimbos From Hell. They were later combined in a single volume, and later still released in a D20 incarnation. They're not games meant to be taken the least bit seriously, with skills such as: Cavort About, Hit Things, Run In High Heels, and Shoot Little Guns. Fun, silly, and almost guaranteed to offend someone in any given gaming group.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Black Blade and Monsters by Blue Öyster Cult from Cultosaurus Erectus

Re: Possession The spirit-possession rules from Horror Hero (4th ed.) avoided the problem of size differences, by not giving spirits most of the physical stats. The possession attempt is an opposed EGO check with various modifiers (+2 for being in one's own body, for example). An example creature from the same book is the Possessor Demon. Its powers included Mind Control (for ordering the dominated being's mind around), and a Major Transform (possed being to demonic servant — to gain long-term control). I've not done much with the 5th ed. Ultimate Mentalist yet, but the powers noted in there are rather different from the Spirit-based ones in Horror Hero.

Re: Genres HERO GAMES may want to avoid (intended to be humorous) For those with too much time on their paws...er, hands.... [Cue announcer voice-over] "Does Hero Designer make things too easy for you? Do you miss the glory days of having to make all of the calculations necessary for character creation by hand?" "If so, than do we have the game for you! Yes, you can enjoy that feeling of accomplishment all over again with new Hexadecimal HERO!" "Be sure to keep an eye out for the these first in our exciting line of supplements: Octal HERO and Binary HERO!"

Re: All-in-one box games

Re: Where Can I Find Info On Editions 1-3? Almost. Each genre/setting was still its own game, with its own version of the rules. (Such as the difference in Disad values in Champions and Justice Inc.) The 4th edition is the first to have finally brought the rules into a (more-or-less) cohesive whole.

Re: Superhero Universes, A to Z Unless there were supplements for that one that I never saw (which is entirely possible), Super Squadron (Adventure Simulations, 1983) didn't contain very many details about the world it was set in. It does contain a section covering the Super Squadron version of other realities, though. There was also Supergame (2nd ed., DAG Design, 1982). But that one contains even less information about its campaign world.

Re: Superhero Universes, A to Z There are also lots & lots of short-run stories from various companies that could be considered stand-alone universes. If I dig through my comics, I can probably turn up a number of them, such as: Group Larue. I have a 3-issue series from Innovation, published in 1989. (I don't know just now if it ever went beyond that or not.) This one is about a group of role players who are actually granted the abilities of their characters.

Re: Superhero Universes, A to Z I don't know anything myself about an actual title change for the comic, but with the (seemingly) eternal mess that comic copyrights and trademarks are, such a thing would not surprise me. In the story they originally chose to call themselves the Crusaders, but had to pick a new name when an in-story comic company claimed ownership of the Crusaders name. The Southern Knights name is chosen during an impromptu speech by Kristin after the team defeats the first actual supervillain to appear, Dread. I've a few issues of this one, the Southern Knights. The team was made up of: • Electrode: David Shenk, a comic book fan who came up with his a process that granted him superpowers. • Connie Ronin: An Olympic-class fencer who can create a telekinetic sword that makes those struck with it feel like they've been hit with a real blade, but doing no actual damage. • Dragon: "Mark Dragon." An actual 1,200-year-old dragon that learned a way for dragons to assume human form, but much too late to save any others of his kind. • Kristin: Kristin Austin. A petite blonde who uses no code name, uses gym-shorts & a t-shirt for a costume, and who is strong enough to throw an angry adult dragon across a city street (at least). She also learns that she's bullet-proof the hard way. (When the rest of the team is in need of rescue once in East Berlin, she wins the day with a serious PRE attack: After ripping a heavy metal table to shreds, "If anything happens to my friends...I'll kill you!" pointing a leg of the table a guard. "And you!" pointing at another guard. "I'll kill all of you!" • Aramis Merrow: A sorcerer released by Connie & Kristin as they're exploring the mansion that the team has recently acquired for use as a base. His parents—to protect him from a mob—mystically sealed him within a hidden room in the year 1725. (He gets left behind on one mission because of the difficulties in getting a passport with a date of birth sometime in the early 1700s.) Villains (other than 'regular' criminals) to appear include: • Dread: A scrawny little guy whose only apparent power is to bring one's worst fears to the fore. • Unknown #1: A guy using a suit of power armor designed by David Shenk. • Serpent: Female criminal mastermind. (There are a few hints dropped about her that would seem to imply that Mark isn't the last dragon.) The organization is known as Viper. (Gee, how tough would this one be to use in a Champions game? ) • Morrigan: Goddess escaped from the "retirement home for worshiped deities" who uses a runesword to slay an unknown dragon, adding its life energy to her own (so she's working back up to full power). Other heroes include: • Synergy: A team (?) of four identical female secret agents. (I don't have much info here. I've only one issue that Synergy appears in, and the only abilities displayed are martial arts.) There are probably a lot more along the lines of the above, but I've only the graphic novel and a small scattering of issues.

Re: Superhero Universes, A to Z Yep, that they did... (I should get back to work on translating the powers from that one...)

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Me-262 (Live) by Blue Öyster Cult from Career of Evil: The Metal Years

Re: Superhero Universes, A to Z The Wildcards universe did actually come out of a game, George R. R. Martin's own Superworld campaign. The game had its own universe—of a sort—little was published for it.

Re: Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow I like the film, though I agree it isn't really Pulp, though it is Pulp-ish in its own ways. One of the reasons I liked it is from the nods made in the film to various ideas and works from around the Pulp era. The initial scene with the marching robots draws a lot from the 2nd of the Superman animated shorts: The Mechanical Monsters (1941). Robot #5 from that short even makes an appearance as one of the non-functional machines in storage at Sky Captain's base. Polly's telephone report on the approach of machines over the city takes several lines directly from the radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds (1938). To be specific, the lines are from a radio-announcer's description of the Martian anti-personnel weapon—the Black Smoke—as it approaches his position on the roof of the broadcasting building. The sound effects used for some of the beam weapons employed by the robots comes from sound effects created for the 1953 film version of The War of the Worlds. The sound effect for the Martian heat ray in particular. The line borrowed from The Empire Strikes Back that was used for when Joe & Polly are about to land on the hover-carrier I thought a little out of place, though. The story takes place somewhen in the 1940s, which puts it out of the Pulp-era in general. I think that films like this can provide a bit of inspiration when creating one's own Pulp material, SCatWoT, in particular for runs that emphasize weird science plots. Oh yes, almost forgot this one (pardon me while I drop it into Spoiler tags, just in case): There are probably other tidbits like that in the film, those above are only what I recall having noticed.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Real Genius (TriStar, 1985) The Fifth Element (Columbia, 1997)

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? To Cry You a Song and A Time for Everything by Jethro Tull from Benefit

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? The Chronicles of Amber unabrigded audiobook Nine Princes in Amber performed by Roger Zelazny

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Murder by Death (Columbia, 1976) Shi di chu ma (English title The Young Master) (Golden Harvest, 1980) The Addams Family (Orion, 1991)

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Black Blade by Blue Öyster Cult from Cultosaurus Erectus

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allen Poe from Tales of Mystery and Horror performed by Christopher Lee

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Sighing Innocents by Tanita Tikaram from Ancient Heart

Re: CyberHero Hacked My first machines were an IBM PC-Convertible (which was stolen from me, though I was left with the power supply and software), and a Timex-Sinclair 1600 (which I still have, but needs in internal "ribbon cable" replaced to be fully functional again). Here's another small idea for representing memory... In the Hero System, computer programs are represented by single points, no matter the size or complexity of the program. So maybe buying the computer with some extra "program points" that go unused until a character online needs to carry something extra?

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? The Stan Freberg Show - Episode 14 of 15 (The show never did pick-up a sponsor, which tended to kill shows rather quickly.) Episode Title: Sponsored by Stan Freberg Original Airdate: 13 Oct 1957

Re: [Help] Characters to 5th edition I've not gotten any of the 5th ed. Ultimate books yet, myself. Since the version of "1 Turn for +2" was found in Ultimate Energy Projector, that is probably where it came from originally. (Lots of bits & pieces from other books were added to the Character Creation Handbook.) I thought of it in this way: Since the original makes two steps down the Time Chart for a total modifier of +2, then each step would likely be worth +1. Oh yes, before I forget utterly, you've probably noticed this advantage for Flash is a Stop Sign Advantage.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Nitpickers Guide to Star Trek: The Next Generation by Phil Farrand Part 1, File 4