Messages

166

RPGs / Re: Famous Last Words

« on: January 08, 2010, 03:00:11 AM »

A friend of mine named Ed was running an oWoD Mage chronicle that featured another of our friends as a foppish Hispanic PC named Juan Riviera Jose Estrada. The player controlling him would constantly annoy the rest of the party and get us into trouble with unfriendly NPCs by introducing himself to *everyone*. Every time Ed would introduce a new NPC, he would say, "Greetings, my friend! I am Juan Riviera Jose Estrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrada!" and shoot sparkles from his fingertips. Needless to say, some of us liked him, others hated him, and we were always bailing him out of deep, deep trouble.

The night that Juan finally bit it, our characters were in an Old West-themed realm where the bad guys had modern weapons and we didn't. We were all holed up in the sheriff's office, taking cover from a bad guy who had apparently just raided Rambo's arsenal and wanted very badly for all of us to go squish. When the GM told us that he pulled out a rocket launcher, we all decided to get the hell out of there--except for Juan's player. He just sat there, ignoring all our suggestions that he dodge out of the way. His character's final words:

"I can take it. I am Juan Riviera Jose Estrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrada!"

And then he got blowed up.

167

General Chaos / Re: Best of Youtube

« on: January 08, 2010, 02:37:20 AM »

Hahahahha - wanna see this movie right NOW

<a href="" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win"></a>

Seconded!

168

General Chaos / Re: Avatar

« on: January 08, 2010, 02:32:54 AM »

I thought Avatar was pretty decent. I mean, James Cameron didn't exactly go out on a limb and make the story complex or thought-provoking, but he had $280 million of his investors' money on the line. So the hero was a boy scout defending a tribe of innocent natives and their breathtakingly beautiful habitat from a corporate tool who would foreclose on his own grandmother and a cookie cutter military villain who practically started the picture with his puppy stompin' boots laced up. I agree, the film ignored the nuances of colonial exploitation and the interactions between two cultures meeting for the first time. But it was still really pretty, and when I saw it, most of the audience was on board with it from start to finish. All told, I got about as much out of the movie as I expected--an exciting, enjoyable, and stunningly rendered adventure story that entertained me for two and a half hours--and I guess you can't knock that. I don't think film theory PhDs will be writing any thesis papers on the thematic and narrative elements of Avatar, but it was worth the $18 for an IMAX ticket.

169

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: @ Tom, reguarding Ross's music.

« on: January 08, 2010, 02:17:48 AM »

If you wanna check out a pretty awesome mashup, here's something that I would say fits the bill. It's an amalgamation of the most popular music of 2009 that's built on "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas, and for that reason alone, it's goddamn catchy.

<a href="" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win"></a>

 

170

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: I totally fucking redid the RPPR main site

« on: January 08, 2010, 02:10:29 AM »

I spent too long to find a terrible montage

Turkish Star Wars?

"Fear leads to anger...anger leads to hate...hate leads to shirtless boulder breaking montages in the desert..."

But back to the original topic...

I have to say, I was very impressed with the site's new look. The new banners are kickass, and I like the revamped layout. Awesome job, Ross.

171

General Chaos / Re: CREEPY THREAD OF DOOM

« on: October 24, 2009, 01:43:44 AM »

I had a friend email this link to me earlier this week. He, too, runs oWoD Mage, and he says these creepy fucks are going to make a feature appearance in his next game.

::shudder::

http://io9.com/5385993/shadow-people-haunt-the-darkest-corners-of-your-dreams/gallery/

172

General Chaos / Re: I will fuck you up. I'll fuck you up Megaman

« on: October 17, 2009, 02:44:36 AM »

The Mega Man 2 and Final Fantasy vids were pretty epic, but I really enjoyed the Punch Out! rap:

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"It's going down! PUNCH OUT! That's the name of the game!
I hear you motherfuckers talkin', but I ain't sayin' a thing.
Little Mac representin', make your move then, punk!
Five seconds to the bell and then I'm fuckin' you up!"

173

General Chaos / Re: Scribblenauts

« on: October 17, 2009, 02:41:07 AM »

A friend of mine showed me a neat trick today. If you create a piece of toast and top it with tape or glue, then create a cat, have Maxwell pick up the toast and "USE" it on the cat, a black hole will appear. It does this because cats always land on their feet and toast always lands buttered side down.

174

General Chaos / Re: Scribblenauts

« on: October 04, 2009, 06:50:43 PM »

There's a level in World 9 where the prompt says, "Help the bad people get to heaven." And I thought to myself, "Why would you want to do that!?"

175

Play by Post / Re: dice roller test

« on: October 03, 2009, 10:39:13 AM »

Wow, that was a really shitty roll! Given a base diff of 7, I botched out my one success. Oh well.

176

Play by Post / Re: dice roller test

« on: October 03, 2009, 10:38:12 AM »

Rolling 5d10:

(4+1+4+2+10): Total = 21

177

RPGs / Re: CoC Keeper Screen Help

« on: October 03, 2009, 10:27:50 AM »

Thanks, folks, for all the helpful feedback! I've been trying to distill the vast amounts of information in the book into something that'll be useful during a game session, and your suggestions helped a great deal. Here's what I hope to be able to fit on the screen, in some version or another:

-The Resistance Table
-Resistance Formula (for whatever isn't covered on the Table itself)
-Spot Rules for Combat
-Spot Rules for Firearms
-Weapons Tables
-Environmental Damage (Falling/Fire/Drowning, etc.)
-Poisons (although this'll probably go if I need room, since I don't imagine it'd come up much)
-Damage Bonus Table
-Injury + Healing Spot Rules
-Combat Order Summary
-Insanity Summary
-Sanity Point Costs
-Temporary Insanity Chart
-Pronunciations of Mythos Names
-Vehicle Tables

I still have quite a way to go before I've got all of this in a form that'll be usable, but I'm pretty sure the list will only get shorter from there.

Here are some pictures of what we've got so far:



We're making the screen out of a couple of pieces of masonite board that we had cut to 7.5"x12", which is just a tad thinner than ordinary paper in order to save table space during use. Here are two pieces before painting.



My girlfriend Ally gave each board a coat of gesso and then a coat of Prussian Blue mixed with galkyd, which she tells me gives the smooth sides that awesome glossy textured look. The rough side of the masonite looks a little more muted in comparison, but that's the side that will be facing the Keeper, and it'll mostly be blocked by the charts.



Here is the (unfinished) painting that covers the four central panels of the screen. It still needs a few more non-Euclidean structures and some fog rising up from the sea, but I think it looks awesome as is. I may also have her write Lovecraft's couplet ("that is not dead which can eternal lie," etc) in gold paint just to set it off a bit more.



Here's the piece of leather with the gold threaded embroidery that will eventually be the front cover. We accomplished this by scanning the title page of the 6th Ed. book, reversing it, and taping it to the back of the leather so that Ally could trace it with the thread without the paper showing through.

As you can see, it's still a work in progress, but I think it's coming out pretty awesome thus far.

Any other suggestions that people have regarding the content of the Keeper's elements would be much appreciated, because as I said, I've never run a CoC game before.

Thanks again for your suggestions!

178

General Chaos / Re: How Academics REALLY Think

« on: October 03, 2009, 09:27:16 AM »

Given what I remember about Poe criticism from my days as an undergraduate, it can get to be unbelievably dense and confusing pretty quickly. In fact, reading Lacan and Derrida's essays about "The Purloined Letter" nearly gave me a cerebral hemorrhage. (I can usually handle Derrida on his own, but Jacques Lacan has made my eye sockets spew more blood than any other literary critic I've ever read. Then again, I'm not really a fan of psychoanalysis as a lens for interpretation.)

I've got a collection of Poe's writings somewhere on my bookshelf. I'll have to see if the piece you mentioned is in there. It sounds like an interesting read. 

179

RPGs / CoC Keeper Screen Help

« on: September 23, 2009, 02:49:12 AM »

Howdy, folks! This message goes out to all you Call of Cthulhu Keepers out there in Internetland...

First, a little background:

So, after listening to Tom's World War II CoC Actual Play, along with the equally awesome World War I scenario "Dig to Victory!," I decided to go out and buy myself a copy of CoC 6th Ed. At this point, I've read through most of the book and I've started to prepare some notes on a scenario I'd like to run with my friends, something that wraps up neatly, but is still loaded with hooks that could allow it to turn into a chronicle if they enjoy it. I like the game enough that I even considered buying a Keeper's Screen--that is, until I did some research and found out that the 6th Ed. screens are very expensive and very poorly printed. Granted, I could get along without one easily enough, but where would the fun be in that? ;-) My girlfriend suggested that I make my own screen out of affordable materials, which is what I decided to do.

A few years ago, the two of us put together a custom screen for oWoD Mage when a friend of ours who worked at Home Depot at the time came into an extremely large piece of free plywood, enough for each of us to make an eight-panel Storyteller's screen and still have panels left over. For the CoC screen, we decided to use Masonite board (which is dirt cheap) bound together with intertwining gold ribbons. The inner faces of the screen will be Prussian blue edged in gold paint, with the charts and Keeper info printed on sepia paper. The outer faces are going to feature a reproduction / extension of the artwork on the cover of the book done in oils, and the first and last panels will be bound in scaly black leather that we fished out of a Wal-Mart bargain bin for $2.00. She's already embroidered "Call of Cthulhu" in gold thread on the leather piece that will eventually be the front cover, and it looks awesome. When it's completed, hopefully it will look like an old leather-bound tome when it's folded, one that opens to reveal the secrets of the Keeper's Lore within.

Deciding on the content of the Mage screen was easy because I had a copy of the 2nd Ed. Storyteller's screen that I scanned and Photoshopped into something that looked better with the motifs of our custom screen. Being as it is that I've never seen an actual CoC screen, and that I have only a newcomer's grasp of the rules (as I have not yet run a game), I thought it might be prudent to ask those who have run CoC before what information it might be helpful to have on hand during a game. If you were designing your own CoC Keeper's screen, what would you put on it?

Keep in mind, I'm more than happy to take the time to reformat or condense some of the more long-winded stuff (such as the Spot Rules for Combat / Firearms) into charts or shorthand, and I've got plenty of free time to kill on this project. I also have plenty of space, as this is going to end up being a six panel screen.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

180

RPGs / Re: How many dice do you have?

« on: September 21, 2009, 01:37:58 AM »

Watch an old school nerd sperg out about dice for 20 fucking minutes

part 1:

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part 2:

<a href="" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win"></a>

That was absolutely mind-blowing. I had no idea that rounded edges were such an evil corporate ploy. I need to get me some hard-edged dice as well.

As far as the original question goes, I believe I have around thirty or forty dice in total, mostly D10s and D20s (because that's what you can use for oWoD games). I have recently purchased a few pairs of D4s, D6s, D8s, D12s, and D30s for a set of D&D games that two of my friends claimed they were going to run, but so far, no joy there.

::wanders away muttering about rock polishers and plastic mold injectors::