Snapdragon

Re: Why the dislike for Find Weakness?

I've always looked at 'find weakness' in our games as kind of a martial artist's best friend vs. big nasty bricks and huge armored tanks. I can't think of a single character, however, that has been allowed to buy an energy blast with a find weakness, so possibly this is our GM's way of balancing the abuse possiblity out a little more.

Re: NASA plans 'Armageddon' spacecraft to blast asteroid

Let's hope this mission doesn't go the way of Genesis.

Re: Byronic Hero

In all seriousness, you could probably only have one tragically flawed hero per game....and that person would have to keep their tragic flaw to themselves.

The reason Byronic heroes work well as bad guys in regular fantasy games is motivation. On the outside, all you see is the highwayman killing the king's guards one by one at night. On the inside, you find out that a group of six king's guards kidnapped, raped and then killed the Byronic hero's fiance one night, and now he's out for revenge.

Re: Byronic Hero

Just out of curiosity, but how much would this disad be worth:

Tragic Flaw: has crazy wife locked up in the attic.

Re: Cue theme music

Is he carrying a boom box around everywhere just incase a battle breaks out?

Doesn't everyone?

Re: Cue theme music

I play a very very nasty girl named Migraine in one game. She's constantly flirting with and teasing the team's Brick, Majestic. A while ago she started calling him "Rock Star" because in his professional life he's a geologist. So he's taken to coming into battle with the Nickleback song by that name. The first time it happened, she was so not impressed.

Re: how do you like your fantasy games

I could care less the power levels...just please give me a good, charismatic bad guy to go after in the end. Because wading through level after level of mindless orcs, kobalds and bugbears is lame, unless there's a confrontation with the big boss at the end. And if s/he's a Byronic Hero of sorts, that's good too.

Re: Book or PDF

I like dead trees. I do a lot of flicking through the books on the throne and a PDF wouldn't work as well for that.

My husband does that too. Sometimes cleaning the bathroom involves moving 5-10 Hero Games books before I can even start cleaning.

Maybe Hero should consider publishing books with laminated pages so they are truly humidity proof and safe to take in the tub as well. =)

Re: Music during sessions?

Best Song Ever for a gaming session: The Gamers Song by Silent Lion. And having Barb and John smile directly at your group while singing this song: priceless.

Re: Places to Fight

Hmmm...of late? Inside another PC's skull. GM'd just watched "Fantastic Voyage" and one of the players couldn't make the game. The missing player's character got shot in the head and it was up to us to find the bullet. Luckily there was a handy dandy shrink ray available. Also, we had to fight off his immune system and some crazy fun nanites that had ridden in with the bullet. Fun fun fun.

Re: 70's Fashion Horrors

Graduated HS in '87, so you can see my time period

My look has been described as "Early Snake Pliskin"

*purr* Snake Pliskin... =)

I've heard that the police have a much easier time catching up to fleeing gangstas in saggy baggy pants, what with the constant pausing during flight to actually pull their pants up from around their knees...

Re: 70's Fashion Horrors

I think the fashions you wore in high school are the ones that seem most "normal" to you; I wasn't a teen in the 70's but rather the 80's. Yesterday my coworker and I were teasing a 19 year old volunteer about his baggy saggy pants and huge oversized polo shirt. We were reminiscing about the 80's, when boys wore tight jeans and tight tees and you could actually see their butts and biceps.

Re: R-O-L-E or R-O-L-L

Oh it existed pre-web as well.

Well sure, but on the web it's a least documentable. And oh so very far reaching.

Re: R-O-L-E or R-O-L-L

That's been my experience too. "Rollplayer" is an insult that means "Play style that's different from my obviously superior one."

I'm working on an essay about this very thing; not the roll vs. role but the divisive snarkiness that seems rampant on the web amongst gamers. Considering the hobby as a whole is small and shrinking in a lot of respects, disparaging other people's role playing skills or game choice seems very counterproductive. (For instance, calling other's characters Mary Sues, or using terms like roll player, or saying "Oh that system sucks, the players must be idiots".)

Then again, competitive fandom is illogical as well; instead of one person going, "I love this show, watch it with me," they say, "I love this show way more than you could ever ever ever, and if you're a fan, you're opinion is unworthy for my fandom is the only true fandom. My fan love is purer and you suck. And don't even think about writing fan fiction about my favorite character or I will tear you a new one, you Mary Sue."

It makes me sad, it does.

Re: Anyone actually playing anything?

We've used the Star Hero books more as a supplement for our regular Supers game; bolding going into the black to combat alien threats to the earth.

The GM threw out 6 possibilities for the winter campaign; I'm afraid Star Hero didn't get a single vote. Our Western Hero will be starting soon enough though.

Re: Biggest Shock!

Biggest shock: everyone (except for me) was playing a villain pretending to be a hero. Everyone else thought they were the only 'under cover' villain as well.

The sad thing is, as a 'hero team' they were incredibly effective.

Re: Have you ever built a powered armor character...

I had a character whose mutant ability was ultraviolet vision. That was about it. She used a powered diving suit with sonar blasts, short term life support and extra swimming.

Hubby had a mutant character that had something like a 35 strength outside of his suit, but his power armor pushed him up into the 60 strength range, with much better defenses and way more movement.

I agree; while it's not as point efficient as building a 'normal in a suit', 'mutant in a suit' is a fun twist.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

The last novel I've read that might fit into the Fantasy catagory was The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. I enjoyed it and recommend it.

One of the best Sci Fi novels I've read of late (and this was a few years ago) was The Time Traveler's Wife, which was just wonderful. The movie based on such seems to have stalled; I wondered how they were going to adapt it as the story is non-chronological. As of now, the movie has no firm release date.

Re: What Non-Fiction Book have you just finished?

I've just finished reading "The Little Book of Pandemics" by Dr. Peter Moore. It's research...really.

Re: What does a "20 Comeliness" look like to YOU?

Those pictures are interesting, but I couldn't help but notice that, and this is probably indicative of the situations, that most of the "without" pictures were candids where the actress in question was frowning/looking displeased, and scrunching up her features.

 

Pictures where they're posed and smiling, but without make-up, would make for a more fair comparison.

 

Some of those pictures are unflattering facial expressions; some of them aren't. The ones of Monroe look like they were taken when she was at home and comfortable. Good lighting and a good photog making his skill roll can make all the difference in the world.

My hat's off to Charlize Theron and Emma Thompson for their movies Monster and Nanny McPhee, since those two pieces really show how much makeup can make a difference in appearance.

Re: What does a "20 Comeliness" look like to YOU?

Just for fun, you should google 'models without makeup'. Here's what I turned up:

http://seehere.blogspot.com/2006/08/celebrities-without-makeup.html

Which isn't so say that these women aren't beautiful; but so much of what is seen in photo shoots is just makeup. Great bone structure helps, but even that can be faked somewhat with makeup. Clear skin, bright eyes, red lips; that can all be faked.

Here's an interesting article about what the brain looks for when looking for a beautiful mate: symmetry, proportions, etc.

http://www.jyi.org/volumes/volume6/issue6/features/feng.html

Re: Disadvantages...lists anyone?

One of my all-time favorite disads is "Always sees the silver lining". It's kind of like being Overconfident, only perkier. =)

Re: supper skills

My supper skills consist entirely of my asking: "Dearest, what are you making for dinner?" Barring that, there's always takeout.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

This was a bit regarding why someone was going to miss a game where his presense was required (we use our LiveJournal to keep folks updated and such):

Ragnarok has been postponed due to hayride.

The response back from the player was this: Hmmm... if we can delay Ragnarok with a hayride, maybe we can prevent Dr. Destroyer from decimating humanity with an apple-bobbing contest. Heck, we could stop those pesky asteroids with some clever pumpkin carving.

Evildoers have no chance against us if we keep using fall-related family entertainment events.

Re: Does anyone really roll 30D6?

Sure, we roll d30 or more sometimes. But...it's vital to have extra hands on tap to keep those tiny 6 sideds from launching off the table to freedom.