zornwil

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Wow, this has sat a bit. Death Tribble - from the exiled Bazza - "Australia is in mourning regarding Australia cricket."

Re: a Villian game As to that last post (14), that's sort of our Cyber Ninja Pirates in Space game, though it veered more villainous last game. As you say, I don't see it as a villain campaign, it's just cyber ninja pirates.

Re: Musings on Random Musings Sounds like things are seldom black and white. I still think there were positive aspects of Kara and Rachel for the time, however bizarre and possibly sociopathic, potentially, the lurking motivation. But I doubt any direct sort of sociopathy, maybe more of an ambivalence which manifested in a way of trying to been as a hero. I mean, let me put this more directly...can't you imagine if RFK suddenly got super-powers he'd be a super-hero but for the wrong reasons? Would that make it bad that he were a super-hero?

Re: Where else do you roll down? Just a related musing...consistency for Play Experience is great...consistency for consistency's sake is mundane.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Bazza is having computer problems so that's why he's been off-line, FYI.

Re: I need help with this Character Concept. Suggestions and Opinions. How come? I don't see a need to do that unless you really wanted to - but there's a sad face there...

Re: Musings on Random Musings I feel history is history. It's like revising legal documents such as state constitutions and completely eliminating those portions which referred to the legality of slavery and other second-class citizenry, not simply repealing those sections by amendment, but actually trying to white-wash history.

Re: An Open Call to Action Well, one thing I can see is a lot of people feeling like they really aren't interested in the tinkering and rules minutiae. I definitely respect that. Though it would be great to have some people who care about doing nothing more than playtesting, too.

Re: Generic books and threat levels PS - here's my thoughts, btw...a lion (individually) should be a minor but real threat to a 75+75 character.

Re: Generic books and threat levels I really don't think any system, including HERO, can be universal in regard to genre benchmarks and objects when the genra themselves are not internally consistent!. This whole "animals in comics" thing is the premier example. Batman can handle Superman, even early on in his career (if we go by Year One, or was it Year Two?) while as you noted other times he has problems with a freaking lion! To me, the only logical reaction to that is "WTF". But it is a writing issue. And across genra, I think scaling is even harder. The dragon is the real threat to the high-level adventuring knight, not the lion, in HIgh Fantasy, whereas same "basic" knight struggles in Low Fantasy against a lion, or, at least, the scale between them is distorted. Try taking a dang high-level fantasy dragon and putting it up against mid-level superheroes...no contest! But I'd like it to be one. Just have to beef up the dragon is all. I think the toolkit should give genre- and sub-genre-based bars and examples, but I think that's the best a universal system can do. I am a Champions fan, big-time, and all my long-running "serious" campaigns have been supers (well, except for Boot Hill a couple decades ago), but I think there's a lot of value in the myriad types of books from HERO. For some people like me, they're actually MORE useful for not being supers because I can get things out of them I really don't know at all and the bonus is it's in game terms I already understand. Actually, I find the supers stuff generally LESS useful and I buy it more out of a combo of loyalty and "this MIGHT have something" since I can afford to do so. However, I do wonder if there's not too many products coming out of HERO for the market to effectively bear. I do think Steve is right to tenaciously struggle with putting out more Fantasy products. I think HERO CAN break into Fantasy, but to do so is a MULTI-YEAR strategy. If they can just maintain non-losses and pay the bills for a decade, I think they can continue to grow slowly along the way and along the line, somewhere, "suddenly" become a credible Fantasy provider. Although I do think they'll need a slick, break-through product for that, and that is where I think they'll have to really rethink the current product line strategies. Then again, such a slick, break-through product might also be better in Horror or "Lost Worlds" or Pulp or other areas where there isn't such a market-dominant leader (well, I know CoC is dominant in Horror, but I think that market could be greatly expanded).

Re: Musings on Random Musings I'll PM you.

Re: a Villian game We had/have a dark hero who started out as the Troll and he had cannibalistic tendencies. He's since mutated and changed, but anywaY, just found it interesting. Argh, but I hate when that happens!

Re: Generic books and threat levels Exactly, OddHat, and I just wanted to add something - that confusion over Batman is because writers want it both ways. They want the Batman who is very mortal whom we identify with, AND they want uber-Batman. This dichotomy is difficult to manage. I think the closest anyone has come, and it's still not really in this strict "have it both ways", is Miller where Batman needs help to put down Superman and it's a BIG deal to him, not something he feels assured of.

Re: What makes a good villian?? Personality, with either over-the-top characterization or nuanced dimensions. Magneto seems to go over well in our campaign, I play him as a noble sort of warrior, a rationalizing bigot, a paternalist,. an egomaniac, an academic, and brilliant. On the other hand Jonas Hell, not a villain but an annoying NPC, is a drunken strangely-successful-womanizing conspiracy nut whose one step away from the funny farm. He has been a mainstay, coming and going, for a while being very present, now more back, and has even managed to provide dramatic tension along with simple plot devices. Wilson Fisk AKA Kingpin was a ruthless and crafty psychopath with serious ego issues. There's also enigamatic. The villain whose purpose is unknown and keeps away from contact yet is clearly present can be effective, too.

Re: a Villian game

Re: Speedster and Metamorphs:which are you looking forward to most? Metamorphs for me. More interested in them in general. Plus I think there might be more interesting options/ideas on making it more combined/flexible with shape shift interplay and such.

Re: Campaign length It's not how long you make it, it's how you make it long.

Re: Ch'i Ki Qi ... Cool, I didn't want to ask but...hoped you'd volunteer! I'll send you an idea later tonight or tomorrow, perhaps you can finesse it. And stop encouraging the monkeys!!!!

Re: The Last Word Does each drop of rain talk or does the rain as a collective entity talk?

Re: The Last Word I hope the rain is pretty and feels like marshmallows!

Re: An Open Call to Action I'll PM you and give you my email address, please email me back with yours. I'm building the list of all those interested and will distribute something this weekend, just giving some time for people to sign up, let the initial dust settle. Basically I'll propose some next steps. I agree we need to chat or such for sure.

Re: The Last Word You need a raincoat!

Re: An Open Call to Action Heh, I sympathize re 3rd - I still run -1/3" in my games (so does lemming). Let me check on how everyone feels about lurkers and get back to you - please PM or email me your email address.

Re: A Crazy Mixed-Up World History Wow, nice work! Didn't read all of it word for word but I like the history. I did something similar for my prior campaign, it's fun charting out all those heroes but it's also a lot of work - and you did a superior job compared to what I did.

Re: The cranky thread Vermont's way more beautiful than NH or Maine, in my opinion. The countryside is just nicer, more rolling, more picturesque.