Today is Monday. Like most geeks I was pasted to the television watching Heroes. it was about halfway through that I spotted the largest plot hole I have seen in a while. It's not often that one slips through the cracks lately, so mostly I turn a blind eye. However, todays hole shattered my suspension of disbelief in the Heroes continuity.
-----Heroes Spoiler ALERT-----
You have been warned. Our humble little story starts in the way backs of season one. The writing was solid, the acting was exquisite, all of it was good. late in the season a villain was introduced, not a full fledged villain mind you more like a special henchman. Anywho, her power was to create illusions in the minds of others. She was also quite adept at manipulation. She proves herself to be a very careful person, kidnapping and controlling another character that can bend machines to his will, through wits and well placed illusions. Much to my dismay her actions in season two are starkly inconsistent, as she is put in a position of captor over Syler. Another villain with the power to take other peoples powers by means of a close study of their brains. As well the higher ups in the organization that the illusion girl works for show full knowledge of Sylars power. I know this is a long build up. It's then that Sylar is able to subdue the overly careful cunning manipulative woman that we know is an expert at containing other people with powers, with nothing more then an outright physical attack. There is no conceivable way that she could be bested with such a base attack, from someone she KNOWS KILLS OTHER PEOPLE FOR THEIR POWERS...
As an analyzer of story's I know I am naturally hard on weak plots, but come on. I know I for one will not be watching the rest of this season.
look for Mek20's next bit someday!
Monday, October 15, 2007
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Servos and you...
Servos and you, with pancakes! In part two of our ongoing look at Mekton into d20, or Mek20 or whatever, I will be breaking down servos. Servos are what make Mekton so versatile; literally the limit on combinations is in the absurd range, something that does not work well when adding crunch. There are servos for (in order mind you /me points finger): the Torso, the main fuselage; the Arms, y’ know the wiggly things that help bring food to the mouth or do pushups; Arm Extensions, hands, claws, pincers, in some cases shotguns… ok I made that up, but it sounds cool… and talons; the Legs; Leg Extensions, the foots (robot ninjas from the best cartoon ever…); the Head; the Wings; Tails (but not sonic); and Pods, backpacks and the like. That’s a lot of stuff, so I will recap in list form and with out the bad jokes.
1. Torso
2. Arms
3. Arm extensions
4. Legs
5. Leg extensions
6. Head
7. Wings
8. Tails
9. Pods
That’s nine (9!) things to mix and match, add to that eleven (11!?) options per servo type. I will let you roll that around for a bit. Staggered yet? I know I am. Ok lets dive in. Each of those eleven options per servo has its own size. This is the first obstacle, as d20 only has 9 most of which are very small. In thinking about this little (I couldn’t resist) problem my first thought was to add sizes, simple. The more you think about adding sizes to d20 the scarier it becomes (what’s bigger then colossal for Pete’ sake?). The only other alternative is to use the sizes native to the d20 rules. The only sizes that seem applicable are: large, huge, gargantuan, and colossal. Large is still a maybe at this point. The best way is with multiple Mekton sizes fall into the different size categories in d20. But wait there’s more. I thought up a spiffy naming convention, in Mekton the sizes have various descriptive adjectives as names, to me that’s not standardized enough. I think the new sizes should be named after the 2d0 size they fall into as well as their relation to the smallest of that d20 size. Did I lose you yet? It works out to the name being Huge-1 for the smallest Mekton size we put in the d20 huge size.
I think its time for a table, or two, maybe three.
Otay, now we have that out of the way... The new bits you may have noticed are the spaces on the servos. Those are used later in the equipment stage, and thats where I will elaborate on them more. Until next time...
1. Torso
2. Arms
3. Arm extensions
4. Legs
5. Leg extensions
6. Head
7. Wings
8. Tails
9. Pods
That’s nine (9!) things to mix and match, add to that eleven (11!?) options per servo type. I will let you roll that around for a bit. Staggered yet? I know I am. Ok lets dive in. Each of those eleven options per servo has its own size. This is the first obstacle, as d20 only has 9 most of which are very small. In thinking about this little (I couldn’t resist) problem my first thought was to add sizes, simple. The more you think about adding sizes to d20 the scarier it becomes (what’s bigger then colossal for Pete’ sake?). The only other alternative is to use the sizes native to the d20 rules. The only sizes that seem applicable are: large, huge, gargantuan, and colossal. Large is still a maybe at this point. The best way is with multiple Mekton sizes fall into the different size categories in d20. But wait there’s more. I thought up a spiffy naming convention, in Mekton the sizes have various descriptive adjectives as names, to me that’s not standardized enough. I think the new sizes should be named after the 2d0 size they fall into as well as their relation to the smallest of that d20 size. Did I lose you yet? It works out to the name being Huge-1 for the smallest Mekton size we put in the d20 huge size.
I think its time for a table, or two, maybe three.
| Torso | Cost | Spaces | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Large-1 | 2 | 2 | 1 ton |
| Huge-1 | 4 | 4 | 2 ton |
| Huge-2 | 6 | 6 | 3 ton |
| Huge-3 | 8 | 8 | 4 ton |
| Huge-4 | 10 | 10 | 5 ton |
| Huge-5 | 12 | 12 | 6 ton |
| Gargantuan-1 | 14 | 14 | 7 ton |
| Gargantuan-2 | 16 | 16 | 8 ton |
| Gargantuan-3 | 18 | 18 | 9 ton |
| Colossal-1 | 20 | 20 | 10 ton |
| Colossal-2 | 22 | 22 | 11 ton |
| Arms and Legs | Cost | Spaces | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Large-1 | 2 | 2 | 0.5 ton |
| Huge-1 | 3 | 3 | 1 ton |
| Huge-2 | 4 | 4 | 1.5 ton |
| Huge-3 | 5 | 5 | 2 ton |
| Huge-4 | 6 | 6 | 2.5 ton |
| Huge-5 | 7 | 7 | 3 ton |
| Gargantuan-1 | 8 | 8 | 3.5 ton |
| Gargantuan-2 | 9 | 9 | 4 ton |
| Gargantuan-3 | 10 | 10 | 4.5 ton |
| Colossal-1 | 11 | 11 | 5 ton |
| Colossal-2 | 12 | 12 | 5.5 ton |
| Head, Wings, Tails, and Pods | Cost | Spaces | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Large-1 | 1 | 1 | 0.5 ton |
| Huge-1 | 2 | 2 | 1 ton |
| Huge-2 | 3 | 3 | 1.5 ton |
| Huge-3 | 4 | 4 | 2 ton |
| Huge-4 | 5 | 5 | 2.5 ton |
| Huge-5 | 6 | 6 | 3 ton |
| Gargantuan-1 | 7 | 7 | 3.5 ton |
| Gargantuan-2 | 8 | 8 | 4 ton |
| Gargantuan-3 | 9 | 9 | 4.5 ton |
| Colossal-1 | 10 | 10 | 5 ton |
| Colossal-2 | 11 | 11 | 5.5 ton |
Otay, now we have that out of the way... The new bits you may have noticed are the spaces on the servos. Those are used later in the equipment stage, and thats where I will elaborate on them more. Until next time...
Monday, October 8, 2007
Shiny Space Robots!
Over the next few articles I will be kit bashing the Mekton mech construction rules into d20. I want to do this for a few reasons, the first of which being cool facter, and the next is after watching a lot of Gundam lately I birthed a campaign idea.
I chose the Mekton rules for mechs because of its versatility, and I want to morph it into d20 because I’m a crunch whore. The game system that Mekton is built on is not crunch heavy. Its more about the fluff. Whilst I do like my fluff nice and puffy, I love crunch just as crisp.
To fire this up right I will start off by breaking down the servos that make Mekton so versatile, and putting them in d20 terms and sizes. This requires a breakdown to basic bits, and a restructuring to something altogether not quite the same.
The next article I will tackle the armor in d20 terms. The key here is converting kills and SP to HP and hardness respectively. Oh boy, won’t that be a gas!
Stage three is to add in equipment: weapons, sensors, drag chutes, shields, thrusters, and anything I didn’t cover. Once again breaking it down and building it back up.
Last, but not least, polish this all up. Mostly editing and tying up all the lose ends into a nice streamlined construction manual. And add in some examples for good measure, after all what’s a process without results.
I chose the Mekton rules for mechs because of its versatility, and I want to morph it into d20 because I’m a crunch whore. The game system that Mekton is built on is not crunch heavy. Its more about the fluff. Whilst I do like my fluff nice and puffy, I love crunch just as crisp.
To fire this up right I will start off by breaking down the servos that make Mekton so versatile, and putting them in d20 terms and sizes. This requires a breakdown to basic bits, and a restructuring to something altogether not quite the same.
The next article I will tackle the armor in d20 terms. The key here is converting kills and SP to HP and hardness respectively. Oh boy, won’t that be a gas!
Stage three is to add in equipment: weapons, sensors, drag chutes, shields, thrusters, and anything I didn’t cover. Once again breaking it down and building it back up.
Last, but not least, polish this all up. Mostly editing and tying up all the lose ends into a nice streamlined construction manual. And add in some examples for good measure, after all what’s a process without results.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
First Impressions
Well to start this up right I will need to introduce myself. I am a Dungeon Master (yeah I said it). I have been for quite some time, and this is an attempt to bring good habits to my table. That’s not to say I have no good habits in my gamming, however, more cannot hurt. Right?
At any rate my current campaign is going quite swimmingly (more or less, a story for another time perhaps), we are 21 sessions deep, and the party is just about level 8. Now for the detail heavy bit, the story thus far.
It all started on a sunny spring day. I ran the party through some low level hoops, fleshed out the world nicely, and set them up quite well. The first big reveal hit somewhere between 3rd and 4th level, it was that the continent the party had come to know and love was not the only one. I also tore apart the landscape of the first continent thereby introducing the first villain. And boy is she a villain, never have I seen such animosity develop so quickly. The next big reveal is that the redhead (the villain) can kill gods. Making her both hated and feared, the party then found the Empire. It is now year 79,941. In the shaky 300 years following the betrayal of the Brotherhood the Empire is trying to rekindle the fires of civilization, as most of the continents have reverted to barbaric feudal states. The party travels to the Imperial city, there they learn that the redhead that has been dogging them the whole trip is one of Barga's (the BBEG and head of the brotherhood) 4 lieutenants and carrying out his nefarious plot. A captured princess and a few good sized plot hooks later and the party is off to find the sorcerer, some 40+ continents away. Leading us to the next big reveal, that Barga has set up an industrialized slave society. Now we have rifles.
At any rate my current campaign is going quite swimmingly (more or less, a story for another time perhaps), we are 21 sessions deep, and the party is just about level 8. Now for the detail heavy bit, the story thus far.
It all started on a sunny spring day. I ran the party through some low level hoops, fleshed out the world nicely, and set them up quite well. The first big reveal hit somewhere between 3rd and 4th level, it was that the continent the party had come to know and love was not the only one. I also tore apart the landscape of the first continent thereby introducing the first villain. And boy is she a villain, never have I seen such animosity develop so quickly. The next big reveal is that the redhead (the villain) can kill gods. Making her both hated and feared, the party then found the Empire. It is now year 79,941. In the shaky 300 years following the betrayal of the Brotherhood the Empire is trying to rekindle the fires of civilization, as most of the continents have reverted to barbaric feudal states. The party travels to the Imperial city, there they learn that the redhead that has been dogging them the whole trip is one of Barga's (the BBEG and head of the brotherhood) 4 lieutenants and carrying out his nefarious plot. A captured princess and a few good sized plot hooks later and the party is off to find the sorcerer, some 40+ continents away. Leading us to the next big reveal, that Barga has set up an industrialized slave society. Now we have rifles.
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