BlackSword

Re: Urban Fantasy dead horses. Your descriptions matches up pretty close to where I am as well. The 200 page whine-fest is getting old, especially now that he is reaching mary-sue levels of competence. I enjoyed reading the last book, but I think it is falling away from interesting innovative read to quick easy read.

Re: D&D 4th He was a minister.

Re: D&D 4th No more so than in Hero where you have a PRE score. Do characters with a PRE of 5 strike fear into opponents when they make a very intimidating speech? Its trading one mechanic for another, in Hero characters buy PRE (or not) depending on how much their personality can effect those around them. In 4th a particular class (or cross-class with the multiclass feat) can affect those around him. I could recite MLK's "I have a dream" word for word but I doubt I would move as many people as he did. In Hero he has higher PRE score than me, in D&D he is a different class than me.

Re: Urban Fantasy dead horses.

Re: Urban Fantasy dead horses.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Mulholland Drive is the only movie that at the end of it I felt like I lost two hours of my life (Vanilla Sky doesn't count because I only made it through half an hour before turning it off). Watched Ah, My Goddess: The Movie (2001), Iron Man, and have started to rewatch Full Metal Alchemist.

Re: So, what don't you like about HERO 5th? I think he meant that being 'con stunned' is not based on how much stun you have left, assuming its greater than zero. If 1 or 100 Stun left you can still be 'con stunned' if the amount of stun you took is greater than Con.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings For those want to see Iron Man, and don't want to read the spoilerific thread, stay for after the credits.

Re: So, what don't you like about HERO 5th?

Re: OHID vs Shape Shift I don't think there is a hard and fast answer, it depends on the style of the game. If you are playing in a game where a domino mask or pair of glasses can perserve a secret identity, then I too would balk if I had to pay 20 points for shapeshift just to retain my secret identity while Batman got his cowl for free. If the game is more realistic and a perception roll can break through a disguise, then Shapeshift may be more appropriate.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings The weekend is over, I'm ready for a vacation. Friday I took off work, woke up, went to breakfast with a friend, returned home, mowed my lawn and then packed for the weekend arnis seminar. At about 2:30 my friend showed up and we loaded up my car so I could drive to Chicago, at a little after 7 we rolled into town, checked into the hotel and collapsed. At 9 we headed over to the school for a two hour training session with the instructor. Got back to the hotel after 11, cleaned up and wrote notes from the training session and went to sleep. Woke up just before 8, got dressed and headed out to help our instructor with a demo he was giving at a different school. From 9 until about 1:30 I helped teach the demo. Left at about 2:00pm, which gave us two hours to eat before our seminar started. No problem, except for the construction, after an hour we finally got to the mall for lunch with our instructor. Quick bite to eat and back to the school. 2 hours of rope fighting which left me with some nasty bruises and rope burns, followed by two hours of buno (ground fighting), which left me tired. Back to the hotel, shower, grab dinner, write notes, collapse in exhaustion. Sunday morning, wake up just before 8, watch Burn Notice on TV until 9, get dressed for the seminar. Arrive and begin training at 10, two hours of arnis. 2 hour lunch, 2.5 hours of knife fighting, and seminar ends. Now its just a five hour drive back home. Get home at 10, get to sleep, wake up and get to work by 7 on Monday morning, aches and pains everywhere.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Just finished reading, Into Thin Air. Chilling story of the 1996 Everest tragedy. Very interesting story and several amazing moments of human hardiness. Climbing Everest is not an experience I am interested in after reading the book.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Finished watching the first season of "Ah, My Goddess." It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed seeing the manga characters on the small screen. Of the 26 episodes only 2 that I could skip on subsequent watchings, the rest were very well done.

Re: Order of the Stick I enjoy Belkar, his callous disregard for life is refreshing.

Re: Game of Thrones I made a house roll that at the beginning of each session every player flips a coin, heads their character dies. Tails someting terrible happens to their character and the character wants to die. It really captured the spirit of the novels.

Re: Musings on Random Musings I do miss Seattle's mild weather. Though it did mean my apartment could double as wind tunnel in winter as insulation and sealing windows and doors was not a top priority.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Yesterday was the St. Louis marathon and half-marathon. I pushed myself through 13.1 miles, had some amazing splits (second mile was ran 7m08s) and finished ahead of my time last year (1h37min,33sec). Today, my legs hurt. A lot. Semi-bad news is that this winter was my worst training season, I missed a lot of days due to sickness and travel. Why is it bad news that I did well with poor training? Because it means I can (and should) do better. Now to set my goals for the rest of the year.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I have been making my way through Ranma 1/2. Much needed laughs. On Saturday I made it about halfway through Southland Tales. Also watched part of G-3 Live in Tokyo.

Re: Mixing Swords & Sorcery with Comedic Fantasy So its probably because I have been watching too much Ranma 1/2 recently, but I could see it being pretty easy to remove some aspects (the water boy/girl part) and substituting in the swords & sorcery for the martial arts action. The story already has plenty of sorcery, so really its more finding a way to make swords a part of the story, which is tricky as otherwise the humor gets cut down everytime a rival issues a challenge and ends up skewered.

Re: "Does everyone have silver bullets?" Its not like you can buy silver bullets in the gun store, so only villains/criminals that know how to load their own ammo would have it available to begin with. Eventually a few dealers might add silver bullets to their selection in the black market. And of course since the black market isn't known for honesty, who knows when you are getting an actual silver bullet, or one with silver spray paint on it. I think it comes back 'dramatically appropriate.' Most criminals are going to rely on dumb luck to get by. Some might buy a few silver bullets, but then they might have to fumble around and load them. Some are going to buy duds, and few others might go werewolf hunting to gain some cred and a new throw rug.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Watched Ranma 1/2 Season 1 over the weekend. Very funny, just the laughs I needed.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Friday I watched the season finale to Monk, Saturday I gamed all day, Sunday I watched a few cooking shows while I was spinning, ninja warrior during lunch, and FX was showing The Punisher, so I put in the DVD and watched the last half.

Re: B-movie inspiration If we're digging that deep, then don't forget the Chronicles of Gor (there were two movies).

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Getting dumped sucks (D+14 hours), though its great for my diet as the lack of appetite means I am eating healthier.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Watched the season premiere of Monk and Psyche on Friday night.