CrosshairCollie

Re: The cranky thread Despite not having a bad fluid gain today, I have been impossibly tired and achy all afternoon. A four-hour nap didn't help at all.

Re: Stereotypes about the Superhero genre A lot of times, yes, though that's not always the case. A lot of it has to do with how you run the games ... for example, my games would easily pass Comics Code Authority rules (aside from language), just because that's how I like it. I like heroic heroes, not morally gray anti-heroes ... however, I have at least one player who definitely prefers his characters morally ambiguous at best, so he has some reason not to like my superhero games as much. At the same time, such a game could be run that he would like.

Re: My Elves Are Different! Why you gotta insult the foxes?

Re: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic HERO

Re: My Elves Are Different!

Re: A Thread for Random Videos This video makes me want to run a game where the PCs are all members of a combiner team.

Re: Flash Mob Only if the duplicates are time-travelling future selves, though.

Re: Flash Mob I'd probably go with Area Effect Selective for the en-masse beatdown. I like the Teleport power. That one's fun too. some others I came up with real quick ... "Okay, gang, let's split up and look for clues.": Telescopic N-Ray Vision blocked by inaccessible locations (say, a windowless warehouse with a locked door, or inside a locked safe). "100 man-hours, 100 of me ...": Skill levels only to reduce the penalties for rushing. "Take one for the team.": Missile Deflection. A little morbid, but potentially hilarious.

Re: Voodoo Mind Barrier 0 END on one's EGO applies when attempting to escape from an Entangle based on ECV, but I can't see anything that really works here ...

Re: Adjusting DCV I feel that game balance is more important than genre simulation; there are lots of things that occur in fiction that absolutely suck when applied to a game situation.

Re: Star Wars: i was wondering... I always considered that more than Luke just didn't have enough TK to move it. He made his skill roll, because the thing did move, but he didn't have enough Experience points spent to overcome its mass. I would do Force Powers kind of like the way I think of FH spells; typically, you start with a lot of limitations like Gestures, Concentration, Extra Endurance, Skill Roll and the like, but you can buy them off as you acquire XP. Depending on the character and how the player wanted to set it up (and his expertise with HERO), I'd have no problem with putting Force powers in an Elemental Control, Multipower, or Variable Power Pool.

Re: My Elves Are Different! Probably not. Ugly suckers.

Re: My Elves Are Different! The straw beast was merely a hyberbolic example, as I tend to do. I wouldn't do that ... on the other hand, I wouldn't care if someone else did, and I wouldn't go 'looking for elves' if a GM told me there weren't any. For a less hyperbolic example, let's consider the elves of the Warlords of the Accordlands RPG, who I definitely would consider using as elves in a gameworld. Some descriptive text: Most elves possess a strong sense of immediacy, and rarely have enough patience to work through any but the simplest plans. Anyone getting even a glance at a nearby elf also realizes that the tale of elves with pointed ears is but a myth caused by unknowingly looking upon an elf's horns from a distance. Elves in the world of the Accordlands live short lives of precisely 30 years. Most simply embrace their recently-returned mastery of necromancy. Also, Peter David, in his Star Trek novels, introduced a race that was nicknamed 'elves'. They were tall and willowy, with blue skin, crystalline eyes, and white mohawks. They also had very limited mind-control capability, kind of a 'hyper-persuasion' power (Kind of like Mind Control with a maximum command level of +10). Now, I don't see a problem with calling either of these 'elves'. I suspect a fair chunk of it is my familiarity with D&D, which regularly accosts mythology, drags it into a dark alley and beats it with an olive loaf ... I simply do not care if the terminology of a game world is consistent with real world mythological sources (unless that game is intended to take place in the real world, at which point none of it exists anyway). I have yet to encounter a player who has voiced any serious objections to this concept, either, when I have used non-feral werecreatures, a neutral-to-helpful Lich, an erudite Minotaur, and similar creatures.

Re: My Elves Are Different! (Hi, Jack!) I think of this as a problem more with Total Commitment Psych Lims in general than specifically a Code of Honor. Here's my read (and by all means, correct me if I'm wrong), in Orion's game sometimes the good guys need to get a little down and dirty and underhanded. A character with a Total Commitment to being Honorable won't be able to participate in such activities, and depending on the character, may try to intercede and stop the rest of the characters from the operation. The problem isn't so much the Lim itself as that the character is utterly inflexible; he can't suck it up and say 'Okay, I don't like it, but if it's the only way ...'. This is a problem with most any Total Commitment Psych Lim; it impedes teamwork and results in logjams because Character A absolutely will not, under any circumstances, yield his point of view. I have considered banning Total Psych Lims for PCs for precisely this reason; that level of fanaticism is usually not conducive to teamwork. Besides, people who think their way is the only way, and that everybody should do things their way ... well, I tend to question their mental health. As far as the different elf thing goes ... again, I don't see it. If I make a game world (or other work of fiction) and create a quadrupedal creature of animate straw with tusks and say 'In my world, this is what is called an elf', I can't really be wrong. It's fiction ... elves don't exist and never existed, so arguing over the 'real definition' strikes me as kind of weird.

Re: The cranky thread Thanks. I did finally manage to get some sleep this afternoon, so I feel better ... but still like 10 pounds of **** in a five pound bag.

Re: The cranky thread I woke up at about 11am Monday. Haven't been asleep since. Went to dialysis this morning. Went horribly. Still can't f***ing sleep. Really getting sick of this.

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life. "Life's a b**ch ... and she had puppies."

Re: Best/Worst Characters? I could answer the 'why did someone make Mechanon' question, as I do own Book of the Machine, but I sense I'd be slapped down hard for spoilers.

Re: My Elves Are Different! I think Enforcer hits something there. Humans, have, traditionally, been the 'generic' race, with no particular upside or downside, no real strengths or weaknesses, and no stereotypical personality traits*. This makes them unappealing for a lot of gamers because, well, they dont do anything. No special abilities of any sort, and they're something you can see when you look out your window at the real world, which makes them 'not fantastic' (fantastic meaning 'pertaining to fantasy'). I would be more likely to run a game with no humans than no nonhumans, myself, and I doubt my players would bat an eyelash. As one of them likes to put it, "If I wanted to be a human, I'd go outside." *Outside of the occasional Humans Are Bastards.

Re: What power ideas/concepts do you get from these code names? Firstly, they're a team sponsored by Mountain Dew. Code Red: Someone with enhanced senses, including danger sense. Pitch Black: Darkness powers Livewire: Electrical Powers Throwback: The ability to become super-strong, but at a cost of his intellect White Out: Light powers Voltage: Electrical powers again Supernova: Flying brick Revolution: Telepathic 'inspiration'; the ability to give battlecries that boost CVs, recover Stun, and the like; alternately, a spinning speedster Ultraviolet: Light powers; alternately, a martial artist with superhuman attributes, either named violet or wearing a violet costume.

Re: My Elves Are Different!

Re: My Elves Are Different! That would be an example in the other direction, yes.

Re: Best/Worst Characters? Yes, but something like metal or stone would probably work better, unless there were ... secondary considerations. Which is where my brain guttering comes into play. And even without that, you just know the jokes are gonna fly ...

Re: Enhanced Attacks Another fine example. Nicely played.

Re: The cranky thread Well, taking a peek at an online auto parts warehouse site, the most expensive one listed was about 160 bucks. That obviously doesn't include labor or anything of the sort, though.