NestorDRod

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Heh. This reminds me of a Silent Mobius game that Susano ran where I played a Latino firestarter with a last name of Figueroa. I don't think he ever pronounced the name right the whole game. OK, now we can get back on-topic...

Re: Pulparize It! I have absolutely no knowledge of the source, but the pulp rendition by itself is most rep-worthy. Reminds me of a movie I watched many many moons ago (and therefore have no memory of its title) about a female psychiatrist trying to treat a man who's convinced he's Sherlock Holmes. The problem is that he is actually damn good at deducing things, even if his theories about the root causes are loony, and he has this uncanny ability to draw other people into his fantasy. By the end of the movie, he finally convinces the psychiatrist that his particular brand of madness is preferable to the insanity of real life, and she gladly joins him and his army of followers off into the night to fight the forces of evil, led by the mysterious Moriarty.

Once again, reality attempts to catch up with fantasy: Fusionman flies across the Channel Look! Up in the sky!

Re: How do you guys deal with WoTC drones? Who else? The Bubbamancer strikes again!

Re: How do you guys deal with WoTC drones? Arguing against how Hero does something by applying logic without applying the same logic to the inconsistencies in D&D seems somewhat dubious to me, but, hey, like I said, I don't have a stake in this argument either way... Some people prefer D&D. Some people prefer Hero. I have no problem with that. In my case, I see Hero as a system where I can play anything. D&D is a system where I can play... a D&D character. That's my personal opinion, which I make no effort to impose on anyone.

Re: Firefly Season 2 And for those who'd like a taste of what a second season could've looked like... http://www.firefly-tvs.com/index.htm

Re: How do you guys deal with WoTC drones? I don't have much of a stake either way in this discussion, but I can't let a challenge like that go unanswered, at least somewhat. Don't buy him any Weapon Skills at all. That's an automatic -3 to his OCV when trying to hit someone. Or give him a Physical Limitation that gives him minuses to his OCV/DCV (Incurably Clumsy, perhaps?) CSLs. IIRC (I don't have the books in front of me), you can get a weapon class based CSL for 3 points a pop. So 12 points gives you a +4 with Swords, which should make him a darn good sword fighter. How's that? Edit: Somebody beat me to it. I did forget about the STR Min for a greatsword, though.

Re: How do you guys deal with WoTC drones? Whenever the subject of D20 vs. anything comes up, my mind travels back to a combined D20/Feng Shui adventure, Burning Shaolin, that Robin Laws wrote some years ago. The book was written with separate paragraphs to handle the rule-specific aspects for each system. At one point in the adventure, the heroes come across a monster's midden, covered in the decaying bones and debris from his former victims. The d20 paragraph proceeds to explain, in detail, how much gold, weapons and other such goodies can be found in the pile. The Feng Shui paragraph has only one line: "Your heroes are too busy looking cool to go rooting around a trash dump for loose change." That about says it all to me.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... It tells you what kind of Monday I've been having that reading that did actually make me laugh out loud. Thanks. I needed that.

Re: Pulparize It! You could also have tried for P.A.T.A., which would've worked just as well. Oh, and rep point for you. Well done!

Re: Doc Savage books. Dude! Doc Savage is what got me into pulps. Someone in our town was divesting himself of his collection 'cause I kept finding the old 69-cent Signet pocketbook editions of the stories in yard sales and flea markets. I ended up owning about half the collection at one time. I'll definitely look into this. Rep point for ya!

I may have been scooped on this, but just in case... I came across this site. Mondo inspiration for spaceship designs. I know some of the pics made me drool. concept ships Enjoy!

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... "Controlling" being loosely-defined in this case...

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Oh God! Stop! It hurts! Thanks, man. I really needed that. Tell the players you got repped for the quotes. I'm going to go lie down now... "Pick a lock" "That one!" BWAHAHAHA!!!

Re: Learning from the mistakes of others And to me a game that markets itself as a roleplaying game needs to offer more than "oh, and you can do some roleplaying while you're playing this game" to qualify for the status. We can agree to disagree. No worries there.

Re: Learning from the mistakes of others I think your last statement there is right on target. My experience with games that don't include personality aspects in the system is that they tend to be ignored. Players concentrate on what the system provides, which is usually combat and loot. Any roleplaying that occurs is a secondary thing that rarely comes into play unless the GM and players put in the effort to include it. Your example of personalities becoming stagnant assumes the players will concentrate only in developing their character's combat abilities. If that's their focus, then it kind of makes roleplaying moot, no? I do agree that tying elements like Disadvantages to Character points can create situations like you describe. But the existence of those elements will at least direct the players towards thinking about roleplaying, as opposed to simply dismissing it and concentrating on kewl loot and phat XP. Like so many things, the concept of roleplaying support in RPGs is something that's more easily described than defined. An example I like to use is from a RPG I've come to enjoy: Hollow Earth Expedition from Exile Games Group. In the game, players can select a Flaw for their character. This Flaw (more or less equivalent to Disadvantages in Hero) does not provide the player with more points to build their character. What it does is provide opportunities for the player to get Style points when roleplaying the Flaw in the game. These Style points can then be used to increase dice rolls, reduce damage, or otherwise benefit the character. So the use of Flaws and Style points in the game provide an instant reward for good roleplaying that help enhance the story and increase the fun. I'll say it once again; my point is NOT that you can't roleplay in games like 4e. But being able to add roleplaying to a game does not automatically make it a roleplaying game.

Re: Rolling lots of D6s True, but in my experience, most GMs consider dice rolling programs to be tools of Satan.

Re: league of extraordinary PULP HEROs "'Ey, it's Joey! How ya doing, Joey? Great ta see ya! "Yeah, I'm tellin' ya, Joey's a straight-up knockaround guy. Anyone tell ya dif'rent, you send 'im to me and I'll serve 'im a knuckle san'wich, heavy on the mustard. Knowhutimean?"

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Funny! We played a Star Trek campaign for a while on our own version of the Venture. Ours was a prototype ship, with a complement of fighters and a detachment of Marines. The crew was a collection of misfits, from the captain down. Lots of fun. At one point, we were convinced Peter David was bugging our house because his New Frontier books were hitting rather close to our own antics.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Dang you, beat me to it. I'll keep that in mind, bunneh. The youngest is 9 and still playing with them so it'll be a few years yet. Of course, keep in mind they'll be well-loved by that time.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Sir, I am the proud parent of four beautiful daughters. At one point in time, I knew the names of the whole frickin' stable, and was constantly tripping over the durn beasties walking down the stairs. You, on the other hand, are just a perv. So there.

Re: Learning from the mistakes of others Oh, boy. Game balance. Now there's a can of worms that's dangerous to open. It's another of those topics that can easily become a "holy war," as this discussion of "roleplaying vs. rollplaying" has threatened to become at times. Not sure if we want to go there...

Re: Learning from the mistakes of others Hear! Hear! Well spoken! I'm quoting your whole post because it's worth reading a second time. You are not alone in your pain and loss. I've been lucky to still find fellow gamers who find the story more entertaining than getting lewt and phat XP, but as the saying goes, there's damn few of us, and growing smaller every year.

Re: Learning from the mistakes of others Sigh. Here we go again. I'm not saying I'm being prevented from roleplaying. But being able to roleplay while playing a game does not make it a roleplaying game. If we used that definition, pretty much any game out there would be a RPG. Talisman? Done it. Car Wars? Been there. Chess? You bet. Heck, I've seen kids roleplay a game of War. Y'know? War? The card game where you match cards and the high number wins? To make a game a RPG it needs to provide an infrastructure that encourages and supports roleplaying. And, I'm sorry to say, from what I've seen and heard of 4e, it just doesn't give me any warm fuzzies that way. It sounds like a smashing tactical combat game and I wish WoTC all the luck in making a successful venture of it. It just is not a RPG to me. That doesn't make it a bad game. It's just not my cup of tea. And I certainly don't see it as the next evolution of what RPGs should be like. Have I sufficiently explained my position?

Re: Learning from the mistakes of others Heh. My immediate thought on reading that was, "Yup. And the Ford Model T is a car. Doesn't mean you could drive one around today, even less want to." Hey, I'm glad you like 4e. I just don't consider it a true RPG, just a game in which roleplaying can be done.