Markdoc

Re: Orcs as Druidic/Celtic analogs?

Re: ORCS! What makes them our favourite enemies??? Why do we like orcs? Because for the GM*, they come in handy, snack sized pacakages. You can have as many or as few as you want. And they never, ever run out! Basically they're the junk food of enemies. cheers, Mark *Although for me, Orcs went the way of dwarves and elves long ago. There are plenty of agressive, violent people in my game world - I don't actually need a seperate race for them.

Re: Dogs, monkeys and robots In that team, just combine the robot and monkey slots to make a cybered-up ape with lots of guns Can you say.... Battlechimp Potemkin? cheers, Mark

Re: Need help with Sikh and Gurkhas Yep - add to that the fact that Ghurkas don't actually come from India, but mountainous Nepal - far from the hot dry plains of the Punjab and .... well, it seems little unlikely Still, if the idea of a sikh appeals, they have their own ceremonial weapon - the Kirpan (a heavy knife, or short sword) - which has great religious significance. That'd make a good weapon for a sikh hero. cheers, Mark

Re: Rarity of Magic? I had to ask my PhD student The answer is confusing - apparently there are several word for witches, some of which mean specifically bad, some of which mean specifically good and some of which you could apply in either case.

Re: A movie I recommend.. I've got that one sitting on the shelf behind me - my version is called "Musa - the Warrior" so yeah, you could be right. That's also not a bad movie. Cheers, Mark

Re: why the UNITED NATIONS? (for global super-agency) Well that makes a certain amount of sense - the other possibility is to actually *base* it on Interpol and make it independant. Interpol has a structure modelled on the UN and liases very closely with the UN (one of it's six offices is at UN headquarter) but at the same time, it's an independant organisation. You could do the same with UNTIL I guess. But then you'd either have to find a new name, or make up a new acronym cheers, Mark

Re: A movie I recommend.. I saw it at the theatres a couple of years ago (umm, maybe longer...) Anyway, I concur. Great visuals, nice story. I liked it a lot. Aaaand - if you liked that, I'd recommend "Twilight Samurai". Without giving anything away that isn't on the outside of the DVD box, it's about a poor samurai who's gone deeply into debt to support his family and is ridiculed or shunned by his clan as a result. Then the clan suddenly needs his services - services which might cost him his life. Not much sword action (though there is one really neat fight) but a very nicely filmed and acted story. cheers, Mark

Re: Seeking Concept Help - Magical Technologist? Sounds like the basic idea is pretty solid already. What might be fun if if you drop the mysticism entirely - and the mystic origin - and make an engineer/gadgeteer from an entirely scientific background, who has had demonstrated to him that magic does actually work. Now he's trying to "systematise" it. You know, use a hydraulic ram to work out the tensile strength of a rope made of moonbeams and dew. Does the tensile strength vary with the quanity of moonbeams used? Is the quality of moonbeams (mostly cloudy/partly cloudy/unclouded) important? Goblin curses strengthen animated ropes used for attacking people - can they be incorporated into a moonbeam rope for climbing? etc. That way you can have a nice modern lab with plenty of technical stuff - but also a safe full of grimoires and a harrassed graduate student who is translating all that "obscure stuff" into straighforward english for her PhD. (don't worry about safety, she's using strong encryptation ) As for character design, he'd play as a straight gadgeteer, with a mystical sideline, and you can explain his "wierd tech" by simply saying that he incorporates "entities" into it. cheers, Mark

Re: why the UNITED NATIONS? (for global super-agency) Also, attaching a multilateral, multinational force to the UN makes a heck of a lot more sense than, say... Bob's Bait and Tackle. Seriously, despite the largely uninformed whining about the UN on various internet forums, it's still around and is still used by everybody for precisely the reason that no-one has been able to define a working alternative. Simple question - if, for ideological reasons you *don't* want UNTIL attached to the UN - who *would* be responsible for it? cheers, Mark

Re: combat luck and armor........ I'd agree. I don't cap attacks, either. It's a reasonable question, but I don't know. I really don't have a cap, so I'd have to look at the character in question and hear the justification. I have turned players down on requests occasionally, but it's always been along the lines of "Can you explain to me why the player has this power?" Or "Do you really think it would be fun to play this?" I guess I'd rather the player *chooses* to tone things down than force them to do it.

Re: Fighting talk Agreed.

Re: combat luck and armor........

Re: Realistic daily provisions

Re: combat luck and armor........

Re: Realistic daily provisions

Re: Fighting talk No, actually, you're right - I never owned a copy of Ninja Hero and I forgot about it. cheers, Mark

Re: Fighting talk Isn't that what KS: analyze style is for? cheers, Mark

Re: Suprised foes and noise My take is relatively straightforward: if the target is KO'ed without a chance to see it coming, he goes out quietly. There may be falling/clattering noises unless someone catches the body/stuff he was carrying. If the target is stunned, but not KO'ed, he will make some sort of noise, but nothing articulate or particularly loud. How any listeners react depends on their state of preparedness. If Nate goes round a corner and goes "Urk!" a SWAT team entering a potentially hostile building is likely going to react differently to two guys doing routine maintenance on a sewer pipe. If the target sees his attacker before he gets hit he gets a chance to say something (soliloquies take no time ) - but I'd probably make him DEX-off against the attacker to do so. If the target gets an action at all, he can raise all kinds of noise. cheers, Mark

Re: [Cosmology] The ur-Stone. (Thoughts wanted.) Works for me too. cheers, Mark

Re: Fighting talk

Re: PS: Explorer The usual way - a vigorous shove. cheers, Mark

Re: combat luck and armor........ Actually, in my game, I penalise armour use in a similar fashion to you (-1/-2/-3) for light, medium and heavy armours to DCV and DEX roll (in addition to any encumbrance). Armour on the head adds the same penalty to PER rolls. I don't require proficiency, but like you allow PSLs to offset the penalties. One thing I am considering is applying this penalty to REC as well, so prolonged action in heavy armour will eventually wear people down - tough characters could of course buy more REC to offset this. Even *with* the current penalties, armor is extremely attractive to players - I find too much so, if it's allowed to stack with combat luck. OTOH, I don't cap how much combat luck people can buy - it's more negotiation on a case by case basis. cheers, Mark

Re: combat luck and armor........

Re: Fighting talk