Editor’s Note #69

Nice

Upcoming schedule:

  • Tuesday, August 1st: Episode #257 - Writers’ Room: Parse in space
  • Tuesday, August 8th: NO EPISODE BECAUSE GEN CON
  • Tuesday, August 15th: Gen Con Live 2023!
  • Tuesday, August 22nd: Editor’s Note #70
  • Tuesday, August 29th: Episode #258 - Writers’ Room: Tabitha Taft defeats an Alpha foe

Expected Recording schedule:

  • Friday, July 28th: Episode #257 - Writers’ Room: Parse in space
  • Sunday, August 6th: Gen Con Live 2023!
  • Friday, August 18th: Editor’s Note #70
  • Friday, August 25th: Episode #258 - Writers’ Room: Tabitha Taft defeats an Alpha foe
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Nice

I knew there was a particular reason I wanted to listen to this again, and it was the Zalgo text letter! :smiley: Trevor did a great job with that.

Love the outro, too. Nice.

The question about lesser used power sets was amusing for me, as I was trying to do a SCRPG character sheet for a webcomic character last night, and the big thing with the character is an unusual body type. We don’t see many heroes that stretch the definition of “humanoid.”

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One of the PCs in a game I play in on-and-off is an owl. A magic spirit owl, but still an owl, and not a shapeshifter or anything like that. Aside from taking Awareness for exotic senses and Flight her being not-human(oid) isn’t really mechanically represented.

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The jokes about Operative “owning” the arrows she was pin-cushioned with reminds me of an old D&D campaign where the GM ran “Immunity To Normal Missiles” spells that way. All the non-magical missile weapons would still stick in you normally, but they didn’t do any damage - unless the spell ended or got dispelled before you pulled them all out. At that point the damage all came in at once, often with fatal results. Remember us winning a missile exchange against a bunch of orcs because the ranger in our group was yanking their own arrows out of the wizard and firing their own arrows back at them after running out of his own. He was also using the spellcaster as cover.

It was a strange session, but amusing. We nicknamed the wizard PC “Quiver” after that. :slight_smile:

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Well, this characters six arms (Yes, talking about Spinnerette… honestly, she’s probably fit right in with Sentinels, especially after the “Editor” arc) are easy, just strength and ability selection. The webbing was trickier, but I just made it a signature weapon, because what else could it be.

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That’s a very funny interpretation - makes me think of Exalted 2nd Ed, where both the ‘good guy’ and ‘bad guy’ exalted had abilities to make them invulnerable; the Solar version made attacks bounce off, and the Abyssal version made them just sink into you without hurting you.

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Personally, I’d be inclined to do web-slinging as either Swinging or a weird form of Signature Vehicle, solely for what Red zone abilities that would open up to choose from. The Mobility chart is pure gold, and Sig W’s only specific unlock is Charged-Up Blast, which is great and all but doesn’t seem as “webby” as the other three Hallmark Reds - even Sacrificial Ram could be Spinny expending all her webbing to grab three villains at once and ping-pong them off each other and the environment or something. Quick Exit’s pretty much the Marvel Spider-folks to a tee.

If Red choices aren’t a concern, just making it a custom “no type” Hallmark seems easiest. Gets across what you can expect to do with it concisely - aside from swinging around for mobility, I’d see it tied to Hinders, Defends and Overcomes mostly, particularly with Attack/Hinder ability or risky bundles.

IIRC the reasoning came from some Dragon article about D&D critters that weren’t affected by non-magical weapons that specifically gave an example of a vampire getting arrows stuck in them without any harm being done, and contemptuously brushing them loose like a bunch of thistles - then snarling in pain when a magic sword opens up a gash in his arm.

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I always like it when the game mechanics allow for different trappings depending on player tastes, without having to do massive rules changes to accommodate. The loose phrasing of SCRPG is good for that (with all the abilities being basically “use X to do Y” and let the player figure out the how). One of the very few actual play shows I follow has a a Swarmkeeper Ranger (D&D subclass, usually associated with bugs and creepy crawlies for the extra edgelord types) that has a cluster of pixies (with individual names) providing the effects.

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I spent about a year playing a shapeshifter druid in 13th Age. Mechanically he was a Dwarf, but fluff-wise he was a Dwarven cave-hound (think cross between a mastiff and a bulldog the size of a small bear) that had been magically Uplifted through some unethical magical BS involving blood alchemy. Spent most of my time as a big surly dog, only adopting the Dwarf form when I needed thumbs or humanoid speech for something. The system supported that way better than most do.

Fun roleplaying a dog-by-nature, which made me kind of an anti-Dwarf. Ale is clearly poison, gold is useless except for getting idiots to give you food, and fine craftsmanship is for people born with opposable digits.

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