BlackSword

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

I have northing against fun foods (I know that's hard to believe given my Adonis like physique but its true!) and I think you can indulge in some of dishes in this thread occasionally without dropping dead on the spot if eat healthily overall' date=' perform regular exercise and engage in moderation. Would you overall health probably better at least marginally better if you avoid deep fried bacon and Venezuelan vendor burgers all together? Probably but eating nothing but white rice, steamed vegetables and purified water isn't going to make you live forever.[/quote']

For me, when I eat healthily overall, and perform regular exercise I can't eat greasey foods. Its not a mental block, I get violently ill. Last time I ate a donut the concentration of sugar and grease gave me indigestion for the entire morning. When I ate fish and chips I was sitting on the toliet the next morning. So for me those 'fun' foods aren't fun.

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

At just that moment' date=' the wily and intrepid captain spies a group of penguins marching together in the middle of the ice field... and the rest was history.[/quote']

And one of Gotham's most famous criminal masterminds was never heard from again...

Re: How Much Experience?

I usually award XP for good RP' date=' and [b']its pretty much a given[/b] 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).

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?

XP for showing up: Horrible Idea! That punishes players who can't come (if they enjoy the game' date=' that's punishment alone) and if it happens a lot, they will feel useless, making the game when they come even worse. We had that happen in a group where I wasn't GM. It's not fun to play a level 8 fighter along level 11 wizards. He felt basically useless, and that for a reason.[/quote']

I have been in both groups, and dislike both systems. I would prefer XP for everyone that shows up, for those that can't show up they get a ratio of that XP. That way people that can make it get rewarded a bit for being the scenario, while people that can't make it still earn enough XP to keep up.

 

XP for good RP: As much as I would like to do it, my group frouns upon it. It's always the same players who create the good scenes, and therefore we would end up unbalanced again, which is bad, see above.

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?

Since the brunt of Fantasy Hero is setting up your own game world and campaign, you really don't need it to run a Turakian Age campaign if you have that setting. All you need is either the Fifth Edition Rules or the Sidekick Rules.

 

Fantasy Hero has no rules in it. Just advice. Lots of it, yes, but you're still going to need a Rule Book to use it.

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?

How do you "convert" those who are so stuck on WoTC that they won't even look at anything else? If this were about 6 years ago' date=' I'd be asking how you do the same with White Wolf players, but that's another rant.[/quote']

I don't 'convert' them, everyone has separate and unique tastes, I expect they would be as stiff necked about a lecture on the 'superiourity' of Hero as I would be about a lecture on the superiourity of d20. Both games have advantages and disadvantages.

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?

It's not so bad. I've seen worse -- from fellow Americans.

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.

I use an event driven system similar to the one found in 7th Sea.

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

It's a mistake' date=' often made, to project modern techniques of swordsmanship and our own, modern idea of "martial arts" back onto an era when both concepts were unknown and swordfighting only part of a highly specialised skill aimed at combat in armor.[/quote']

Depends on the art, my instructor would say, "If you're using your weapon to block, you're not using your weapon to hit your opponent." Though I do agree that modern strip fencing places an emphasis on parrying since you can't just move a few inches to the left to avoid the train coming at you.

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

Does anyone remember the Immortal RPG (by Precedence I think) & has anyone done any work with a conversion to HERO?

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

No matter how true it might be?

How is it true?

Re: D&D 4th

Here's the thing' date=' I bet 4th edition D&D is a lot of fun. I think games like Warhammer Quest and Dungeon Seige are a lot of fun. That's not really the issue...[/quote']

To me the issue is about having 'fun' with my friends. Sometimes that fun is with D&D, sometimes it's Hero, sometimes it's a White Wolf game.

...I wouldn't want to replace my fantasy hero game (or even 3rd edition D&D game) with Warhammer Quest or Dungeon Seige, as fun as they are - and that's what 4th edition does.

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

The Choke Hold clashes with the "clear the way" philosophy a bit' date=' IMHO - it forces the pathfinder to stay in one place choking his opponent instead of clearing him out of the way and moving on.[/quote']

 

True' date=' but it comes in handy at times, so I'd keep it. And perhaps add a kick maneuver as well.[/quote']

 

I tend to agree that the choke hold clashes with the 'quick' theme of the style. I don't believe there is a neck break type manuver, but that would probably fit better.

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

Well' date=' the board persona thing isn't carved in stone. Of course, you could combine into Basil J Telson. Sir Basil J Telson, OBE.[/quote']

Wonder-Twin powers activate.

Re: Looking For "Bird Style" Martial Arts

Roy Jones' date=' Jr actually used a "taunt" in his fights that he learend from watching cockfights.[/quote']

Some silat practioners carry dried rooster claws, they can be used as knives in a pinch and are easy to hide. In some cockfights they tie a metal blade to the back of the rooster's foot, some arnis practioners use that blade as well.

Re: What can I do with a Crowd?

PD/ED Force Wall?

My first thought was bullet sponge, so I guess that is a bit more rules specific.

Re: D&D 4th

We actually considered that (he has an anti-contruct crystal in that slot' date=' IIRC) but after discussion with the GM, decided that enough was enough. Even without magic weapons, he's dishing out an average of 17 HP per hit, when the usual buffs are in use, he's up over 20. We may be munchkins, but we're not [i']insane[/i] munchkins.

 

cheers, Mark

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

Lars. Barbarian2/Fighter 4: Tank. Heavy armor and a particularly gross feat combo - monkeygrip and exotic weapon: Goliath hammer. He uses a size L hammer meaning he can literally dish out over 100 hp in one blow with a good critical.

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.