BlackSword

Yeah, they have been doing that a lot recently. Someone has a popular wrestler in a submission hold and the crowd starts chanting (R-V-D, R-V-D) and RVD gets out of the hold and opens a can of whoop ass. Could be some sort of Aid based on the crowd. Also some sort of popularity rating might be handy to add in. Nothing quite like watching Triple-H trying to speak and having the crowd drown out the microphone with chants of Goldberg. All of the finishing moves should have extra time limitation to mimic the fact that the opponent needs to be 'down' or surprised before the move can be performed. Also some sort of penalty, like x2 stune on the attacker if the move fails.

Emphasis added by me. Since one part of Teen Champions can be examining characters with new powers they don't know how to control yet, perhaps a discussion on collateral damage. In Champs, typically a missed energy blast or thrown object just misses, NBD. But some of the EBs have more power then missles, what happens when they miss. Explaining to the authorities, "Officer, I was sure I had him, sorry about the hole in the side of the school." I think this is covered some in FREd, but perhaps a chart or table of examples of collateral damage which may focus more on teen battlegrounds.

I've had an idea bouncing inside my head for a demo Star Hero game, so here it the outline. Sometime I will probably write it out in more detail, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Background: Typical Space Opera, the story centers around the crew of a free trader. A small ship with a crew of about 8 (ones not used are just generic NPCs that happen to be elsewhere when something happens). I choose the 8 crew members so that people would have some options, or have a larger demo. All built as 100-125 pt chars (maybe less, haven't decided). Ship loads up on fairly advanced planet. One of the packages is a bit mysterious, but hey, it doesn't seem illegal and the shipper paid good money*. Ship takes off makes the jump to hyperspace... ...and crashes on a primitive planet. Navigation officer tries to figure out where they are, the engineer/mechanics try to find any damage. Communications hears an emergency beacon nearby. Engineering reports that there are some parts damage. If anyone goes into cargo hold, the mysterious package is shredded like something was trying to get out. Doctor notes package looks like it held something in suspended animation, the crash must have caused a malfunction and woken up the merchandise**. If crew ventures out to goto other emergency beacon, get attacked by natives on the way. I was thinking of using the Rakasha from the bestiary, except changing some stats to make them a primitive race, lower int, etc. Crew reaches second ship. Its a military vessel, in particular mercenaries. They talk with the leader, their crash was much worse (pilot botched his roll ) and most of the crew are dead. They lack engineers, but would be more then willing to help get your ship running for the price of passage off the planet. Return to ship with needed parts, begin repairs. Primitives attack but fortunataly the A-Team you brought back with you holds them off. Then the real fun begins. Pirates attack. It seems the pirates used some magical, er, psuedoscientifical device to capture ships passing through this region, crash them on the planet, then pick up the cargo at a later date. This is where I have stopped working on it, so no clean conclusion just yet. Some stuff may need to be trimmed for time. *Most demo games I have been too have a combat early on to demonstate the system. In this case there could be a shoot out on the dock. Smugglers or mobsters think the PCs have wronged(or want something off the ship, see **) them so try to ambush them before they take off. Combat ensues, captain orders crew into ship for lift-off. **Merchandise is feral Xenovore being transferred to gladiator type arena on another planet. Depending on the time around the ship. The chars may make random encounter rolls to accidently come upon the Xenovore.

A short while ago Chromatic wrote up all of the characters. It doesn't look like he limited any of the points, so they lay where they fall for his approximation of the powers: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12158&highlight=superman+animated And a longer while ago there was a bit done on this thread: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4075&highlight=superman+animated And JmOz did build some of the characters on 350 points. That thread does not contain all the characters (this page has Superman a few posts down): http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4075&perpage=15&pagenumber=3

This thread was fun until WM had to make sure even people who avoid the political threads had to know his hatred of anything followed by the letter ®. We get it, take it somewhere else please.

I have been listening to a few Dick Dale albums recently. Very good guitar music and nice change from the regular rock style I usually listen to. Especially like his duet with SRV. I still haven't decided how much I like the tracks with vocals, some of them are good some of them are a bit annoying. Of course I have always prefered pure instrumental tracks to tracks with lyrics, so it may be my own personnal bias.

I've been watching the Star Trek:TNG runs on Spike TV. I've noticed two things. a) 95% of the worlds in the ST universe have breathable atmospheres. 99% of the worlds in the ST universe have some atmospheric anomaly which makes communicatiion with away teams impossible.

I have a feeling that on Skywalker Ranch, Lucas is browsing the internet to stroke his own ego and sees the Star Wars Movie 3: Guess the Spoilers thread. Reading through it he is capturing some ideas to add in. GL: Damn, gungans and ewoks, it can't go wrong.

Quite a task before you. For questions (1) and (2) I would use what you described in two. Give descriptions based on stories and general knowledge, but not the specifics. That way when a band of Morlas ambush the players, they're not going, +2 to dex, can see in the dark, vulnerability to light based attacks. Ditto with the necromancy (okay, that spell had 30 AP, so that lets us know something about the nercomancer). Since its an unpublished world it will lead (IMO) to an air of mystery about the darker arts. You'll also avoid having to beat a player to death with FREd beacuse he wants to be a dark elf ninja with two swords and a pet cat. I know that players that do good RPing can get over knowing what type of attacks people are doing, but everyone who has played D&D a lot has a basic grasp of spell levels and will start pigeon-holing a wizard into several levels, okay he has at most one more fireball spell, then "I will ownz3d hmi." Never done a language familiarity chart, but it could be interesting. Especially if certain human regions were taught language by other races, such as elves or dwarves. Their language might be more similar to those languages then other languages of man. You might be able to just steal the one out of FREd and change several language familes to human, elf and dwarf, place those on the map and then make different dialects for the countries near by.

Sorry if its been mentioned, but just glancing through the thread from time to time. But seeing what is planned for 2005, and the continual mention of Lovecraft, I would like to see a good Pulp Era discussion. Good description of what DEMON was up to, and lots of plot threads to grab onto. I could really see DEMON as a major pulp era villain organization.

Why is it that Ric "I get winded running down the entry way" Flair wrestles more then Triple H. Flair is past his prime. This is not marginalizing his previous contributions to wrestling, but the man needs to wear shirt. Besides he has a greater chance for injury and it will take him longer to recover. Retire, become a manager for Evolution, do the Steve Austin where you hit someone once or twice and then scream 'whooo,' but those wrestlin' shorts do nothing for you. On the other hand, glad to see Evolution lose the tag team title. I stopped watching after the tag team title, anyone else watch, what happened during the rest of the evening? On the other hand the announcers are idiots (though I know they play it up, a bit of a statement on 'its okay for your champ to cheat, but if anyone else cheats they stole the title'). Frex After a cheap shot by Flair: JR: A low blow by the dirtiest player in the game. 'The King': Well that's the way the game is played. After RVD(non-legal man) does a five star splash: JR: RVD takes advantage of the five second rule. 'The King': I can't believe RVD and Booker T could win by cheating like that. And one more random thought on wrestling. This really bothered me when Goldberg was going for the title. Goldberg would soundly thrash Triple H, or Flair and Orten one week. The next week all three would gang stomp him, and then brag about how he is nothing. Nothing?!?!?! it took three people to beat him down, and even then you had to use a chair over the head to take him out. If he's 'nothing' face him one on one.

Being able to touch-type is nice. most of the time I don't even know what I am writing, just trying to string a few words together. Its especially nice with presentations as coherent sentences aren't required, just ideas. (granted I agree with Cringely about PP presentations dumbing down the transfer of knowledge) This is nice right now as I have been sleeping poorly the past few nights, so I am dreadfully tired. Its also nice when people you don't really like come to visit. You can look up at them and continue to type. It says, "I acknowledge you, but I am busy...go away." This came handy with a previous co-worker. He was the type that you could try to ignore and it would fail, he would stand there and stare until you acknowledge him. I have seen him stand in one place for five to ten minutes, not moving, waiting for someone to say hi. So this way I could acknowledge him and not stop working.

She: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard. It was a very good read, though it took me a while to read it but not for lack of trying. Several times I had to tear myself away and get some sleep for work. Very well paced. The end is a bit rushed, but even there Haggard describes it as "not being nearly the tale of what we had been through in the past three weeks." (paraphrased) The book is written in first person and the scenes are well described. A hidden place in this world, and every fantasy (or modern fantasy for that matter) world needs to have Kor hidden someplace in it.

For the light side verstion, I don't know how to model it in HERO, it would probably be similar to the Darkside version, but with different SFX. It could be similar to the Lensman's Arisia, where people avoid a certain area unless invited(in this case an entire star system). The mind just doesn't track the area and people go around that part of space unless they force themselves to concentrate on it (in which case bad things happen). I don't think its inherently darksided, as in this case the Arisians just wanted to be left alone (though they did kill an entire crew, which would give them a dark side point).

When the PS2 dropped price I went and picked one up, the only problem is, I don't play a lot of computer games, but I figured its okay, I can play on the console or play DVDs and its worked okay. But I did finally decide to buy more games as I might as well use the PS2 for more then just a nice paperweight. Being el Cheapo(read I owe the bank a lot of money) I usually wait until the games drop price, so this weekend I went out and got two games, Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu (cause I'm a big bat-fan) and Thirteen (on recommendation of one of the members our gaming group). I had read about Batman: RoST and knew that it was basically an arcade game, but I am horrible at button masher games. However, the graphics are pretty cool, and you get the chance to play Nightwing, rock on. The moves are neat, though it took me a while to get the timing right, its great to see Nightwing turn a flying knee into a drop kick. The only problem, having not played much my thumb is now sore from all the gaming. Guess I will have to go the gym and do some thumb exercises to get it in shape for the big battle with Clayface.

What a joy, bill day. Nothing like watching a pay-check quickly disolve. On the plus side I got most of my adventure written up for my go as group GM. Just have to work on a few more plot points and round out the main villain(I should add an 's' in case members of the group read this post;)). Downside is that I spent too much time in front of my computer (using Quicken and Hero Designer). I sit in front of my computer nearly 8 hours a day for work, should decrease my computer usage on the weekends.

This thread reminded me that I ordered the book, but still haven't heard from my FLGS about them receiving it. However with this little tidbit I am going to go lay the smackdown on them. "Its available in England now, can't you figure out to order it?" The only frustration with my local shop, they are the slowest store in the world to order stuff through. However, they are nice, they know me and I get my comics there too so I stick with them. I am looking forward to getting this book though. Our group has shrunk and we are now doing round robins where we each GM a plot. Not having any real experience with GMing it will be nice to use these stories. Since we don't play in the CU it will require some changes, but at the very least it provides a good place to start and get ideas from.

I hate cube farms. The reason for it today (and probably for the next year or so) is the person on the other side of the wall. I don't know him, so he may be a nice guy. But his laugh is the most irritating thing I have ever heard, and he laughs a lot. Its not a hearty HAHAHA. Its more like on the movies when people are wheezing on some medical device. He breathes out in a 5 second long wheeze. There is no Ha Ha or heh heh, no break...just one long Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh. I am sure that I have annoying habits, I am sure there are things I do that are frustrating. But this is one of those few things that just grates on me, and its a sound directly on the other sie of my cube wall.

Actually, in the "Made of Wood" storyline, Alan Scott admitted that he never really got the detective thing. So he and Bat's worked together to solve the mystery. So I think if Batman disappeared, then Scott would tend to take over being the main hero of the city. He would leave most normal street level crime to the Bat-team members who were still around (Batgirl and Huntress, Catwoman may start tackling more crime, Azrael is dead) and only show up when someone needs a severe butt-kicking. Re: Organized Crime; I thought the Dark Victory storyline (by Loeb) centered around one of the major crime families. I don't think organized crime is as powerful as in say Bludhaven, but they continually mentioned different gangs. I think the mob may have lost a lot of power, but it seemed the asian gangs are gaining power in Gotham. The current Catwoman storyline centers on organized crime trying to get a stronger hold on her neighborhood. So, organized crime is definitaly not dead in Gotham.

A single article has destroyed all interest in pop-culture for me. This article included three things: a) Justin Timberlake won a grammy for male pop vocal performance for Cry Me a River. I accidentely heard this song one morning. If this is the best the recording industry has to offer, I wish it luck in finding a good place to go die. Justin Timberlake won a grammy for pop vocal album for his solo debut, Justified. Again, this is the best the industry has to offer? This is why they have used CD stores and decent jazz music labels. This is why I haven't bought a rock CD that has been produced since 2000. And finally c) Justin Timberlake is making his big screen debut. Nuff said, I am never going to the movies again.

Re: Ball & Chain Moose and squirrel. Moose is a standard brick. Squirrel is martial artist/stealth with gliding.

I have often thought about a modern magic game similar to this idea (a few people know what magic is and that it realy exists). Since I have no time and don't know if anyone is interested I haven't gone to too much trouble to work on the actual setting. I have heard that GURPS Cabal has some good stuff on modern magic and secret societies.

Just a poor reference to "Demolition Man." As for use of foreign languages, I use: http://www.freedict.com/onldict/jap.html for translations. This is the japanese translator, but there are translators for several languages. I usually use it to make up last names for my characters. Expanding off of Imperial Khan's suggetion. Perhaps something like a Hawk Class of fast attack frigates, then find a bunch of translations for Hawk. Depending how space is colonized, if there are still strong pockets of various cultures, those on a particular planet may tend to name ships based on their original language.

And don't forget to throw in some 'future-history,' add American presidents such as the Schwarzenegger, the Trump (sorry don't know the black sheep for foreign nations)...the list is endless (and disheartening ). If you have a history that includes a few famous military figures, their names will at least be included in the class of ship.

We tend to roll combat rolls in front of everyone, so there is no fudging. Which is why my last charecter hit the ground with -17 body. Really sucks when you get surprised and don't have your force field up. For some odd reason the rest of my characters are staying in body armor even when sleeping.