I'm attempting to take the same section of field much earlier, and with the entire II Corp! My real-life opponent is responding by massing a significant cavalry force to charge down the hill, across the open ground, and crash into II Corp's 9th Division. If successful he would be able to cause a general rout in most of the II Corp.
The Vanishing Tower
"Roll a bunch of dice, freak them out, get a really big number."
Contact Information:
Tuesday, November 19
British Cavalry Halt the II Corp
I'm attempting to take the same section of field much earlier, and with the entire II Corp! My real-life opponent is responding by massing a significant cavalry force to charge down the hill, across the open ground, and crash into II Corp's 9th Division. If successful he would be able to cause a general rout in most of the II Corp.
Saturday, November 16
Copilot for Character Creation
What the hell, I decided to see if I could get Microsoft Edge to do the work of creating characters for my different games. Here is my first attempt.
Sure thing! Let's create a character for "Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes" who is a Portuguese mercenary working as a bouncer in Lisbon, Portugal.
Character: João "The Shield" Silva
Background: João Silva, known as "The Shield" in the underground circles, is a seasoned mercenary with a storied past. Born and raised in Lisbon, João grew up in the rough neighborhoods where he learned to fight and survive. After serving in the Portuguese military, he transitioned into mercenary work, taking on various assignments across Europe and Africa. Now, he works as a bouncer at a popular nightclub in Lisbon, using his skills to keep the peace and protect the establishment.
Attributes:
Strength (ST): 15
Intelligence (IQ): 12
Luck (LK): 10
Constitution (CON): 14
Dexterity (DEX): 13
Charisma (CHR): 11
Speed (SP): 12
Skills:
Hand-to-Hand Combat (HTH): 3
Firearms (Pistol): 2
Observation: 2
Streetwise: 3
Intimidation: 4
First Aid: 1
Driving: 1
Languages: Portuguese (native), English (fluent), Spanish (conversational)
Equipment:
Weapon: Glock 17 (Pistol)
Armor: Kevlar Vest
Gear: Tactical flashlight, handcuffs, first aid kit, radio
Personality: João is tough and no-nonsense, with a strong sense of duty and loyalty. He is fiercely protective of those he cares about and has a soft spot for the underdog. Despite his rough exterior, he is known for his fairness and integrity.
Appearance: João is a tall, muscular man with a rugged appearance. He has short, dark hair, a neatly trimmed beard, and piercing blue eyes. He often wears a black leather jacket and jeans, blending in with the nightclub's clientele while remaining ready for action.
Backstory: João's military career was marked by bravery and skill, earning him several commendations. However, the horrors of war left him disillusioned, leading him to leave the military and seek a new path. His mercenary work took him to conflict zones where he honed his combat skills and developed a network of contacts. Now, as a bouncer, he uses his experience to maintain order and protect the club's patrons from trouble.
I hope you enjoy playing as João "The Shield" Silva in your game! If you need any more details or adjustments, feel free to ask.
Thursday, November 7
SPI's Wellington's Victory Actual Play - with someone else!
I'm reminded of this scene anytime I talk about playing wargames. Ask me if I play, arm shoots straight up with second-hand support and bouncing in my seat up and down. Let the other shoe drop, though, and my hand will meekly come down. Yes, most of my wargaming is a solo enterprise. I was in the Bonnie Brae (now defunct) game store one day buying GMT's The Battle for North Africa and the clerk comes up to me to ask whether I plan on playing the game or was I just a "collector"? Ouch dude, thanks for reminding me I have no friends. I don't want to be a game "collector", but only playing solo games with Vassal (before it was set up the game one afternoon and have it taken down four hours later, un-played, because there is no room for it to stay up) makes my physical copies of some great games just that. A collection. I prefer to be a player of games, not a collector.
Here is a link to a great review of this game by a blogger, really worth the read. Maps & Counters
Wednesday, November 6
Marvel FASERIP to DC Heroes MEGS Conversion Calculator
Problem is, I cannot make sense
of the conversion guide found at
the most excellent Classic Marvel Forever site (for everything
related to the MarvelSuper Heroes Roleplaying Game published by TSR from 1984 to
the early 1990's), so I have come up with my own. I am not saying the
guides prepared by John Stafford are flawed in any way. They appear to be
comprehensive and finely grained... but damned if I can see the conversion. And
I am not saying I am an expert on the FASERIP system. I've played a few
sessions of TSR's game, and I get it just fine, but I run games of MEGS.
Therefore, this conversion
calculator is designed to work with the way I like to prep for live play.
Quickly! I'm not concerned with the calculator being necessarily backward
compatible, either. That is, converting MEGS characters into FASERIP
characters. It is designed simply for the purpose of quickly
converting FASERIP stats over to MEGS stats. To reduce it even a step more, the
conversion calculator is to get at a Marvel character I want to crib for a
villain in my current campaign and butter up that NPC biscuit fast!
Marvel Superheroes uses
descriptive names for attribute values as opposed to numerical values. Oh, the
numerical values are there. Just buried behind a thin patina of (useful)
narrative flair. These terms are, from weakest to strongest; Shift 0, Feeble, Poor, Typical,
Good, Excellent, Remarkable, Incredible, Amazing, Monstrous, Unearthly, Shift
X, Shift Y, Shift Z, Class 1000, Class 3000, and "Beyond". I'm simply converting these named values into AP (Attribute
Point) equivalents.
0 AP = Shift 0
1 AP = Feeble
2 AP = Poor
3 AP = Typical (My baseline assumption)
4 AP = (10) Good
5 AP = Excellent
6 AP = Remarkable
7 AP = Incredible
8 AP = Amazing
9 AP = Monstrous
10 AP = (100) Unearthly
11 AP = Shift X
12 AP = Shift Y
13 AP = Shift Z
14 AP = Class 1000
15 AP = Class 3000
16 AP = Class 5000
17 AP = Beyond
If I were to get cute I would find places to "jump" an AP to more closely the exponential curve of awesomeness which these fictitious numbers represent. For example.
-5 AP = Shift 0
-1 AP = Feeble
1 AP = Poor
3 AP = Typical (My baseline assumption)
4 AP = Good
5 AP = Excellent
6 AP = Remarkable
7 AP = Incredible
8 AP = Amazing
9 AP = Monstrous
10 AP = Unearthly
12 AP = Shift X
14 AP = Shift Y
16 AP = Shift Z
20 AP = Class 1000
25 AP = Class 3000
35 AP = Class 5000
50 AP = Beyond
Now to transpose these "results" into MEGS Attributes and Powers and such. For me it is most important to have a correlation with the MEGS standard attribute matrix, how the attributes are not only valued, but whether they are rooted in Physical, Mental, or Magical class of attribute. If I can't fill up the attribute matrix then I cannot have any conversion.
FASERIP stands for the list of attributes used by Marvel Superhero characters. These seven attributes are Fighting, Agility, Strength, Endurance, Reason, Intuition, and Psyche. This does leave me two attributes shy of MEGS 9-attribute spread, but it is not unusual for different systems to have a different number of "attributes" for defining a character in game terms. I will work with what I have first.
Fighting = Martial Arts Skill. Yes, this does give any converted Marvel character to have Martial Arts skill in a DC game, but having characters with exceptional fighting skills, no matter how they are defined or acquired, is not a hard proposition to swallow in a superhero game. It does mean I now have to hand-wave three MEGS attributes, not two.
Agility = Dexterity.
Strength = Strength.
Endurance = Body.
Reason = Intelligence.
Intuition = Influence.
Psyche = Mind.
Nothing too complicated here. The relations are rather organic and reasonable. For an example let us now look at She Hulk, a fantastic Marvel superhero, and write her up as a DC Heroes character!
Her Fighting of Remarkable gives her Martial Arts at 6 AP. Agility of Excellent gives a DEX of 5 AP. Strength of Unearthly offers a power level of 10 AP. The last of the three physical attributes is Body, and Endurance is are obvious corollary. 8 AP for Body.
But FASERIP does have numbers for these words. I put them in () above so their progression can be easily seen. Should this be considered when making these kinds of conversions? If Good has a standard ranking number of 10, what are the APs for a ranking number of 100, which is Unearthly. Is 10 APs ten-times greater than 4 APs? Enough to matter? 5 APs is twice, 6 APs is three times, 7 APs are four times greater....7x greater. By my scale Unearthly is only 7x greater than Good, not 10x. That is a problem. Let us consider a solution...