austenandrews

Re: So ... uhm ... Pulp ... yeah.

Re: Jedi and evil actions The rules say that? Wow, that's weak.

Re: Jedi and evil actions "That place is strong with the Dark Side. In you must go. Your weapons - you will not need them." That's the sum total of what was said about "the tree." Everything else has been added by the EU or the fans (even "the tree" - Yoda talks about "the cave"). Though I confess, I get a kick out of the thought of a "malicious tree." It sits there despising Yoda with its every leaf. "Laugh now, Jedi," it says in his mind, "but in ten years my roots will have reached your hut. Who will be laughing then?!" We once worked out that the Dark Tree must have killed the Good Tree, and Obi-Wan's spirit sits on its spirit log in ROTJ. (Personally I think "the failure at the cave" was a mind trick that Yoda played to test Luke. But that's a controversial stance. ) Watch the prequels. If only the Sith can throw Force lightning and the Sith haven't been seen for a thousand years, how is it that Yoda and Obi-Wan so casually deflect it? How do Yoda and Mace Windu throw it back at their opponents? Because it's nothing new. I have no doubt Yoda could whip up some lightning any time he felt like it. He doesn't, though, for the same reason that the Jedi don't Force choke people. There are almost always better ways to accomplish a goal. It certainly doesn't seem to violate the Jedi code to throw Force lightning back at someone who's throwing it at you - no Dark Side required. Of course Palpatine's talk of the Sith keeping people from dying was a lie to string Anakin along. There's a grand total of one possible technique that a Sith uses which there's no evidence that the Jedi know. That's Palpatine hiding himself in plain sight. At the same time, it's not until ROTS that Palpatine does anything that actually requires the Force. It may be simply that they don't sense him because he's crafty enough not to use the Force in their presence, and trained well enough to hide his true feelings from their telepathy. I'm reading a bit into that, of course, but not nearly as much as many fans read into the Force. When you boil it down, the movies really don't say much about the Dark Side, and what they do say is not particularly impressive.

Re: So ... uhm ... Pulp ... yeah.

Re: Concept Cars Here's what you might call the ultimate early concept car.

Re: So ... uhm ... Pulp ... yeah.

Re: So ... uhm ... Pulp ... yeah. Random thoughts: Powers are pretty rare for pulp characters, usually relegated to exotic character types (Oriental mystics, psychics, hypnotists, Indian shamans, etc.) though "Talent" powers like various flavors of Combat Luck are in genre. And yes, powers tend to be on the subtle side. Oriental martial arts were not a real part of popular consciousness in the period. Most Westerners will know boxing, brawling, wrestling, etc. before anything Oriental (though some may have studied "mysterious arts" in the East). Hard-boiled characters are very common. Think Indiana Jones, the Shadow and just about any role Humphrey Bogart played. Lots of gunplay. With tommyguns no less, one of the special joys of playing that period. Mad Science is a common theme. In the usual "pulp period" (pre-WWII) science and technology were racing at breakneck speed. It was easy to imagine the dark underside of all that innovation. As you mention, Mad Science tends toward hulking, lab-size machines with vacuum tubes and exposed electrical arcs, driving gigantic ray cannons or weird energy emitters or liquid formulas with bizarre effects. Also, think Art Deco. Architecture and design were bold and flashy. Often everything seems larger than life - zeppelins, skyscrapers, gigantic cruise ships, rockets painted in garish colors. By the 30's even the cars got oversized. Big structures and bold lines equate to progress.

Re: Psionic Aphasia: The Tower of Babel I would only allow Drain v.s. a Skills if the Skill was bought as a Power.

Re: Favorite Abuse

Re: Top Down Bottom Up Just call it Side Effects: Plot Device. I'm not sure you could tweak the forces even a tiny bit without drastic calamity ensuing. Maybe the EM component of electroweak.

Re: Victorian Hero Resources This site gives an overview of dime novels and penny dreadfuls, for an idea of what the Victorians and others of the era looked for in their pulp adventure fiction: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/dp/pennies/

Re: Jedi and evil actions

Re: Jedi and evil actions nolgroth, doesn't your list itself belie the notion that Lucas imposed a "stilted and pathetic morality" on the Jedi? The characters he wrote did not seem terribly confined emotionally. They had a code against attachment - standard monk asceticism - and against succumbing to anger and aggression, but not against being human (as it were). I think what a lot of people mistake for a lack of emotion among the Jedi boils down to poor acting. I'm not being facetious there, alas.

Re: Vehicle: Gepanzerter Gehender Träger Läufer That's nice work, Curufea. I can think of a few ideas...

Re: partial effect? This absolutely matches most source material better than the default mechanic.

Re: Jedi and evil actions

Re: Jedi and evil actions The GM is wrong.

Re: 80 years we've waited for this

Re: Jedi and evil actions Right, it's not like Yoda and Obi-Wan went Dark Side because they failed to stop Palpatine. For that matter, justified inaction shouldn't constitute a Dark Side action, either. Yoda wasn't obligated to travel the galaxy fighting evil; self-exile on Degobah was just fine. Of course I think "Dark Side points" are unnecessary to begin with. In the films, the Dark Side was much squishier than that.

Re: Working Precognition X-Dim Movement - This one's pretty far out there, but could be fun as a one-shot plot device. The setup: A crystal ball or some such device for viewing the future. The scryer (scrier?) performs whatever ritual activates a vision of the future. Others may be present with him. Everyone who can see the vision gets hit with Extra-Dimensional Movement, Through Time, Single Destination, Usable As Attack, Trigger. When the ritual finishes, the scryer tells the group that the prediction will come to them in time. The adventure proceeds forward as normal. At some point in time, the scryer's player decides to take advantage of the prediction. He makes a roll against the appropriate skill (astrology, precognition, whatever), with a negative modifier that gets worse the longer he waits. If he makes the skill roll, the Extra Dimensional Movement is triggered and the group is transported backward through time, to the point at which the prediction took place. The "future" that they just played out is actually the vision that they were granted. Play resumes as before. The same sequence of events will happen again, except that this time the recipients of the vision may change their actions. Of course the more they change, the more the "future" diverges from the original vision. Complications: First of all, the GM must allow that X-Dim Movement through time & space puts the characters back at the moment of the prediction, as opposed to their future selves appearing beside their past selves. Obviously this method has a lot of overhead. A "snapshot" must be made of the group at the time of the prediction, so that play can resume from there. Notes must be taken so that the "future" will occur pretty much as it did the first time. It's not necessary for every number to be written down, but whenever the group opts to diverge from the vision, they should be roughly in the same state as the first time through. (Hopefully the negative modifier on the X-Dim skill roll will discourage players from reeling off a very long future that can't be recreated.) Also, it's possible for players to "game" this technique somewhat, taking actions that can be later erased or using the prediction as a "save point." Note, however, that the requirement of a skill roll means it's possible the X-Dim Movement will never happen - that is, the prediction never actually came - and the first time through is the real future. So it would be unwise for a PC to dive into a death trap just to see what it does, because his death could be real. Likewise there's the complication of PCs coming along who weren't present when the prediction was made. Technically they will replay the "vision" future as they did before, but this might be difficult in actual play (especially if mistakes must be repeated). Of course these PCs are free to diverge from the original timeline, as the GM allows, when the other PCs do, since the entire sequence will eventually diverge from the vision anyway. For these reasons, this build of precognition is probably not useful in regular play. But once or twice as a plot device, it could be a lot of fun!

Re: Vehicle: Gepanzerter Gehender Träger Läufer

Re: Vehicle: Gepanzerter Gehender Träger Läufer

Re: Concept Cars It's a French amphibious prototype. More random pics below. I love the one with the propellor.

Re: Working Precognition Mind Control - In the same vein as before, one level of Mind Control - "Actions the target would take anyway" - is used to "enforce" a certain outcome. This time it's built like a hypnotic suggestion. The "suggestion" pertains to the topic of the prediction, and can be triggered by something else (for example, "When the sun rises, take your breakfast in the great hall instead of your bedchamber"). The SFX is foreknowledge of what the person will try to do at a certain time or under certain conditions. This build has the advantage of fairly specific predictions. Also, since mechanically the prediction happens when cast, not when fulfilled, it does not require the recipient of the prediction to be present at the time it is fulfilled. Knowledge of the prediction is just that - knowledge. It may be freely imparted to others. The disadvantage of this build is that there's no guarantee the conditions of the Mind Control will occur (for instance, if the subject dies or is imprisoned). Also, there must be some means to "attack" the subject with the Mind Control. So the prediction must be made in the subject's presence, or imparted via some other means such as Trigger or Mind Scan. This adds up to a fairly expensive and elaborate spell to be effective. For that reason, it's probably best used sparingly.

Re: Working Precognition Oh yes, I definitely wouldn't give out the wording beforehand. You'd twist yourself into pretzels trying to match it to whatever situation the player applied it (which, ultimately, is what I'm trying to avoid with these builds!).