Messages

106

General Discussion / Re: Gencon 2016 Discussion

« on: August 06, 2016, 07:27:57 PM »

Confirmed: Kevin and James are ballers and picked up a promo card for me. Thanks, guys! <3

107

General Discussion / Re: Gencon 2016 Discussion

« on: August 05, 2016, 05:32:44 PM »

To anyone going to GenCon: would one of you mind picking something up for me? It's a digital exclusive for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/88525-obsidian-is-at-gen-con-stop-by-booth-103-and-get-some-sweet-swag/

Obsidian has a booth where they're giving out this rad motherfucker. Each card comes with an online code that can be used to acquire the code for the online version of the board game. It's totes free to grab one, so would any of y'all mind getting one such digital card for me?

108

Forum Suggestions / Re: Chat room

« on: August 04, 2016, 09:51:33 AM »

I'll believe it when I see it, Matthew. IF THAT'S EVEN YOUR NAME.

[Spoiler:]

109

Forum Roleplaying / Re: Character Bank 2.0

« on: August 03, 2016, 06:33:52 PM »

Wild Talents / Prominence-verse

Karesinda Megaloj, aka Gigas Vitro.

BIOGRAPHY

Spoiler: show

A woman who suffers from an extreme case of gigantism. At about 9'2, she is taller than any human ever has been. Contrary to myths of her condition, Kare's bones were actually incredibly fragile and she was confined to a wheelchair for almost half her life. Her heart was never powerful enough to circulate blood through her whole body with any degree of efficiency, her bones eventually could not sustain her height, and innumerable health issues spawned when Kare's over-active pituitary gland was artificially shut down. Kare approached life knowing it was temporary: made as many friends as possible, took as many opportunities as she could, and never passed up a chance to experience something unique. After all, no one with her condition ever lived past thirty. If nothing else, heart failure would be the end of her.

But two years ago, on her twenty-third birthday, she was surprised by friends and family with an act of charity: the world renowned surgeon and bio-tech engineer, Dr. Zachariah Gray, offered to provide Kare the first publically available procedure to restore her quality life--and even triple her expected lifespan. No cost. Just a long recovery time. Kare accepted.

The procedure was . . . complicated. Replacing much of her circulatory system (including her heart) with specially engineered, better parts. Secondly, replacing the bones of Kare's extremities with bio-tech facsimile: "bones" that could support her size, joints that'd let her keep her balance, and all out of materials that heal almost exactly the same as any ordinary bones.

And that was it. It went without a hitch. Two years of physical therapy and Kare was just a better human.

Then came the Reaper War, an international crisis that threatened all civilization. A madman sought to end the world. With the efforts of the Coalition of Heroes, he was stopped. But the world was wounded. Hundreds of millions of people without homes, entire cities reduced to rubble. Including Kare's home. Evacuations went surprisingly well; the Olympic stadium in her hometown was built well enough that it could survive a war. What came next, however, was messy. Rebuilding took effort, and there weren't enough people to spare for that effort. Kare took it upon herself to volunteer.

But rebuilding wasn't the hardest part. Sure, Kare devoted a lot of herself and her new strengths to aiding thousands, but the real problem were the looters, the murderers, and the madmen. All the worst of humanity that clawed out from under the rubble. It was only a matter of time before relief workers had to wear armor--and only a matter of time before Kare sought out these maniacs herself, to make her city a safer place.

APPEARANCE

Spoiler: show

Kare is a woman from northern Spain, about 25 years old. She is absurdly tall and lithe: 9'2 and 230 pounds. She has dark skin, green eyes, dark hair kept short and out of her eyes, and features proportional to her height. Like Robert Wadlow of the early 20th century, none of her features are exaggerated or awkward--she looks like any other human would, only twice as tall.

The appearance of Kare's alter-ego, Gigas Vitro, is still rather rudamentary. Light kevlar over the torso and legs, no sleeves, gauntlets, and a half-mask across her jaw and lips. It's all less to protect her identity (because that's impossible) and more to protect herself from knives, bats, dogs, and etc. Firearms aren't exactly a problem where she's from and it's rare for non-police officers to even own a firearm, so her costume doesn't account for them.

POWER PERMISSIONS

Spoiler: show

Cyborg + Inhuman Stats. I'm leaving 25 points free for Power Permissions. I'm at work at the moment and don't have access to anything other than the Wild Talents reference sheet.

STAT BLOCK

Spoiler: show

WILLPOWER      6
Body: 4 (Athletics: 1, Block: 1, Brawling: 2, Endurance: 2, Melee [Improvised]: 2)
Hyper: 1+1w (Athletics: 1h, Brawling: 1, Endurance: 1h)
Coord: 2 (Dodge: 2, Stealth: 0, Drive [Vehicle]: 0, Ranged [Rifle]: 1)
Hyper: 4
Sense: 3   (Empathy: 2, Perception: 2, Scrutiny: 2)
Mind: 3   (First Aid: 3, Medicine: 2, Navigation: 1, Research: 4, Security: 0, Streetwise: 0,    Survival: 2, Tactics: 0, Disguise: 0)
Charm: 3   (Lie: 2, Persuation: 2)   
Comm.: 3 (nterrogate: 1, Intimidate: 4, Stability: 3)

Miracle: Immunity (Knockdown). 2h

LOYALTIES & PASSIONS

Spoiler: show

Friends (2), Family (2), Dr. Gray (2)

POINT VALUES

Spoiler: show

Permissions: 25, Stats: 90, Hyperstats: 36, Skills: 82, Hyperskills: 5, Miracle: 9

110

Show Discussion / Re: From a long time listener, first time poster: thank you

« on: August 03, 2016, 04:31:09 PM »

Though I'm a Huge 40K nerd I don't place great importance on sticking to official stuff as the only true way, the game and universe was founded on homebrew and making your army "your guys" after all.

Oh, absolutely. That's one of the reasons I had the most fun playing Chaos Daemons in the wargame. They have the widest range of customization, and when you've drafted up an army, they really feel like your guys. Definitely more interesting (to me, anyhow) than Guardsmen or Space Marines. Unfortunately, Chaos was super gimped by Warp rules and almost unplayable against other armies.

111

Tabletops and You / Re: MAOCT Online Games

« on: August 02, 2016, 03:50:46 PM »

Weird kids also feel like a lower power level, so they can allow for conflicts that aren't immediately solved by a monster. You can have an even lower scale of powers if you use the Monster Might tables from the Candlewick Manor book. Honestly, I find the power scales used in Candlewick way more interesting than the base game--at least for PCes.

112

Show Discussion / Re: From a long time listener, first time poster: thank you

« on: August 02, 2016, 02:29:45 PM »

If you have the time I have a quick question about one of your previous characters, Avi from Rogue Trader: where did you get the inspiration for her (language, customs, physiology etc) and why did you chose to go with a OC xenos rather than one established in the lore? Thanks!

I don't mind at all. The inspiration mostly came from Greco-Roman mythology, Star Trek, and actual corvids. Most of her people's social tendencies are based on crows: materialism, vindictiveness, ingenuity, and mutual respect. We keep learning new things about the intricacies of crow societies and their intelligence. Some of the stuff I drew from is actually outdated now. Example: I'd originally written that her people have funeral services that an entire village will attend. When I wrote that, contemporary thought was that crows flock around their dead as an honorary service of a kind, but it was discovered last year that the murder of crows that hang around their dead are actually performing an investigation into the cause of death, so that the whole group will learn from it.

Appearance wise, she's based on harpies. I wanted to play an alien that wasn't as, well, alien as the other two options at the time (Orks and Kroot). Eldar and Tau were not yet playable at the time, and finagling either of those would've been even harder than drafting up a Star Trek style of alien, switching around some stat bonuses, and using the Kroot Mercenary tree. So that I didn't totally break established lore, I did a lot of research into lesser alien races established in the 40k universe and the ways they were handled. It was kind of important that they were lore friendly.

Their language was based on Esperanto, which was created in the late 1800s to be a kind of universal language. It didn't stick, but it's still spoken by a couple million people. I picked Esperanto (and then altered many of the common phrases Avi used in order to sound more alien) because it is an airy language that doesn't use as many labial sounds (m's, p's, v's, etc) as other languages. This was so that their language sounded more like a bird-song.

113

Forum Suggestions / Chat room

« on: August 02, 2016, 10:35:44 AM »

It's been a long while since I maintained an SMF style message board, but it seems that in recent years, some folk have actually made chat rooms work. Here are a few options:

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=search;basic_search=chat

This isn't exactly imperative or anything, but I figured it'd be a neat feature.

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Show Discussion / Re: From a long time listener, first time poster: thank you

« on: August 02, 2016, 10:01:05 AM »

Hi! Manda, Zach, and I will still be in Edge of the Empire, to be sure. I'll also never give up on the Prominence-verse, and will probably start posting them on the community site. It is my baby and I will cradle it through hell and back. But yes, aside from EoE, we won't be appearing in any further APs.

That is subject to change (for me) if James ever runs any of the many campaigns he's assured me that he'll get to someday. He's like my own personal Peter Molyneux at this point, only I can actually for real shake him and remind him of all the cool shit he's promised. Like I'm doing right now. 

115

Forum Suggestions / Custom user ranks

« on: August 02, 2016, 09:46:34 AM »

Such as "Cast Member" and "Former Cast Member." The former should be priority, I think. I know that James, Susan, and a couple others' usernames aren't indicative as to who they are in the podcast, so giving them the custom user rank of "Cast Member" (in place of a poster rank) might give users insight as to who they're chatting with on the forum. Likewise with the "Former Cast Member" user rank, as I'm regularly active on the forum, and should Manda, Zach, Sean, Alex, etc. start lurking and posting about, that'd be something to give them, too.

I was gonna suggest this awhile back, but kept forgetting. A recent post reminded me that it'd be a good idea to implement.

116

Tabletops and You / Re: Random Game Plots

« on: August 02, 2016, 09:37:24 AM »

Fortunately, my third wasn't garbage. I had to think long and hard to make some of the tropes actually work in a game, but it should altogether be a fun game. I'm probably going to run it this week sometime and post a link this weekend.

117

Tabletops and You / Re: Random Game Plots

« on: July 30, 2016, 08:25:00 AM »

Sure. I'll bite. I'll record something and post it soon, along with the notes from the random generator. Wouldn't want to spoil the plot for anyone I get to participate. I may have had to reroll twice in order to actually get something that could be contained in one session; the first two times I got the Academy of Adventure and World Tour settings, neither of which are conducive to a one-off. They'd have been fun (basically Road Trip and Curriculum of Conspiracy), to be sure, but impossible to contain in a single session.

[Spoiler:]

118

Forum Roleplaying / Re: Character Bank 2.0

« on: July 23, 2016, 09:22:19 AM »

I'll bite. There's a character idea I've been tossing around for awhile that I've yet to stat out.

MaOCT

Eustace E. Erhardt

Spoiler: show

Name: Eustace Ebenezer Erhardt, although most people call him "Fluke" as an in-joke.
Age: 15
Appearance: Tall and handsome for his age, clean cut, strong-jawed, with short brown hair and baby blue eyes. He's dreamy in a way that would be unnerving if folk weren't so intrinsically drawn to him.
Personality: Affable, sociable, the kind of guy that has an honorary membership in every clique, can be seen somewhere in the background at every party, but isn't known for being especially delinquent. Most call him Fluke because of his penchant at winning games--at winning everything--and the early days when he'd keep calling it a fluke victory.
Favourite Things: High stakes gambling, challenges, and group activities.
Darkest Secret: Because Eustace doesn't have acne, another kid has acne on top of his acne. When Eustace grows facial hair, he grows a masterpiece beard while no one else around him can grow a hair. When Eustace plays pool, he wipes the table, but no one else can make a single shot. When Eustace gambles, everyone plays high, but only Eustace wins. Deep down inside, he knows and exploits this ability.
Relationships: high stakes (2), the one that got away (1), the pursuit of failure (1)
Weird Relationships: Lady Luck (2)

Feet: 3
Dodge: 2 P.E.: 1 Kicking: 0
Guts: 3
Courage: 2 Wind: 1 Wrestling: 0
Hands: 3
Shop: 2 Punching: 1 Blocking: 0
Brains: 3
Notice: 1 Out-think: 2 Remember: 0
Face: 3
Charm: 1 Connive: 2 Putdown: 0 Thief of Luck: 5

Weird Power: Thief of Luck
Attacks: steal dice from another person in the scene; these dice are temporarily added to Eustace's corresponding stat, and go away either after use or after the scene ends
Useful: the scene proceeds in Eustace's favor, but another character in the scene suffers a tragedy of equal value¹
Extras: Wicked Fast x3


^1. Examples: if this is used to win money at cards, someone else at the table loses big; if he asking a girl to go steady with him, another person nearby is dumped; if he's surviving a lethal accident, another person in the accident dies.

119

Show Discussion / Re: Criticism and Comments

« on: July 22, 2016, 01:20:35 PM »

My major criticism at the moment is Kevin not returning my calls. We had a lovely evening together last week, and though I've tried to reach out to him since then--every hour on the hour, of course--he hasn't returned a single call.

120

Tabletops and You / Re: MAOCT Online Games

« on: July 22, 2016, 01:05:42 PM »

In theory, if there's enough interest and we can time it right I could run concurrent campaigns.

That'd be pretty fun, yeah! Let me know if/when you start recruiting for something like that; I'd be hella down.