BlackSword

Re: Is Power Girl/Kara Starr the DCUs Gladiator? Po-ta-to/Po-tah-to

Re: Is Power Girl/Kara Starr the DCUs Gladiator? Its 2005, it will be the Ultimate-verse

Re: Steering A New Player Towards The Superheroic But there is room for a clever, cunning, stealthy, no-collateral-damage incapcitation. He could use a soldier's background and training, but update it to using non-lethal gadgets in order to carry out his war on crime and supercriminals. As Gojira pointed out, the games are not blood-fests, and use plenty of gadgets. Instead of focusing on the soldier aspect, focus on the gadgeteer aspect of the heroes.

Re: Steering A New Player Towards The Superheroic That would be an interesting superpower, "Call in the Cavalry." That could lead to plenty of opportunities, they can tie down minions, damage and crowd control etc, but there are times when the Primus agents will get outgunned and may need to the superheroes to come back and help them.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Re: Robert E Howard or J.R.R. Tolkien? The new books are nice, I usually read them over a week, reading one story a night before bed (much better dreams then when I read Lovecraft that way). The only one I didn't dive into was Bran Mak Morn, his character didn't capture me as much, but Soloman Kane was a nice surprise. I thought it was a silly concept to start out with but on the final page I was sorry to know I had finished all the Soloman Kane stories.

Re: Robert E Howard or J.R.R. Tolkien? Old Man stole my rebuttal. I was thinking about this as I wrote my first post. Hyboria is large, Howard has lots of maps and does a good job describing the world Conan lives in. As Old Man said, its pretty much Earth, or old Earth cultures with the serial numbers removed and fatasized. When Conan has a layover in a Stygian city the reader automatically knows what to picture because Howard uses a few key phrases in his description to let the reader know Stygia = (evil) Fantasy Egypt, got it. I would say Tolkien used the myths and stories as a foundation and then built up from it. Howard repainted the picket fence. Both are legitimate, they had different goals, and both did an excellent job of telling their stories.

Re: Robert E Howard or J.R.R. Tolkien? I like em both. Tolkien does a great job with world building and description. Howard is visceral, his writing is action and all about the character. Tolkien feels like the characters are there to showcase the world, while Howard uses the world to showcase the characters. The drinking analogy I would use is that Tolkien is a fine scotch meant for sipping, Howard is tequila, meant for slamming.

Re: New JLU Tonight In the Hawkman monthly they brought back Goldenwing (or GoldenHawk), Hawkman's sidekick from way back. And it seems they are going to re-add some complexity to the story as he is claiming to be the son of the 'true' hawkman, not that poser Cater Hall. While the history of Hawkman is confusing, the writers have seemed to embrace the confusion and complexity and use it for good (if sometimes roound-about) stories. They have given up on trying to sort everything out and make it lay flat, and instead will just throw it in a pot and use it to further complicate Carter's existence.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings A bit surprised that Heroclix has stepped out of the comics and into the real world with some of its new powers. For instance, in the DC Icons collection Snapper Carr has the following power: "Journalist: All Republican characters in play must spend their next action ranting about the liberal media. If a Republican character has already acted he must spend an extra action and push."

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Recently picked up several boxes of Heroclix for DC's new Icons line. Four boxes, four copies of Blackfire, 3 copies of Aquaman, two broken minis. Never had this problem before, I think I will probably get another couple of boxes this weekend, and if I still have the same problem will just let Heroclix fall to the wayside. On the plus side, this weekend marks me completing my first half-marathon.

Re: Villain Summary Charts/Tables In Books I use it from time to time. If I am pulling together some random villains which I plan to shave off the serial numbers, its a quick way to find a flyer or brick to round out a team. Also by giving a quick overview of where the powers come from is handy as I can eliminate certain NPCs (frex Looking to fill out a mutant team, I can cross out all the technology based NPCs)

Re: The Coming of Deth Sturm! Perhaps there should be a new thread: WWYCD: Drawn by Liefeld. My character would like topple over due to having to support 400lbs of peck muscles on feet the size of a pez.

Re: The Coming of Deth Sturm! A mental Damage Shield. "The Enlightened Path of Liefield" requires one to step beyond the normal limits of Munchkinism.

Re: Liefeld's Titans Yes, the opening page of Robin swinging down with about 6000 extra muscles meant that the issue would be a visual treat. I like Simone's writing, and her work on Birds of Prey is well done.

Re: Good News For Time Travelers! Maybe that is the case. Maybe there were only 10 people lining the streets for JFK's procession, and once the actual assasination and controvery about the assasination occured a bunch more popped in from the far flung reaches of the future to see. Or maybe in 2025 they just read the investigation documents and its really just a mundane reason.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game Hmm, was thinking of rejoining CoH, maybe I will wait a few weeks for all of the issues to die down.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game

Re: Comics are getting too steamy... They keep switching Huntress' outfit. Jim Lee thought she should be more agile, so put her in a sports bra and running shorts, the Birds of Prey has slowly put her back into her full body suit. When one is not naturally bullet-proof, that extra layer of kevlar seems like a good idea.

Re: Batman and How he does it. Probably the two hardest skills to train are Writer Fiat and Deus Ex Machina. I think Bruce went to a special school in Tibet to train those to the levels of perfection he has achieved.

Re: Silly question, How much damage do nukes do Nothing to add to the numbers game, but a few recommendations for seeing the nuclear blast: First up: Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie. After some of the video was declassified, the director put it together and colorized it. In some of the shots you can clearly see the effect of the heat wave before the shock wave hits the object. Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb (Richard Rhodes) has a picture which compares the Mike Shot (1 Mton) vs the Hiroshima blast. To make it more dramatic, the fireballs are superimposed on the Manhatten skyline. The prequel to Dark Sun is "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes.

Re: Pulp Hero, after looking it over Yeah, the group of college friends I game with plays a lot of Storyteller, but they are not really interested in Pulp. The Hero group is interested in pulp (after a well run game by Rod at GenCon) so the metaplot is moot. Its probably the only thing in the book that left a sour taste in my mouth. Part of pulp is the ideal that you are helping to shape the world into a better place, oh yea, btw, your archetype goes insane in Aberrent and helps destroy the planet in Aeon/Trinity. I am continueing to go through Pulp Hero at a slow but steady pace. My friend pointed out the Jazz Muscian, 'Sold soul to the devil down by the crossroads.' Great stuff.

Re: Pulp Hero, after looking it over If memory serves, the writers said up front that there would be no supplments to Adventure! That said, it was a nice book, and the Aeon society seems like a great opposing group to the players. I didn't like the Trinity metaplot that basically said "this group will go insane and destroy the world." Some of the skills and talents were neat though and fit with the feel of the game. Never had the chance to play it in the Storyteller rules, but will likely use some ideas for a Pulp Hero game.