Balabanto

Re: Gestalt is Online The price is comparable with other 400 page books at this time in the market. THe color version costs 80 dollars, and it's well worth it. Even people who proofed it have to pay for it, so I took the PDF only. It should be available on Lulu.Com in the next few weeks.

Re: Organization SUSHI Well, Rod, the problem is that I have to actually file the serial numbers off by building new people, and rewriting plots wholesale. Now, that sits not too well with players unless the revised material is really good. So it forces me not only to do double work, but to make sure that everything is perfect. Now, I'm a pretty anal guy, Rod, you know that, but that means that my bases are covered AND my "wow factor" is intact. Because if I don't do it that way, that means that things aren't being properly playtested, and I'm not a fan of that, either.

Re: Organization SUSHI It's Supreme Underground Science Headquarters International. Dennis Mallonee officially owns the rights to this. (First appearance in print GSVC) You don't know how many times I've wanted to revise something, publish it in Digital Hero and get sand kicked in my face metaphorically because of this man. He FORCED ME TO REBOOT MY UNIVERSE TO MAKE EVERYTHING CONSISTENT! I had to create a TIME TRAVELLING VILLAIN named BODITO BODITAY, of all things, JUST TO MAKE SURE THAT EVERYTHING THAT WAS MADE BY DENNIS AND DOUGLAS SHULER GOT REWRITTEN! There's an expression now that's used by people who went on these adventures called "Boditayed." What they mean in game is "He used to be someone else." But what it really means is...The GM got kicked in the teeth by the awesome power of Copyright Laws. At least when I ask Mark Arsenault for something, he says YES! Followed by "Can I see it? This could be cool!"

Re: Wings of the Valkyrie update Updating Wings is somewhat problematic because technically the product was recalled. The moral implications of the adventure are nasty, but not unbelievable.

Re: (Character) The American Samurai You know, it's not really necessary to make him Invincible Man. He gets six attacks (which he can use on all the odd phases), and then dodge at the top of all the even numbered ones. This character is actually brutally twinky, because his DCV tops out at...14, with 25 points of defenses. Since no one goes on 1, he can pretty much generate DCV 14 whenever he wants, soak every single attack until the next phase where his opponent doesn't go (Average SPD in the game is still 5, so he attacks again on 2, he dodges on 3, loses his 4, attacks on 5 (Probably downing his opponent if the 3 shots, you're down rule averages out), if not, he takes a single shot, attacks again on 6, opponent is definitely dropped. If for some reason his opponent is faster than he is, he just generates DCV 14 until a phase where the guy doesn't go, attacks, and dodges again. This build is BROKEN. A little mastery of the combat rules and he's a god of combat, unassailable by all except the mightiest of master villains, who laugh at his KA and shoot him first, having heard about how ridiculous he is.

Re: The Return of the Golden Age At least it's Strazynski doing it. So there's hope for it.

Re: Gestalt is Online Go buy this. As soon as you can.

Re: Gestalt Player's Guide -- Free Dowload Available It is really cool.

Re: Watch out! New Superhero in town!! This is utterly and completely awesome.

Re: When the good cosmic being motiffs are taken You're too late. "I am Bab-i Yanoq, God of the Earth." Shadow Lord: You're the deity who allows me to cast druidic magic. Bab I-Yanoq: Yes. Shadow Lord: Can I call you Bob for short? Bab I-Yanoq: If you wish. These mortal appelations matter not. And so it was that I effectively acquired Bob, god of the Earth. That was in 1997.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From a Forgotten Realms D+D game I run. The characters are slaves in Thay, an evil nation notorious for wicked wizards and evil deeds. PC Swashbuckler: I believe that in matters of freedom and slavery, one should simply follow the wind. GMPC: That sounds an awful lot like farting.

Re: Villains to go with words that came into my head. Blurry eyesight for the first one, weird flash attacks and enhanced sense suppresses. Cloud of floating programmable nanobots for the second one.

Re: Soundtracks? There is only one band for incidental music for supers games IMHO. Other than villain specific music (How to be a Millionaire, ABC, for a villain named Millionaire, etc), that band is Juno Reactor. There's also an interesting band called Celldweller who has some interesting instrumentals that are useful. I try not to use music specifically themed for movie supers.

Re: SPD and DEX for superheroic martial artists? At least this company isn't publishing a "Rules Compendium' seven years after the game has been issued as a SEPARATE MANUAL. Check out the audacity of wizards and realize just how much better Hero System is. Quite frankly, after reading the Pathfinder setup, I'm wondering just how long it is before Wizards drops D+D completely and sells the rights to Paizo.

Re: Maps Well, if you want, there's some excellent maps of various city locations in Digital Hero #27, and Digital Hero #40. I know because I wrote those adventures. There's an urban block, a suburban block, and a marina. There's also the Hero System GM screen, which has some maps in it. In addition, there's some pretty good maps in Champions: Battlegrounds, including a colossal shopping mall. If you can wait for Foxbat For President, there are maps of a boardwalk style city street, a prison yard, a hospital, a traditional brownstone type building (Built on a 25 x 100 foot lot, because Cornelius Vanderbilt was the biggest jackass ever to walk the earth.), and a suburban home.

Re: Strange Hero Concepts: Discuss Your Own! Well, actually, the weirdest concept in Legacies is Lady Polarity, who has the power of Weak Force Control. That's right, she controls submolecular cohesion. It sounds stupid, but sadly, she's phenomenally powerful for her point total.

Re: Paralysis Ray: Would you allow this? Dude, that power is nasty, but it could be worse. Just buy an autofire penetrating speed suppress. Until the suppress is removed, they're paralyzed. Unfortunately, Mental Paralysis and powers like it have a tendancy to be highly sought after.

Re: SPD and DEX for superheroic martial artists? Well, the issue here for me isn't just low end vs. high end. It's "what's a good middle." The thing is that in order to have a good middle, and also have good ends, you need to make sure that everything is affected across the board. And by this, I don't just mean the PC's. Now, I run a world with about 50-70 PCs, plus everyone else, so I've seen the effects of all kinds of stuff on the gameworld. And unfortunately, I've found that the standard DEX and SPD ranges really do work, as long as you don't let people have SPD above 6. The problem comes in here: Let's say you have player A. Player A views your world as working like the DC comics of the sixties and seventies. Because that's what he read. He believes that because of what he chooses to focus on, heroes should work in way X. He builds his character with a 26 DEX and a 6 SPD, and justifies everything along the way. Now you have player B. Player B views your world as working like the Marvel Comics of the late 70's and early 80's. He has a very different idea of what superheroes are from player A. His character has a 23 DEX and a 5 SPD, and he justifies everything along the way, too. Now let's take player C. Player C views the world as working along the lines of whatever era in comics the character he designs is supposed to be from. His character has a DEX of 20 and a SPD of 6. Now...what's the problem? They have EXACTLY the same concept. Now, as a GM, you can tell people to rearrange some points. But the problem is, there are situations where people think a lot of this stuff isn't fair. We don't live in an age anymore where the GM is god. Instead, we live in this creepy age of negotiation. Roleplaying is not cooperative storytelling to the point where people barter for favors. You don't see this at conventions because all the rounds have pregens. But I have players who come to me with complaints about other players all the time. I'm not a gamemaster anymore. I'm a therapist and a creative consultant.

Re: The artwork drives me nuts At least none of you guys are Bill Sienckewicz

Re: EMERGENCY HELP: I need an adventure idea STAT Robot Development Corporation. A corporation announces that they have cheap,affordable robots, and that the technology works. They are planning on opening production. There are no robots. It's really an evil necromancer who is making brains in jars and using the energy from the brains to mystically power the mechanical bodies. Signature moment. When the robot the PC's have befriended over the course of two or three sessions debates what's better, robots or humans, and they ask him what's inside, and he says... "This shell is not me..." And he pauses, opens up his chest and shows them the brain. "This is me. Right here...." Then you end the session.

Re: How would you make You buy them a mimic pool. If you want to copy the person, that's easy, you don't need a separate shapeshift power. If you want to BECOME the person/Possess them/Take them over you can spend upwards of 252 character points just to look like the target. Since I put this horrid thing IN Foxbat For President, to some extent, and gave instructions on how to build it, and it's LONG, I'm not going to reprint an entire chunk of something that will be in DH later here. (It's probably one of the most obnoxiously long ECs to represent a single ability ever produced.) But you'll like it. It's both classic AND cheesy AND creepy at the same time.

Re: When the good cosmic being motiffs are taken Lord of all that is catching seafood, he is...The Master Baiter!!!! Wait...that's not right...is it? She is the mistress of improperly filtered liquids across the universe, behold the limitless power of Dysenteria!!!!! He is the cosmic overseer of all maintaince men, observe the colossal power of...JANITO, Lord of the Cosmic Mop!

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Kitsune: I'd like to construct a binding ritual for the blood demon. Me: You need some tea and fishoil paste, a wooden block, a silver chopstick, a web of paper attached to rope, and the semen of a magical creature. Ktisune: Excuse me? Me: Yes. At least you have a contact. Kitsune: I call my Tanuki Contact. "Hello, can I speak to you?" Tanuki: "Sure! Got a problem that requires really big balls?" Kitsune: Yes. I need your semen. It says so in this spell description. Tanuki: "Excuse me?" Kitsune: "Says so right here." Tanuki: I want to see this. If you're lying to me, I'll smother you in my scrotum. Later that evening... Kitsune: There it is. See? Tanuki: Well...umm...we can do this the boring way, or the fun way. Which will it be? Kitsune: Well, how about the fun way? You have condoms without spermicide, right? Me: OH MY GOD! I really thought you were going to offer him something of benefit in the spirit world. PC: I was in a hurry...

Re: Are all the good names really taken? Viagrator? Wow, you are insecure.

Re: Secret Identities and Teammates The problem with this is that in many worlds (including this one), telepaths are feared. If Bob, Fred, Joe, and Harry all have secret ids, all know each other, and they all have high EGO scores, then it's okay. But if Fred has EGO 8, guess what. Suddenly, the telepath doesn't just know Freds SID. He also knows Bobs, Joes, and Harrys.