seneschal

Hmmm, Shaggy and Scooby Doo scream like little girls and run like the wind at the slightest hint of the unusual. But pull out a fresh pizza and they're all good. Either they don't actually suffer SAN loss, or they recover SAN "hit points" with sufficient nourishment, or they're just plain crazy anyway, so it doesn't matter. Now, a HERO System PC would have stood his ground and one-punched the charging lion.

Ahem! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogre_%28game%29

GM: You see some trolls on the other side of the bridge. Player: We rush the bridge an attack! GM: Are you sure? Don't you want to count and see how many trolls there are, first? Player: Count? I have to count? What sort of game is this! I have to do math?!! What, did we loose a war or something? It doesn't matter how many trolls you face if you've got an O.G.R.E.

Oops! I somehow got the idea it was June 15 instead of July. I guess I'll have a little more time to expand and polish my entry.

It's not so much the raw as the cold, sticky rice they wrap it in. Ick!

But see, regardless of what professional math-intensive tasks they complete successfully by day, your players arrive at your table in relaxation mode. Their math minds are turned off. They just want to roll the dice, munch some pizza, and clobber some goblins. Calculator? Charts? Rulebook? But ... that's what the GM is for!!! That's what I had to do when I taught my teen and pre-teen players how to play 30 years ago. Why would it be any different now? Besides, it gives you the advantage. If they're not paying attention, you can have anything happen regardless of how the funny colored polygons roll.

Did you like Sengoku (even though it was BRP-less)?

When I think of shields, I think of Captain America swatting aside goons, or knocking several of them about with a dynamic discus toss. Or Zandor (The Herculoids ) using his shield as a mini-glider. Game mechanics?

If you get rid of stats, you're almost into Risus or PDQ territory, where a character would lose competency in skills as he took damage instead of losing hit points. It's a workable mechanic, but at that point is it still BRP?

FYI, Blood and Badges, the results of the 2010 contest, is now available via paperback and PDF. And the deadline for the 2011 contest is a week away.

"I've been thinking of tying STR more closely to SIZ. There probably shouldn't be characters with STR 18, SIZ 8. " I'm not so sure. There was a boy in my junior high gym class who was a little squirt ... except that he'd apparently been picked on as a younger kid and had compensated by taking up bodybuilding. He was a squat, muscular fireplug of a guy, not someone you'd want to grapple with. Take Conan or Tarzan and squash 'em to under 5 feet and you get the general effect.

You buy it with unobtainium, of course!

So why is it that so many of my characters are dull and defective?

To take this further, choose two of your favorite monster movies and mash them together: e.g., Alien + Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It'll give you more characters and plot twists to work with and prevent your players from immediately figuring out what you're up to. Often, however, changing the setting and renaming the characters is sufficient. The original Dracula and Mummy movies share the same plot (ancient undead magic-wielding creep has the hots for a sexy young thing and won't let anyone stand in his way) but feel different.

Source: Tim Byrd, Doc Wilde and the Frogs of Doom, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, NY, 2009 Essentially, it’s Doc Savage (and his son and grandchildren) versus the Deep Ones in the Amazon rainforest. The book is necessarily kid-friendly, of course. The plot will be familiar to both Doc Savage and H.P. Lovecraft fans. What makes Byrd’s tale stand out is his sheer variety of frog monsters, since the other-worldly entity trying to devour the world inevitably reshapes all Earth animals within reach in its own image. So we’ve got: Frog warriors – These are man-sized bipedal creatures with lots of sharp teeth and long, sharp claws. They wear moldy robes and were once men. They’re mooks, at least when battling fabled pulp heroes. Also known as Leap Ones. Spy frogs – Squishy bundles of living glue, these large-eyed amphibians can stick to any surface and are harmless … except that they act as living remote camcorders for the Frog God and its minions. Flying frog-eagles – Colorful winged frogs with sharp talons and raptor beaks, flying frogs are the Frog God’s attack drones. Fortunately, they’re as vulnerable to the upper air’s cold temperatures as any other frog. Gremlitoads (and gremlipoles) – Metal-dissolving critters perfect for wrecking machinery, such as the heroes’ escape vehicle. Gremlipoles (the immature form) are microscopic tadpoles, invisible to the naked eye, and can be carried by other mutated critters. Saber-toothed frogs – They are 200-pounds of toothy destruction with a ridge of spines down their backs. They hunt in packs. Frog-squid – It’s a random mutated predator rather than an actual minion, as large as a middle-schooler at least, with vestigial webbed feet and lots of tentacles. The Emerald Frog – A mystic artifact created by an evil sorcerer in Sumerian times and subsequently lost when said magician was slain by a brawny barbarian warrior. It next appeared in the hands of Large Mouth Benny, American gangster and would-be world conqueror, in 1948. The artifact is a life-sized emerald frog with ruby eyes. It is the key to opening our universe to the Frog God. Within the evil entity’s Amazonian sphere of influence, it can come to malign life and transform any human foolish enough to be holding it at the time into an avatar of the Frog God itself.

For inspiration, you might also browse through Mazes and Minotaurs, another free product. http://storygame.free.fr/MAZES.htm It's a D&D 1st edition near-clone designed for Harryhausen-style fantasy rather than for historical adventures, but it has eight 40-80 page supplements containing culturally accurate settings, critter write-ups, scenarios, deity descriptions, and campaign ideas.

It was apparently two years ago. And I just heard about it today while pulling up random superhero stuff online. Speaking of superheroes ... Homeric action heroes. They'd need the CON+SIZ calculation for Hit Points. They'd get occasional special equipment from assorted divine relatives. They'd be able to wade through mooks easily but engage in regular gritty combat against other heroes. They'd get occasional power boosts from a godly sponsor, enabling them to perform outrageous feats temporarily until it wore off.

Hmmm, no comment after 46 views. Does that indicate reverent awe ... or stunned horror?

But enough of the linothorax controversy. Let's start a NEW ancient Greek controversy ... Beyonce as Wonder Woman. Discuss. >:>

FYI, Paizo.com is having a sale on old, mint-condition RPG products. They've got 16 Top Secret modules but not the core rules. http://paizo.com/store/sale/americanEagles/

Bored of the broo? Find Deep Ones dull? Wearied of werewolves? Inspiration for new monsters for your campaign is as close as the children’s section of your local library. The Fluffs have landed. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Source: Andrea Beaty, Attack of the Fluffy Bunnies, Abrams Books, New York, New York, 2010 Fluffs Voracious, intelligent, telepathic predators from another galaxy, F.L.U.F.F.s (Fierce, Large, Ugly, and Ferocious Furballs) bear an unfortunate resemblance to cute, cuddly terrestrial bunny rabbits. Initial exposure to Earth’s atmosphere reduced the invaders from their normal 7-foot stature, causing further confusion with herbivorous local Lagomorphs. In reality, Fluffs’ apparently soft, fuzzy fur consists of microtubules designed for absorbing carbohydrates from the environment and for radiating telepathic communications. Fluffs’ long ears are also appendages capable of delivering stunning slaps. Their large, limpid eyes mesmerize potential prey, allowing Fluffs to get within striking range. Fluffs can also assume the form of their latest ingested victim, an ability rarely used on their perished home world, where they had multiplied like, well, rabbits and devoured all other animal life forms. Fluffs require sugar to live, and seek out sweets with the single-minded dedication of a drug addict. They also need a certain amount of protein but can survive indefinitely without meat. They just enjoy stalking and ravaging other creatures. Deprived of sugar, however, they shrink and lose their telepathic abilities and bipedal stance. Fluffs didn’t develop (or need) tools and technology on their own planet but they’re smart enough to dope out sophisticated human gear and use it to their advantage. When their home world was threatened by a killer meteor, they escaped via an unmanned Earth rocket ship, which had landed (and which they had ignored after they had eaten the robotic probes) years before. STR 3D6+21 (31-32) CON 2D6+6 (13) SIZ 3D6+21 (31-32) INT 2D6+6 (13) POW 3D6 (10-11) DEX 3D6+6 (16-17) APP 2D6+10 (16) Move: 11 Hit Points: 23 Damage Bonus: +1D4 Armor: 5 AP, just out of sheer cussedness Attacks: Bite 25%, 1D10+1/2db; Claw 35%, 1D6+db; Ear-Slap 40%, 2D6+2+db; Swirly Eyes 60%, Mind Control Skills: Climb 25%; Command 45%; Disguise 30%; Dodge 34%; Drive (or Pilot) Random Vehicle 20%; Heavy Machine 35%; Hide 25%; Jump 55%; Language (Fluff) 65%; Language (English) 50%; Listen 70%; Spot 25%; Stealth 40%; Strategy 30%; Technical Skill 20%; Track 45% Powers: Alternate Form (one, most recent victim); Armor (Kinetic); Extra Energy; Mind Control; Super Hearing Failings: Full-time Super Identity (alien rabbit monster, +5); Physical Frailty (must have sugar, +3); Bad Habit (eats people, +3); Socially Excluded Group (ravenous alien invader, +3) Notes: Characteristics were based on polar bear stats, given the Fluffs’ SIZ and natural weaponry. DEX is equivalent to that of a chimpanzee. Based on the characteristics, the Fluffs’ initial Power Point budget was 134, plus 14 more for Failings. Its Mind Control power was borrowed from the Psychics section of the Big Gold Book, since mental super powers aren’t delineated. Comments? Jeers? Suggestions?

How does this compare to the MRQ1 Deluxe SRD that we already had?

We think of those materials as soft and fragile ... and they are as T-shirt or bathrobe cloth. But the ancients laminated them together something in the way that old newsprint is glued to make paper mache. The result was hard and surprisingly tough. As long as you didn't get it wet, it was pretty effective. "My dad went to Troy, and all I got was this lousy linothorax."

You fiend! My player-characters will be less safe now that these things are running around.

Re: a similar discussion on RPG.net ... since "Wayfarer" is already being used as a RPG title, they should call it World of Duckness: GlyphMission The changes are generating similar feelings on the other site.