Quote from: yosemitemike on April 28, 2024, 08:48:04 AMAside from the cropping issue that has already been explained, a lot of older media was clearly never meant to be seen at 1080p.

There was a scene in the old Land of the Lost from the 70s where Marshal (IIRC) falls through a portal. Watching it now, it is obvious that they just filmed an old 12" GIjOE action figure dressed in a brown shirt.

Quote from: HappyDaze on April 26, 2024, 07:01:40 PM

Quote from: Ratman_tf on April 26, 2024, 06:23:01 PM

Quote from: GhostNinja on April 26, 2024, 12:22:21 PMI used to love Battletech.  Sadly, I think once Catalyst got ahold of it they made it more complicated and more out of reach for many players.

I have been picking at designing my own Battletech style game, without the stupid heat issues and fixing some of the stupidity found in the rules which has kind of pushed me away from Battletech.

I got the Catalyst Battletech box, and it seems to be the same as the FASA heat system. What exactly did they do to make it more complicated?

They didn't do anything to the heat system. However, they have bulked upt the rules to cover a lot of different things. If you play with the BattleMech Manual, you have a slimmed down but fairly robust (more so than Beginner Set) set of rules for 'Mechs. If you play with Total Warfare, you can add in almost every other type of unit for a moderate increase in complexity. Add in Tactical Operations, and you can complicate the hell out of things real quick with all sorts of special and/or optional rules, and there are even a few things beyond that if you buy into all the books.

To be fair, it's not like the extra rules are required, but yes, an increase in complexity is entirely reasonable when moving from essentially a squad-level skirmish game to a regimental-level game with air power, artillery, transport, and maintenance sections now playing roles in what is now a campaign long set of battles to resolve.

At least their expansions make sense. Basic Box is small-unit Mechs; Total Warfare covers all the other varied things that can turn up in a face to face skirmish.

Tactical Operations moves it up a level with artillery and repair. Strategic Operations adds Jump/Warships. Interstellar Ops goes into "when stellar nations go to war" factors.

If all you want is squad-level Mech battles, then you need exactly one book to play and honestly, outside of needing specific advanced equipment rules for a few advanced designs, the basic box rules covers nearly everything... get the Clan Invasion box set and it'll cover 90% of the advanced equipment that turns up... and most of those are just slight tweaks (ex. pulse lasers are have a to-hit modifer, streak missiles skip the roll for how many hit, LB-X autocannons use the missile hit table for their cluster rounds, etc.)

I think the concept of variability is waaaay over used for many people's lifting programs.   I think just modifying reps and load is about as much variability as you need for a really, really long time.  I think the simple concept of starting light and just adding 5 pounds (or 2.5 if upper body) a workout when reps are met will last novice level people a really long time.  I have seen in real time with a younger person it will last a really, really, really long time as they are able to adapt (due to flat out natural growth along with hormones raging) at a rate that mimics a true novice for what is looking to be years at this point. 

  Way too many people either do too much stuff or switch stuff around too much during that "novice phase" which IME will last with adults from 3-6 months during which time they will increase their strength massively.  Sticking to even a calisthenics program for 3-6 months is going to net HUGE gains IMO.  I think there is some drop off longer term (with regard for maximal force development, but you can become "very strong for your size"..I prefer strong for every size, but this is just me) but everything has drop off longer term.

It hit Silver Bestseller in under 24 hours from launch. And it's been the top selling title for the last day and a half.

For the Cepheus Engine, there is now a generic rules set called Cepheus Universal by Zozer Games:

https://www.paulelliottbooks.com/cepheus-universal.html

Quote from: ForgottenF on April 26, 2024, 10:45:14 AM

Quote from: Trond on April 26, 2024, 10:07:59 AM

Quote from: Slambo on April 25, 2024, 09:58:38 PM

Quote from: Trond on April 25, 2024, 09:22:19 PMHere's a question: these Africa-based settings, do they sell? Do black people actually buy them in larger numbers than they otherwise would?

I'm actually interested in trying a setting like that once (I also bought the Pundit's book based on India, and a few others that are slightly different from the norm). But I also suspect that the situation is a bit similar to what Bill Burr points out about women's sports ("they don't buy any tickets!!!"   ).

Anecdotally, I'm not really attracted to African settings myself. Except Ancient Egypt based settings if you count that.

Well, Egypt does have a long history. Africa south of the Sahara is the opposite.

This is also part of the problem when people say that we should teach more history written by blacks or whatever. There's not a whole lot written even recently, and the proposition falls apart the moment we want something more ancient. "OK then, let's get some books based on prominent writers south of the Sahara from say 2000 years ago? Someone like Xenophon or Cicero maybe? ....No?"

On top of that, most of the market for RPGs, including among black people, is way more steeped in the European-Mediterranean cultural tradition than they are in the African. They're probably more comfortable roleplaying something like ancient Greece than they are ancient Africa.

This I assume is the reason there aren't more RPG settings based on historical China. There's plenty of source material, but it's not something the mostly Euro/American audience has much interest in.

Interestingly, Japan's top ttrpg, Sword World, has a more or less European setting and in the rule book for Sword World 2.5 it expressly says that players should choose western-sounding names for their characters.

Quote from: Omega on Today at 12:34:51 AM

Quote from: Crazy_Blue_Haired_Chick on April 28, 2024, 05:31:24 PMHehe, you have a point.

I don't want OWoD to ever take on Japanese or even any East or Southeast Asian mythology in their games. The Filipinos have dealt with enough bullshit already!

Too late. They already did. Kindred of the East and a full on campaign set in modern Asia with some bits lifted from my own RPG because they are hacks.

Quote from: yosemitemike on Today at 02:57:30 AM

Quote from: Crazy_Blue_Haired_Chick on April 28, 2024, 05:31:24 PMI don't want OWoD to ever take on Japanese or even any East or Southeast Asian mythology in their games. The Filipinos have dealt with enough bullshit already!

They did that ages ago.
https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Year_of_the_Lotus

Well shit.

Quote from: aganauton on Today at 07:36:27 AM@yosemitemike

Case in point, my approach to that player would have been.  "Well, now that you've started the fight, your butt is in jail.  Oh, by the way, you can add a skill point to the 'pick up the soap' skill."

and now the player is sitting there for the entire session and probably complaining the entire time.  That's the sort of solution that sounds good but doesn't really work very well at the table. 

Either that or they argue about how they should be able to get away from the cops et cetera and that takes up a chunk of play time.

[Q&A] Fiona Shade (Dungeons & Datemates: 12 Romance NPCs - System Neutral & 5e) 04/30/2024 7:30 p.m. CST!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fionashadestories/dungeons-and-datemates

To join: https://www.tinyurl.com/randomworlds-discord

Log to be posted at https://gmshoe.wordpress.com/

One change that might help: if you roll and fail to advance, the check stays. Checks don't stack, but at least you have a chance to advance it next game session.