Old Man

Wars in general are like that--very chaotic and exhibiting high sensitivity to initial conditions. That's why I find that wars are generally to be avoided in foreign policy, unless they're the kind of wars Sun Tzu espouses: the ones you don't start until you've already won. And even then there is a good chance things could go sideways.

I once played in a Danger Int campaign wherein lightly-armored agents and NPCs went up against each other with SMGs. The campaign lasted approximately three phases.

*sigh* Pics people!

Don't you know only I am allowed to have a double standard?

I'd like to see some enforcement for the "rude to call" hours.

Perhaps not so unreasonable...

Sounds like an oversight to me. Probably not caught until now because only you have attempted to do the math. (Seriously I don't think I've ever attempted to really define a base or building in Hero terms.)

Hero is actually positioned pretty well to capitalize on the non-grinding space. In CRPGs, PC actions are really limited by the constraints of the software and the input devices. One of the best things about Hero is that the system can support all kinds of weird actions the players might come up with. Smash my opponent with a car I picked up? Frighten him with an impressive display of destruction? Grab him, trip him, poke him in the eye? Hit two or more bad guys with one stroke? Use my superior agility to slip past him? Render him unconscious without killing him? Kick through a door? Handle range penalties at literally cosmic distances? Arm wrestle? Swing from a rope? Jump out of the way? Fight in a dark room? All of these eventualities are clearly, consistently, and reasonably realistically handled by Hero. I have yet to see any other game system that even approaches this level of versatility.

I remember having to write comments like "THIS VELOCITY IS FASTER THAN C" or "MASS SHOULD NOT BE A NEGATIVE QUANTITY".

Do you even lift?

That's what CC is and (hopefully) FHC will become. Or at least they're a step in the right direction. To me I think one big change that needs to be made is in presentation. IMO much of the perceived complexity of Hero is a result of character creation, which is where all the "hard math" occurs. To play devil's advocate, admit it--if you ever thought about using a spreadsheet to handle character creation, then character creation is probably going to be not fun for a significant percentage of potential gamers. For many, character creation is a necessary chore that delays getting to the fun, and as such a long creation process can be a real turnoff. Once characters are made, though, the complexity goes away, to be replaced with a virtually table-free combat/action system that scales incredibly well, requires very little math, is mechanically consistent, and captures the feel of cinematic action. Without restricting plausible character actions, or encouraging ridiculous character actions. For this reason I've often thought that Hero books are laid out backwards. They should start with the combat and power rules, with sample characters for immediate use, and character creation should be in the back. If you want to take this to an extreme, you could actually use Hero to build a (gag) class-based PC framework, with (choke) predefined powers/spells, and it would be perfectly playable. These would serve as training wheels until the players were ready to take them off and play a grown-up game.

So, turns out my coworker is Gary Gygax's daughter.

Stats need pics! Stat! MG34: MG42: Type 99 LMG: BAR:

As opposed to DEN, which would be short for "dense".

Ever see the movie Solaris?

Harrison Ford's broken ankle has apparently badly screwed up the production schedule--understandable given that he seems to be the lead.

That would be pretty cool, although I wonder if it wouldn't be more efficient to just put the reactor onshore.

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME HANDEGG?!!!

I see what you did there.

The Wing Commander movie you mean? Starring noted thespian Freddie Prinze Jr.? (And also Matt Lillard, Saffron Burrows, and Tcheky Karyo, who are all pretty solid actors?) My favorite part was when they had to push the crashed fighter off the deck with a bulldozer so other fighters could land... in zero-G.

Interesting because it looks like an AR15 but has no buffer tube. Some digging shows that it's an AK type action, however.