BlackSword

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore

Re: How Much Experience? Emphasis added - the player who doesn't show up is already getting less xp than most of the others, or the same at worst, so it seems unreasonable to penalize him further. This was my example, and I a bit confused what you are saying. What is 'penalizing him further'?

Re: How Much Experience? I usually award XP for good RP, and its pretty much a given unless someone does something completly out of character (frex the archaelogy professor that assasinated an NPC begging for their life did not earn the RP points). When we play White Wolf games we typically also award an in-game 'wisdom' XP point when someone does something very clever or figures out an essential part of the plot on their own (in charcter) without relying on dice.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings I was on yahoo.com today and they had the most annoying ad, it kept listing new shows for one of the stations, but the ad would expand to cover the text I was reading. The one bright side of this, underneath the ad was a link which said, 'rate this ad.' So I gave them my feedback. Hopefully others will do likewise and end the irritating and overanimated ads plagueing the interweb.

Re: Where is Fantasy? I believe Turakian Age reference several packages in Fantasy Hero, not sure if TA makes other references to Fantasy Hero in other sections or not.

Re: How do you guys deal with WoTC drones?

Re: URBAN FANTASY HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See? In viewing the board, I saw a topic about Secret Service in the Dark Champions section. It would be good to have a section detailing how the government deals with magic, as well as protection of VIPs for the various subgenres. For an open magic setting, there may be a cabinet position for a wizard in charge of the Department of Magic. For a hidden magic setting, there might be a shadow organization like the BRPD that is a division of the FBI. In the Potter-verse, at least in England, there was communication between the Prime Minister and the Minister of Magic, especially when muggles were in danger. Depending on the types of magic, there would also be ways to protect VIPs. Obviously the person who can control nuclear weapons is going to be protected from mind control. Also a number of wealthy people might also be enough in the know to hire their own private arcane security. Returning to the Dresden-verse Marcone and his underworld dealings sometimes come in conflict with other hidden organizations, such as vampires, and Marcone has hired a magician to help defend himself.

Re: URBAN FANTASY HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See? Time to provide an example. While I know when most people think of urban fantasy they think of modern world with magic elements, I would also like to see some information on a fantasy world that has become industrialized. Something like has been seen in Final Fantasy 7, and "Red Star." More high or even epic level magic in a modern setting where aircraft don't necessarily fly by physics, but some are powered by magic strong enough to fly an airship.

Re: Dealing with large-scale fights. Here is the post that summarizes our custom mass combat rules. Its has some similarities to Eosin's since they are modified from the same publisher. http://www.herogames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=733967&postcount=35

Re: Dealing with large-scale fights. We use a modified version of the mass combat rules in Legend of the Five Rings. One of my computer savvy friend made up several Excel macros to do most of the rolling for him. If two NPCs met and fought then he would usually give an ally PC to one of the players with a non-combat PC and run the opponent NPC himself.

Re: Modern Swordsmithing

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? So last night I got back to my hotel and collapsed on the sofa due to my cold worsening from traveling across the country. I had turned on the TV and stopped on History (I think, could have been discovery) and their show "Monsterquest" in which they try to find the truth out about folklore creatures. First up was the Black Beast of Exmoor, however I feel asleep before their conclusion and woke up for the episode on Chupacabra. The Chupacabra episode was bizarre, they switched from scientist doing DNA analysis and electron microscope scans on the hair of supposed Chupacabra, to the two biggest idiots ever trying to catch the creature on video. For an example, they setup motion sensor cameras and baited several areas, even put up a live trap. They waited for nightfall and then decided to...go out and see if anything was near the bait. Use nightvision? No, that's too expensive, we have highpowered flashlights. They tromped through the woods, talked to each other and the camera in normal voices, and then were surprised they didn't see anything. Back to the scientists, mitochondrial DNA shows the mother was a coyote, while Y-chromosome DNA shows the father was a wolf. The show would have been much better if they had used professionals in every position, especially trying to capture the creature on video at night.

Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished? The Perfect Mile by Neal Bascomb. Follows three runners, Roger Bannister, John Landy and Wes Santee as they try to break the 4 minute mark in the mile. It is an interesting and compelling read about how each trained and worked to reach the goal, the build-up of the nation and the disappointment each time they failed. All three were amateurs, no high price contracts just to wear a company's logo, they all had lives, studies and work they had to complete while training to compete. The book discusses the training and sacrifices each had to make, a bit into the philosophy each had and the psychology of pushing oneself to and even past the limit. For the final chapter, as Bannister and Landy approach their race at the Empire Games the book delves somewhat into running strategy and the difference between their running styles. While the book occasionaly discusses how the atheletes trained, it is not meant as a guide nor does it provide any workouts for running.

Re: Old Immortal RPG I remember it and have a copy of the book, but I haven't opened the book in years and never put much thought into converting it to Hero.

Re: D&D 4th How is it true?

Re: D&D 4th I guess I just don't see games systems as mutually exclusive. I can (and have) played multiple game systems in the same week. I'm not saying anyone has to like, or even play D&D4th, but to treat it like an evil stepmother who "tore" your parents apart is a bit unfair.

Re: D&D 4th We played 4th Edition on Saturday night. It was a lot of fun. We all made first level characters, there were four of us. I was a warlord that took the rogue multiclass feat, there was a warlock with a ranger multiclass, plus a wizard and a fighter. Impression: It was fun. I think everyone got to make use of their powers. I think there was only one round in which I just made a standard attack, otherwise it was more effective for me to do actions which helped my teammates. Action points are a neat addition and encourage the party to continue moving forwardas opposed to the old 1 encounter then rest days. There are a few odd quirks, we missed an action point because we intimidated our way through the an encounter (I might argue with the GM that since we made it past an encounter we earned an action piont). That made the final fight more difficult, because it assumed you would have an extra action point laying around. With the first book, I like that there are no feats associated with both race and class, the only problem was that it meant about half the feats were not applicable to a single character. I expect this to be less of an issue as more splatbooks are released. We had a fun time, we nearly had a TPK, but managed to barely kill the last big bad. Because of the way the heal skill works the wizard was able to use the Heal skill to the fighter and warlord back on their feet.

Re: Martial Art For Review

Re: Ask Cryptic 06/20/08 "My eyes are grey." "What, let me see your character sheet." "I know its says blue, but I changed my mind, my eyes are grey."

Re: Online Steampulp Game

Re: Looking For "Bird Style" Martial Arts

Re: What can I do with a Crowd? My first thought was bullet sponge, so I guess that is a bit more rules specific.

Re: D&D 4th We went with being insane Munchkins, we are trying to figure out how to get my Half-Dragon Paladin/Vassal of Bahamut to over 50 Strength. Our characters are also up around 18th level, so we're quite a bit higher level than your game.

Re: D&D 4th In the Magic Item Compendium there is a 'crystal' for a weapon that lets it increase in size by one category, and a pair of gloves that let you use a weapon a size larger with no penalty. For the munchkin game (ie how bad can you break a system) our GM let us stack them so we can use Huge weapons. Ugly things happen when the crits start flowing.