BlackSword

Re: The interaction skills

Re: Sudden impulses - the interaction between system and emotion

Re: Sudden impulses - the interaction between system and emotion If the two of us were to read the same books and then build characters based on the main character, likely we would end up with very different characters. After a year of play those two characters might not even be recognizable. Knowing my character in my mind does not neccesarily mean being able to articulate to another player or a computer the subtlies I have in mind. even being able to articulate the character does not mean the interpretation will be the same. You may define taciturn one way, I may define taciturn slightly different. And beyond that, no matter how hard we try, the players values and background will still have some impact on how he makes decisions for his character. My character is shaped not only by my choice of stats, my choice of disads for him, but also by my choices and the wiring in my brain. Some people use the Ego rolls in situations to force a slightly different mindset, to add that bit randomness, and to simulate that the player is sitting in a basement drinking a cold Pepsi while the character is knee deep in mud, hasn't eaten for three days and just saw his best friends head explode. Usually the only time we force Ego rolls is when a player is going to have his character act in a way out of the norm to show that the character is overcoming his inertia.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings So I have developed a new method for quickly determing tip. The old way was simple, multiply sales tax by two. My new way requires one more step, but is much more fair. Multiply sales tax by two, then subtract the cost for a single iced tea. Cause sweet $*** if you're gonna charge $2.19 for iced tea, then the restaraunt just made enough off of sticking it to me to pay their wait staff a little more.

Re: Kazei 5: The Soundtrack The opening theme from Batman Beyond is nice, though it may be to recognizable depending on the group. I would also recommend some songs from Juno Reactor. Its been a while since I listened to them so I can't pick out a particular song, but they were great driving music, especially at night.

Re: Player problem - opinions ....

Re: Martial Arts in the Pulp era I was watching some clips from K-1. While the fighter did mostly boxing, he was able to kick at the head pretty quick (mind you this is in a fighting ring with minimal gear, agree about doing said kick in street clothes or with a military kit). The fighter was French, but don't know if his kicking style was derived from Savate or Muay Thai. Also he won one of his matches by kicking his opponents leg hard enough the opponent could no longer stand. Even with his powerful kicks, his most devastating attack was a punch that when it landed was a guarenteed KO.

Re: Martial Arts in the Pulp era Knowing of the other major Martial Artists in the world. Also it might allow for knowledge of secret martial arts based cults/schools in the Far East, or Secret Schools in the West.

Re: "Chinese Amazons" as a Fantasy Culture

Re: Rail Gun! Carbon composite is conductive. Graphite* is about 1000 times less conductive than most metal. Not so good that you would want to use it as a conductor, but it also cannot be used as an insulator. *yes, I'm mixing forms of carbon here, but graphite is the only reference I had at hand.

Re: Pulparize It!

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Re: the point cost problem The way we did in Rifts, was most people bought their equipment. In addition we occasionaly picked up non-points equipment. The equipment that was not paid for in points was pretty much temporary, unless a character decided to buy it. For instance on one mission, our employers provided us with military grade plasma rifles. We were shifted from place to place and as we went we occasionaly lost or had the rifles destroyed, by the end of the game, five rifles were down to a single rifle. On the other hand, my character had a pistol he had paid points for and it was with him the entire game. If characters are rewarded something, I see nothing wrong with making them pay points to make it a signature of their character. Just have to keep in mind to ensure that equipment or kewl powers do not cost too much so they are in XP debt for years at a time.

Re: Rifts HERO? Our Rifts campaign that just ended started with 250 point characters (150 + 100). We got transported to someplace in space and went up to 300 points characters (+50 xp). At 250 point characters we were pretty deadly, and pretty effective. Equipment was a mish-mash. We did pay some character points, but we also received some equipment. Equipment that was not paid for in character points was pretty much considered temporary. For instance, my pistol was paid for in character points, I had it the entire campaign, the rifles we got were given to us, and by the end of the campaign we only had one of those rifles in the group.

Re: They wont die They had Geordi reverse the phase coupling....

Re: Speedster Tactics Give a speedster enough running room and the DCs on the move by start going up. I had a speedster, and he was a fun character to fight with, my only disappointment is the campaign folded fairly quickly, so I only got to run him a few times. My speedster's team job was to take out mooks. I had a line AoE HTH attack (built from the USPD) for when they made the mistake of getting in a line, and multiple move-bys were my friend against low DCV mooks. If your speedster is a runner (as opposed to flight only in contact with the surface), then the lack of a turning radius means he is much more versatile and dangerous. You can just about always move one or two range increments away before turning around and coming back for the next series of attacks.

Re: 6th Edition thoughts

Re: DC versus Marvel: different styles

Re: Working on New Constantinople I could also see it going the other way, such that non-Greek themed superheroes or even worse *gasp* heroes drawing their inspiration from another region will feel too foreign. You don't want superhero registration to include a book of Greek Mythology (for names) and a Toga (costume). I like a lot of the ideas thrown out here. The sports teams are neat, and I like them having the unique history. One thing I would change, is give the current NFL Franchise a different name. Names do often follow teams, looking at St. Louis, we had the Cardinals, they left for Phoenix, and remained the Cardinals, and St. Louis eventually got the Rams. It would add a bit of non-Greek variety and also might explain why the team is slow to adoption in its new home.

Re: Astro City: How to get the feel of the series in Champions?

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Re: Is Hero too preditable? As most of my money goes into non-d20 products, I don't have much comparison. But it seems to me that most of the munchkined Prestige Classes come from third parties who are looking at ways to draw players away from the WotC books. Sure you could buy that book, but our books are %100 guarenteed to make the GM cry when they see this prestige class. The GM in my d20 group did a good job at the start of the campaign laying out what prestige classes would be allowed, and which would not. In addition he and another player know the system fairly well, so they help us non-d20ers with builds to keep us from being too hosed when compared to the munchkin builds.

Re: Is Hero too preditable? That's not a supplement, that's the DMG. Eldritch Knight: Lose a single (technically two as you have to take a level of fighter) arcane caster level, advance with Fighter BAB and all of your arcane spells. Mystic thuerge: +1 level of Arcane Spellcaster, +1 level of Diving Spellcaster, every level.

Re: Space Wizards (info, advice, & suggestions sought) It is set in space, so you could replace adventurer with spacefarer. Millionaire Spacefarer.

Re: IK Hero? I didn't spend too much time reading the warjack rules, but if I remember right even it was fairly top level. A few hours of non-intensive activity, or a few minutes of intense activity (combat). tgrandjean's description seems to reflect that generality fairly well. I would go with a Fuel Charge to represent the non-intensive activity, and an END reserve recoverable only by refueling for the combat oriented time. If you want to be more precise, tie the Fuel Charge to the precent of END reserve and vice versa. Ie, say you have a Four hour fuel charge, two hours into a trek along a road the PCs get attacked, the warjacks END reserve is now 1/2 its normal starting. At the end of the fight, the Warjack used up 1/4 its normal END reserve, it can only walk for another hour before it needs to be refueled. I would tend to shy away from this as it begins to put a burden on the GM for more precise timekeeping. With a large END reserve the PC literally has to track END for every step the warjack takes.