Old Man

Re: "Neat" Pictures Stjop it you guys.

Re: More space news!

Re: More space news! I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to replace step four with a Mars colony. It's much further, but it also seems easier to set up a colony on a body that has some atmosphere as well as greater quantities of water ice. Eventual terraforming of Mars also seems like a feasible, if very long-term, goal--more so than trying to terraform the moon at least.

Re: Pirate Hero I'm not sure that's the case. While the Vikings supplement included rules for berserkers, rune magic, and sorcerers, the Pirates supplement had stats for match- and flintlock firearms. Including swivel guns.

Re: Cool Guns for your Games There's no particular reason this needs to have a firearm form factor at all, really. It would fit into a walking stick or a scary mask, or just about anything.

Re: Needing a Name for a Density Increase Super Heroine Destiny Inrseace? Or more seriously, Starheart.

Re: Cool Guns for your Games A solid choice, though I personally can't stand the trigger safeties on those things.

Re: "Neat" Pictures Actually, the colors in the Multicultural box are black, sepia, peach, apricot, white, tan, mahogany and burnt sienna. http://www.crayolastore.com/product_detail.asp?T1=CRA+52-080W&.

Re: Destroy Your Geek Cred!! That's not true. You see, Mhoram is undead...

Re: Why I prefer HERO System over Pathfinder/OGL/D&D for fantasy

Re: Why I prefer HERO System over Pathfinder/OGL/D&D for fantasy For fantasy, Hero is better than all other game systems because: - It is scalable enough to handle anything from historical medieval campaigns to Clash of the Titans-scale demigod combat - Its combat system can be set from gritty realism to superheroic or anywhere in between - Its combat system includes organic, well balanced rules for martial arts, most typical 'tricks' like tripping and grabbing, and pure skill - Or even unconscious vs. dead/dying--I really haven't seen any other fantasy system do this well - Different weapons have different in-game effects - Powers can simulate the magic system from any fantasy setting I can think of - Character creation can simulate any creature from any fantasy setting I can think of - Players and GMs can design an infinite variety of spells or even use freestyle/'wild' magic - The disad system encourages at least a rudimentary level of roleplaying - A bunch of other things I'm forgetting For fantasy, Hero has only a handful of flaws that should be easily overcome. The points costs are wrong for the genre, the learning curve is too high for new players, and there needs to be a greater effort to make it 'feel' less like supers. That's about it, and you could pretty much solve all three with one genre book.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings I said good-bye to a friend of mine today--my good friend's brother, actually, but a friend in his own right. Nicest guy you could ever meet. Played airsoft and warhammer. We talked about modding our cars a lot--he was always willing to do more radical things to his vehicles than I was to mine, but I really liked his Accord. You hear about guys who are quiet and dependable, but that cliché fit this guy perfectly. If you ever needed a hand, with anything, you could call him. There are a lot of ways I wish I could be more like him. Christmas Eve he was walking back to the house with some of his family and he just instantly died for no apparent reason. Dead before he hit the ground. He must have set some kind of record for abrupt, unexpected, poorly timed deaths. Kid was 37. I thought I would be all right at the funeral, but I was totally wrong. His family, my friends, weren't over it at all. There was just no time to prepare and no hint that it might be coming. I wept for an hour. Hell, I'm still not over it. All I can think about is that Christmas morning there were a lot of presents waiting for him under the tree.

Re: The cranky thread Are you taking requests?

Re: The cranky thread Well... you know that strange odor you've been smelling since I posted that?

Re: The cranky thread * hides voodoo doll of XO *

Re: Sci-Fi Melee Weapons: Bat'leth, Lirpas, Lightsabres, Rykk Blades, Koltari, Denn'B Leaving aside the Hero stats for a moment-- The Lirpa is interesting because the center of mass would be very far toward the club end. This would lend it toward being wielded with the hands closer to the club end, as a sort of very long axe, with the tactical bonus that you could catch your swinging Lirpa toward the blade end and quickly transfer the momentum to the club end without having to muscle it into motion so much. I'd expect a martial art built around the Lirpa to involve a lot of circular slashing/smashing strikes with an emphasis on keeping the thing swinging. Of course it ought to have a high STR min as befits the cheesy Vulcan race, as well as a reach advantage and an OCV penalty. The Ryyk blades would also have a high STR min but the layouts vary so much. Some might be statted out as a plain 2H sword, but the tonfalike ones might have an OCV penalty and a bonus to block. Bat'leths are probably the most versatile weapon in the list--one or two hand operation, lends itself to blocking, and has flanges that could make it good for disarming. Definitely an OCV penalty though, if not an outright requirement that you learn the martial art to use it. Of course, alien races don't have a monopoly on suicidally weird melee weapons.

Re: "Neat" Pictures Hurling oneself out of a perfectly good aircraft never looked so relaxing.

Re: The "Nice Happy" Thread No vomiting today! (So far. )

Re: More space news! No, I think they'd love to see a manned space program. They're just realistic given the political climate and the current NASA budget, or lack thereof. If we could pay for the manned program out of the defense budget* I think you'd find few scientists who would oppose it. * While somehow keeping the military out of it, of course.

Re: Destroy Your Geek Cred!! But not the boojum.

Re: Unleash The Clockworks Of War! I really have to say that "clockwork" as a special effect to me strongly suggests that the primary power source is windup. Obviously, this being fantasy, the clockworks will somehow put out much more power than any windup spring could reasonably deliver. But I'm also amused by the idea of the clockmage frantically rewinding his clockwork poleaxe in combat.

Re: The cranky thread

Re: The cranky thread Now I feel like I wasted a perfectly good bag of barf.

Re: More space news! The people I know in the astronomy and planetary geosciences fields hate the ISS passionately because it sucks up the lion's share of the space exploration budget without providing anything like a reasonable ROI in terms of science. About all it can do is long term microgravity experiments, and you don't really need a permanent station to do that. That said, I don't think there's a conspiracy involved so much as ignorant political interference. What's sexier, a robot probe or a manned space station? What's sexier, a tin can disposable rocket or a space shuttle that looks like an airplane?

Re: Unleash The Clockworks Of War! Mark_I_Fire_Control_Computer