The Role Playing Public Radio Forums
General Category => Role Playing Public Radio Podcast => : Salrantol November 23, 2009, 04:49:44 PM
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I am looking to do a knock-off of the GURPS Modern League of Extraordinary Gentlemen that Ross ran some time ago. I did, however, want to ask a few questions before I began the game:
What problems did you have with system or players that I should look out for?
Do you think the power level (200 points, I believe) was the right one for the game concept?
Were the players familiar with the system before playing?
Approximately how long did character creation take (if you can remember back that far)?
Would you resolve the issue of multiple iterations of a character (i.e. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) differently?
I can't praise highly enough the farcical ridiculousness of the second session of your MLoEG game. Fantastic job all around.
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What problems did you have with system or players that I should look out for?
I wasn't as familiar with GURPS as I should have been. It wasn't too much of a problem except when it came to psychic powers and the like - Firestarter was too powerful in the first game.
Do you think the power level (200 points, I believe) was the right one for the game concept?
Honestly, no. They should have been at least 250 and probably 300-500 points. Depends on how cinematic you want to get though.
Were the players familiar with the system before playing?
Not really.
Approximately how long did character creation take (if you can remember back that far)?
At least an hour, probably close to two.
Would you resolve the issue of multiple iterations of a character (i.e. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) differently?
What are you referring to? I don't remember that detail.
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Would you resolve the issue of multiple iterations of a character (i.e. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) differently?
What are you referring to? I don't remember that detail.
When the players, in the second session, wanted to summon the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to help them, there was a question of *which* Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would come: the comic book turtles, the TV cartoon turtles, etc. Despite Tom's character claiming to know them (not farfetched since they operated in the same turf), you decided that not only the comic book turtles, whom the Lizard knew, and the other varieties existed and randomly determined which would come, resulting in the Saturday morning cartoon version's appearance, and lots of groans later in the session.
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That's depend on your game, wouldn't it?
Episode 2 got downright silly compared the Episode 1 right about halfway through.
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Yeah, pretty much. I did the alternate versions of the TMNT to piss the players off. If you want a more serious take, pick one version of a given character.
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My play group is scattered geographically, so I had to schedule the weekend to do this as a mammoth one-shot a ways out. It turned out to be good, since it gives me (and the players) lots of time to figure out a reason for them to all be together. The scenario they were given pre-chargen was that they were going to be recruited by a super-secret government organization, so they couldn't make something like anarchist anti-government types that wouldn't join such a group. Anyway, here is what I have for character concepts to work with:
Mistaya Holiday (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Kingdom_of_Landover#A_Princess_of_Landover_.282009.29)
Jules (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Brown#Jules_Brown) and Verne (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Brown#Verne_Brown) Brown
An oWoD Malkavian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malkavian), who has been sternly warned that he has to make dementations that are not overly disruptive to the group.
A character from the Dresden Files (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden_files) setting
The last two have not yet been further developed, and a sixth player has not yet decided on a character.
Jules and Verne have been fully integrated into the "every fiction is true" idea of the setting, as their characters were the means by which SkyNet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet_(Terminator)) obtained time-travel technology, for which they are trying to atone. In trying to determine what the duo would and would not change in history, the players decided that 9-11 was a plot perpetrated by Verne which would (somehow, they haven't told me how yet) prevent SkyNet from obtaining nuclear weapons in the future.
Here's the basic background I'm looking at operating in:
DMPC Ben Tannen spent several years in an asylum growing up, swearing he could remember things happening differently than they did (confluence of Photographic Memory and Temporal Inertia advantages). He was beginning to make progress in understanding that he was remembering timelines that had changed when Judgment Day hit. Fortunately, his asylum was not a high-priority target for SkyNet and he was able to escape and join the resistance. After time travel devices were uncovered, he was found to be an invaluable resource in planning trips to the past. He himself was sent back from the future to stop a Terminator sent to stop the Brown boys from pulling off 9-11. After concluding that mission successfully, he then proceeded to try and set up a super-secret organization. A prescient Malkavian saw the power that could be harnessed through him and sent the PC Malkavian as a liaison between him and the new Covert Operations Internal Affairs, a group tasked with investigating the other super-secret government organizations. Ben intends to use this to ensure that SkyNet does not get developed. The Camarilla have their own plans for it (tbd). Mistaya can be relatively easily tracked as her father would clearly have been involved with the incident of a dragon appearing over Seattle some years back and his name and money were used to get her into her boarding school. The other characters will need to be developed more before I can really work them in.
I don't think any of my players visit this forum, so it should be safe to spoil the plot of the first session: With its access to nuclear weapons cut off, SkyNet needed a different superweapon to wipe out humanity. Fortunately, it found just such a thing in Project Skyfire, a project of super-secret government organization Sector 7. It's basically the premise for the live-action Transformers movie, but with the original Transformer-trapped-in-arctic-ice, Skyfire. The group will have to free Skyfire to prevent him being hacked by SkyNet when it gets up and running, but awakening him will make his presence known to Starscream, who happens to be in the neighborhood and comes to rescue his friend. Hilarity (and possible TPK) ensues.
Comments, suggestions, wicked schemes to throw at them?
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So I have reached far back in time using the search function to grab this thread and use it for my own purposes.
I am going to be running a Risus(although I want to do GURPS I just don't have time to learn the system front to back) version of MLoEG and I let the players pick basically whatever they wanted.
So my line up is:
Wolverine - Marvel Comics (Decided because Wolverine is in every team everywhere including your local Christian High Schools Girl Vollyball team.)
The Doctor(starting as the 10th) - Doctor Who
Atomic Robo - Red 5 Comics (Brian Clevinger of 8-bit Theatre fame.)
Spectre - Twisted Metal #1
Undecided - My room mate is too fickle to stick with one idea long enough to stat it out.
So I think I am in for some insanity.
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Wolverine - Marvel Comics (Decided because Wolverine is in every team everywhere including your local Christian High Schools Girl Vollyball team.)
I'd love to know who was the very first person to decide this was going to be the case, so that I can murder them.
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Brian Michael Bendis now go and do horrid things to him....
Well to be fair they were doing this before Bendis stuck him on The Avengers in 05' but it's been rampant since then so we can do what the Spidey fans do when anything goes wrong. Blame Bendis.
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The Doctor(starting as the 10th) - Doctor Who
Concerning The Doctor, I would be extremely careful in how you handle that PC in gameplay. Even separated from the TARDIS he still has the potential to be an early game-ender. That's why when I was running my Mutants & Masterminds games for Tom and David usually kept him in an advisory position.
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The Doctor(starting as the 10th) - Doctor Who
Concerning The Doctor, I would be extremely careful in how you handle that PC in gameplay. Even separated from the TARDIS he still has the potential to be an early game-ender. That's why when I was running my Mutants & Masterminds games for Tom and David usually kept him in an advisory position.
I have seperated him from his TARDIS, I am a pretty avid watcher of Doctor Who but I'm not entirely sure what you mean, I know he is capable of a great many things, perhaps you could give me a for instance.... just so I am prepared.
I know there is an oppertunity for abuse in the Sonic Screwdriver, that is one thing I do worry about. Since it is basically Deus Ex Machina for tech based problems.
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well mechanically speaking - Risus basically makes powergaming impossible. The biggest advantage in being Doctor Who is that you can justify using any ability on any potential conflict - which isn't a big advantage. I mean, obviously wolverine isn't going to disarm a nuclear bomb with his SNIKT SNIKT ability but Doctor Who could use his sonic screwdriver or super knowledge or whatever to do it.
Risus is pretty munchkin proof.
Whats the plot
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well mechanically speaking - Risus basically makes powergaming impossible. The biggest advantage in being Doctor Who is that you can justify using any ability on any potential conflict - which isn't a big advantage. I mean, obviously wolverine isn't going to disarm a nuclear bomb with his SNIKT SNIKT ability but Doctor Who could use his sonic screwdriver or super knowledge or whatever to do it.
Risus is pretty munchkin proof.
Whats the plot
Basically ripping you off completely for the first session and then I will wing it from there, I couldn't resist the Ghostbusters angle since Spectre from Twisted Metal is a Ghost. Also, it's funny you mention Snikt as the name of the cliche since that is actually the name he picked for it.
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I have seperated him from his TARDIS, I am a pretty avid watcher of Doctor Who but I'm not entirely sure what you mean, I know he is capable of a great many things, perhaps you could give me a for instance.... just so I am prepared.
A couple come to mind (granted this is again using M&M). First and foremost, the Sonic Screwdriver. Normally I only used it as a door opener and scanning device, though in the 9th and 10th Doctor eras it became somewhat Deus Ex Machina-y in the area of problem solving (here's (http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Sonic_screwdriver#Known_uses_6) a full list of it's functions through the years). Because of that I kept its use limited as to not override the players abilities (including limiting it when I played The Doctor in Tom's version of the game). Also, The Doctors telepathy. Granted I've only seen it used a handful of times but it can sometimes advance the plot further than you want to if the player abuses it just right. A way though you could limit or rein it in is to possibly throw in unexpected difficulties (e.g. Pain from the psychic "headbutts" presented in "The Lodger" episode). There are possibly a couple of other issues, but I can not think of them at the moment. When playing him, I usually presented him as a walking Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy.
Edit: Another thought that could be fun that I've yet to explore is a possible regeneration in-game. That could create an interesting scenario in which your PC has to come up with a completely different personality while essentially inhabiting the same character.
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I have seperated him from his TARDIS, I am a pretty avid watcher of Doctor Who but I'm not entirely sure what you mean, I know he is capable of a great many things, perhaps you could give me a for instance.... just so I am prepared.
A couple come to mind (granted this is again using M&M). First and foremost, the Sonic Screwdriver. Normally I only used it as a door opener and scanning device, though in the 9th and 10th Doctor eras it became somewhat Deus Ex Machina-y in the area of problem solving (here's (http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Sonic_screwdriver#Known_uses_6) a full list of it's functions through the years). Because of that I kept its use limited as to not override the players abilities (including limiting it when I played The Doctor in Tom's version of the game). Also, The Doctors telepathy. Granted I've only seen it used a handful of times but it can sometimes advance the plot further than you want to if the player abuses it just right. A way though you could limit or rein it in is to possibly throw in unexpected difficulties (e.g. Pain from the psychic "headbutts" presented in "The Lodger" episode). There are possibly a couple of other issues, but I can not think of them at the moment. When playing him, I usually presented him as a walking Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy.
Edit: Another thought that could be fun that I've yet to explore is a possible regeneration in-game. That could create an interesting scenario in which your PC has to come up with a completely different personality while essentially inhabiting the same character.
I would love to see that happen, especially since The 11th Doctor is quite a bit different from The 10th.
What's your take on the 13 generation limit? Is that even still in effect? I mean The Master has regenerated some 15 odd times. I figured with him being on his 11th incarnation he would at least mention it.
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12th, technically, he just didn't change once (sent the energy into his old hand and made DoctorDonna)
I'm guessing they'll drop it as soon as it comes up.
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12th, technically, he just didn't change once (sent the energy into his old hand and made DoctorDonna)
I'm guessing they'll drop it as soon as it comes up.
I'm guessing they don't count that as a 12th incarnation just that he was able to save himself from using a regeneration, but who knows, I always thought it was a self imposed limit that society pushed on them so there would be a chance to "Loom" new Galifreyans...or some other such thing, not really sure.
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I would love to see that happen, especially since The 11th Doctor is quite a bit different from The 10th.
What's your take on the 13 generation limit? Is that even still in effect? I mean The Master has regenerated some 15 odd times. I figured with him being on his 11th incarnation he would at least mention it.
Not really certain how close Moffat is going to stick to that, now that he is the official series-head. There have been a lot of debate among the Something Awful DW fans, but personally I do not think that it will come back into effect until we either get to the 13th Doctor or the Time Lords try to return again. As for the Master, I remember that sometime in the series he was either granted or obtained a new regeneration cycle which kept him going. Though most of that was off screen and total, there have been only 6 Masters shown so far.
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There was a throw away line that the Time Lords had brought the master back, and the fact he came back in the TV movie shows it is not a hard capped limit, there are ways around.
With The Doctor being the last Time Lord now, I imagine there are some ways around it - either throw away or meanigful. Steven Moffat may well not be the show runner by then, so while I imagien he would take pains to have it all make sense (look at how he ensure any retcons made sense this series) a new show runner might just decided to ignore any reference to it.
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I am also really interested in The Doctor's pacifistesque attitude conflicting with Wolverines, "Stab Now, Stab it more Later" approach to things. That and scientific debates between Atomic Robo and The Doctor.
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Atomic Robo better have sass mouth or quipping as a cliche
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Atomic Robo better have sass mouth or quipping as a cliche
Demoralizing Quip (3) I gave him
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Since the game hasn't started yet feel free to add in your own suggestions for these cliches
Spectre
Twisted Metal Driver (4)
Just a simple car Mechanic (3)
Obsessed (3)
Atomic Robo
Action Scientist (4)
Demoralizing Quips (3)
Robot (3)*
* I have no idea what he is going to do with this cliche and I would appreciate a substitute.
Wolverine
Snikt (4)
Tracker (3)
Well-Traveled (3)
The Doctor
Science (5)
Always prepared (2)
Diplomacy (3)
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The Doctor
Science (5)
Always prepared (2)
Diplomacy (3)
Given it's the 10th Doctor, there should be an ability titled "WHAT!?!"
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Robot cliche - resist damage, radiation, poison etc. Robots never age so he has decades of experience to draw on. Robots can fight without legs because they are robots. Robots can be modified to incorporate new gadgets etc.
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robots may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
robots must obey any orders given to them by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
robots must protect their own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
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robots may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
robots must obey any orders given to them by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
robots must protect their own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
have you even read atomic robo
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I was just making a joke goddddddddddd. :P
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I was just making a joke goddddddddddd. :P
A joke? You mean like for the lolz?
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I believe it's spelled lulz.
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I was just making a joke goddddddddddd. :P
ur mom is a joke
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I was just making a joke goddddddddddd. :P
ur mom is a joke
in bed.
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So as far as the main plot of the GURPS MLoEG goes, were there ever plans for a third installment? Or did it fizzle out after the second?
For me a logicial continuation of the storyline would be preventing Ghostbuster Inc. employees from summoning some kind of Lovecraftian Horror.
I was thinking about including something about the destroyer in the game, now I just have to come up with 1 form for the destroyer for each character.
Dalek Invasion is probably the Doctors.
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there have been several more League games but all of them are self-contained stories
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Are those in the AP's to come pile?
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yup
i will try to include them in the next ransom preview batch too
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Did you have a finale planned for the Ghostbusters themed game? I'm curious to find out how you would have ended it.
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yeah, I was wondering how that story would end.
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Man i just recently finished episode 2 and loved the Turtles.
However, I can not for th life of me believe that Tom never brought up either of the two following characters to try and summon as they already had Rambo.
And i know this is so long ago it doesn't matter but i only recently listened to the ep.
Why in God's name didn't they try to recruit Dutch from Predator, or John Matrix from Commando?! You had stallone, how could none of the players not try and get Ahnold?
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As for the Master he was on his last life back in Baker/Davison's days. Maybe even before. Since then he was always stealing life or bodies from others to stay alive, and the Time Lords resurrected him during the Time War but he ran away.
God knows how they will ever deal with the 13 when they get to it in actuality, because just suddenly granting him more lives would be a huge cope out.
I'me more interested in seeing the possible return of the time lords that wouldn't involve them selves at all in the war like The Rani, The Meddling Monk, the doctors granddaughter Susan, who was on Earth. but that raises the question that are the regenerations specific to Time Lords, or do all people of Galifray have them? Because the two were not intended to be always the same.
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All of this Doctor Who discussion is completely foreign to me, so I don't have anything to add on that matter.
I just wanted to state that I am disappointed by the lack of Dr. House or Michael Westin. I suppose they don't have any superhuman powers, but come on. Best roleplaying opportunities imaginable.
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As for the Master he was on his last life back in Baker/Davison's days. Maybe even before. Since then he was always stealing life or bodies from others to stay alive, and the Time Lords resurrected him during the Time War but he ran away.
God knows how they will ever deal with the 13 when they get to it in actuality, because just suddenly granting him more lives would be a huge cope out.
I'me more interested in seeing the possible return of the time lords that wouldn't involve them selves at all in the war like The Rani, The Meddling Monk, the doctors granddaughter Susan, who was on Earth. but that raises the question that are the regenerations specific to Time Lords, or do all people of Galifray have them? Because the two were not intended to be always the same.
Actually, The Master came back one more time during the 1996 television movie that introduced the 8th Doctor. But I'm not certain if he appeared in any of the other audio or written 8th Doctor stories before the revival started.
As for the Time Lords returning it may be difficult to do so without classifying them as somewhat villainous, given Rassilons actions during The End of Time. Two people who could classify as Time Lord or part Time Lord would be Jenny (The Doctors Daughter) or the Meta-Crisis clone of The Doctor that currently resides in Petes World.
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My roommate has finally chosen his character, and as I knew he would he, he is playing a character from a Manga. Psyren, I have never read it but I perused wikipedia and found out he has an ability is hard to use is Risus, so he just isn't going to be using that particular ability.
Ageha Yoshina
Psyren (4)
Problem Solver (3)
High Schooler (3)
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As for the Master he was on his last life back in Baker/Davison's days. Maybe even before. Since then he was always stealing life or bodies from others to stay alive, and the Time Lords resurrected him during the Time War but he ran away.
God knows how they will ever deal with the 13 when they get to it in actuality, because just suddenly granting him more lives would be a huge cope out.
I'me more interested in seeing the possible return of the time lords that wouldn't involve them selves at all in the war like The Rani, The Meddling Monk, the doctors granddaughter Susan, who was on Earth. but that raises the question that are the regenerations specific to Time Lords, or do all people of Galifray have them? Because the two were not intended to be always the same.
Actually, The Master came back one more time during the 1996 television movie that introduced the 8th Doctor. But I'm not certain if he appeared in any of the other audio or written 8th Doctor stories before the revival started.
As for the Time Lords returning it may be difficult to do so without classifying them as somewhat villainous, given Rassilons actions during The End of Time. Two people who could classify as Time Lord or part Time Lord would be Jenny (The Doctors Daughter) or the Meta-Crisis clone of The Doctor that currently resides in Petes World.
Eric Roberts Master shouldn't count though. And i never said he went away. Again in the U.S. tv movie he was still dead, he just stole another person's body staying true to his m.o.
Ace was originally planned to become a time lord in the next season of McCoy's but the show was ended so her fate is still a mystery. In one of the non-canon audio adventures it happens, but thats blatantly non-canon. Even still if she had become a time lord in the missing years she'd prob be in the time war, and dead now.
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As for the Master he was on his last life back in Baker/Davison's days. Maybe even before. Since then he was always stealing life or bodies from others to stay alive, and the Time Lords resurrected him during the Time War but he ran away.
God knows how they will ever deal with the 13 when they get to it in actuality, because just suddenly granting him more lives would be a huge cope out.
I'me more interested in seeing the possible return of the time lords that wouldn't involve them selves at all in the war like The Rani, The Meddling Monk, the doctors granddaughter Susan, who was on Earth. but that raises the question that are the regenerations specific to Time Lords, or do all people of Galifray have them? Because the two were not intended to be always the same.
Actually, The Master came back one more time during the 1996 television movie that introduced the 8th Doctor. But I'm not certain if he appeared in any of the other audio or written 8th Doctor stories before the revival started.
As for the Time Lords returning it may be difficult to do so without classifying them as somewhat villainous, given Rassilons actions during The End of Time. Two people who could classify as Time Lord or part Time Lord would be Jenny (The Doctors Daughter) or the Meta-Crisis clone of The Doctor that currently resides in Petes World.
Eric Roberts Master shouldn't count though. And i never said he went away. Again in the U.S. tv movie he was still dead, he just stole another person's body staying true to his m.o.
Ace was originally planned to become a time lord in the next season of McCoy's but the show was ended so her fate is still a mystery. In one of the non-canon audio adventures it happens, but thats blatantly non-canon. Even still if she had become a time lord in the missing years she'd prob be in the time war, and dead now.
I am hoping they go with it being a societal imposed limit that he no longer has to follow, they can keep this thing going for a looooong time.
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fucking christ make a new thread to wank off about doctor who
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fucking christ make a new thread to wank off about doctor who
I think I will leave that one up to Aaron since I would default to him being a bigger fan than I am.
In light of that fact maybe we can steer this back to what it's really about.
Kroack and I pestering you to tell us how you would have ended the original GURPS Leauge game.
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I honestly don't remember because I thought I conclusively ended the league games I've posted. Where did the games leave off?
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They defended mayberry and defeated Cobra
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My roommate has finally chosen his character, and as I knew he would he, he is playing a character from a Manga. Psyren, I have never read it but I perused wikipedia and found out he has an ability is hard to use is Risus, so he just isn't going to be using that particular ability.
Ageha Yoshina
Psyren (4)
Problem Solver (3)
High Schooler (3)
I haven't read Psyren in a while, but it's certainly an interesting choice for a character to say the least considering they're only a fraction as powerful normally as they are in the post-apocalyptic future they tend to be warped to, which I'm guessing you're not planning to include in the game.
That said, he probably wouldn't even be able to USE his main power in the present, so you'd be completely justified in not allowing him to use it. Even then though, his powers are still crazy flexible even without that, as they can let him enhance his speed, strength, reflexes, ect. as well as some supernatural senses if I remember correctly. You might want to make sure he has clear limits on what his powers will let him do. And for all I know, his abilities may be even more flexible now, as it's the nature of Shonen manga like that to have the main character's power levels constantly increasing at an exponential rate.
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My roommate has finally chosen his character, and as I knew he would he, he is playing a character from a Manga. Psyren, I have never read it but I perused wikipedia and found out he has an ability that is hard to use is Risus, so he just isn't going to be using that particular ability.
Ageha Yoshina
Psyren (4)
Problem Solver (3)
High Schooler (3)
I haven't read Psyren in a while, but it's certainly an interesting choice for a character to say the least considering they're only a fraction as powerful normally as they are in the post-apocalyptic future they tend to be warped to, which I'm guessing you're not planning to include in the game.
That said, he probably wouldn't even be able to USE his main power in the present, so you'd be completely justified in not allowing him to use it. Even then though, his powers are still crazy flexible even without that, as they can let him enhance his speed, strength, reflexes, ect. as well as some supernatural senses if I remember correctly. You might want to make sure he has clear limits on what his powers will let him do. And for all I know, his abilities may be even more flexible now, as it's the nature of Shonen manga like that to have the main character's power levels constantly increasing at an exponential rate.
Yeah in any other system I would be worried about all those abilities but his powers fit in nicely with Risus because he can use his "Psyren" abilities to be pretty flexible. One reason I love the fact that he is in the game is that the kid will Solve anyones problems for 10,000 yen. Which is about $114. I think that fact alone was funny enough for me to allow him.
I just thought the idea that the an orginization could buy the services of a fairly powerful psychic for $114 to be good budgeting on their part.
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I honestly don't remember because I thought I conclusively ended the league games I've posted. Where did the games leave off?
Now I am listening to Tom's Modern Leauge game and I have had the end of the Ghostbusters modern leauge game ruined. I did a search on the main site and the Actual Play site and didnt get anything refering to Modern Leauge Part 3.
I need closure!!!