I'll bet some of you already know about this, but Helen pointed us to it last night:  http://acornonline.com/acorntv.aspx]?]Acorn TV Online.  For those who aren't familiar with them, Acorn imports and packages British TV shows for the American market.  AcornTV is their streaming service, which offers a 30-day free trial, after which they cost US$2.99 a month or US$29.99 per year.  Helen convinced us to try it out, since we could watch something on Peggy's laptop with its relatively large screen instead of our currently-malfunctioning TV.  Did you know that there is a TV series of Dirk Gently by Douglas Adams?  We watched its pilot episode last night on AcornTV.
The only drawback is that they rotate their streaming offerings on a monthly basis, so the available material is always changing.  If you don't finish off an entire series before the end of the month, you may be stuck for a quite a while before it comes back up in the rotation.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

I got a card from a friend concerning my latest birthday.  It reads, "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jumps over your candlesticks.  Jack be in the burn unit at Mother Goose General Hospital."
I felt it too funny not to share.
-----
Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

For those of you not in the know - Gregg Taylor of Decoder Ring Theater (Seriously - these guys do some of the best old fashioned radio serials out there.  If you haven't checked out the Red Panda or Black Jack Justice you need to) has just put out his first full comic.  An original Red Panda story!
You don't need to have listened to the Radio Show to enjoy the comic but it doesn't hurt.
.99 cents won't get you much these days, a bottle of dollar store wine that once gazed upon an actual grape from across a crowded room.  A small cup of coffee from a disreputable street side vendor - a loathsome tickle from that same vendor - or issue 01 of Mask of the Red Panda.  The choice is easy... and yours!
Check it out.
http://www.decoderringtheatre.com/
http://www.decoderringtheatre.com/books ... a-issue-1/
http://www.comixology.com/Mask-of-the-R ... /DIG003156

Most of you have seen this guy by now, since I've been having a lot of fun with him. But I thought I'd have a little official "Show-Off" post for him anyway. 

Robot Ronin is a character that I don't think I could ever have done proper justice to in City of Heroes, I believe. I might've been able to make a really tall "Huge" frame robotic character. But I don't think it would've had quite the same flair or sense of size. 

As for his inspiration - Anybody remember Shogun Warriors toys? 

If not, maybe you're at least passingly familiar with some of the Super Robot shows that graced Japan's airwaves (ex: Raideen, Danguard Ace, Combattler V, Gaiking) before Gundam turned the whole genre upside down. Then decades later, Evangelion deconstructed (rather brutally) the whole genre (son pilots robot designed by genius father who's a bit of a crackpot etc.) 

Well Marvel comics got the license to both Shogun Warriors and Godzilla in the mid-70s and set about making comics of them. 

Needless to say - as a wee tot I was in love with em. No matter how bad they actually were.

Anyway - appearing in the pages of the Earth 616 Godzilla was another piloted robot clearly inspired by the Shogun Warriors/Super Robot type - Red Ronin.

Around September/October of 2011 I was playing around with the CO character creator and came upon a combination of Robot face and "mecha wings" that sparked my memory of that old series and Red Ronin. So I made an homage.

I was rather pleased with the end result and decided to actually roll him up for real and see how he played. 



I use alt costumes to represent the pilot of Robot Ronin - Kenji.





The following is his bio as it appears in the game: 

Quote:Robot Ronin (originally designated Robotic Combat weapon SJ3RX) was developed with the assistance of  Harmon Industries by engineers and scientists Tamara Hashioka and Yuriko Takiguchi, and constructed in Detroit, Michigan. It was intended to be used by PRIMUS as a combat instrument against the monster Cazulon.  Takiguchi's twelve year old grandson Rob accidentally "imprinted" on the control interface and became the only pilot the robot would respond to.

After the Qulaar conflict was over, the Robot was put into storage "dry dock" and occasionally brought out to help control the "kaiju" sized monsters on Monster Island.

Present day - the 2009 Qulaar conflict. Rob's own son Kenji was exploring the old test facility when the Qulaar attacked. He decided to try piloting the robot, and it accepted him.

After subduing Cazulon (whom the Qulaar had expanded to full size again) the robot was restraining the monster when Microman's shrinking beam caught both of them.

The robot (and Kenji!) are now slightly 'out of phase' with the rest of the world in regards to their size. The Robot is now 1/10th the size it was before. So is Kenji when he pilots it! He can return to his regular size by disembarking. 

Just so you guys know - I went in and organized all the bank storage. And I want you to take note that we have a LOT of costume unlocks in that first tab. If you're wondering whether you should take anything from there? PLEASE. DO. Take what you need. Note that there nearly a full set of Samurai armor in there as well as several Lemurian costume pieces. I for one have no use for any more of that stuff. But I'll drop more in if people ask. 

Also folks - USE UP those XP boosts! That's what they're there for! 

One thing I always try to take time to do - is fuse some items together to rank them up (particularly on characters that could use the skill-ups.) And I now have 4-5 characters with Maxed (400) level skill in that for the best chance. So if we don't have a level 6 or 7 version of something in there, I'll try and make one. It also helps clear up space. 

Lastly - check out all those devices in the last 2 bank pages. And take a moment to thank Terrence. He's the reason most of that stuff is there. And he's more or less given carte blanche to anyone who wants to grab one of those things. 

The only thing that gives ME pause is taking any of the 3-4 slot gear items. I'm pretty well geared on my top-end characters. But I think 1-2 of my 40s might be still using some old gear. But those are characters I'm also currently not using very much at the moment. (Tigre and Stalnoy Volk). And C8 and Robot Ronin are VERY well geared right now. So my needs for that stuff are minimal. 

So do what I do - fuse some mods. Make some stuff. Feel free to take any costume unlocks you see (particularly any of you on Silver accounts.) And again - give word up to Terrence, cause you are THE MAN. 

Tab 1


Tab 2


Tab 3


Tab 4


Tab 5


Tab 6


Tab 7


Tab 8

Current discussion is tentative and based in Gamefaqs' Macross 30 board because the prospective GM and I are regulars there, but a P&P oriented home or dedicated yahoogroup would need to be found to actually run it in.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

...that Obama has basically decided, "F!ck it, I'm on my second term anyway, I'm going to kick asses until some one starts getting things done?" He seems to be taing a rather harder line than the "Let's all work together, because it's all we need to get these thorny problems solved" platform he was originally elected on. Of course, Congress spent the entirety of his first term singing "Superfranticunproductivenothinglegislation" and generally refusing to budge from the party talking points save at gunpoint
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

Planned by Clive Palmer to be a close replica of the original ship, with modern machinery and safety standards, and unveiled there earlier today, Titanic II is expected to make her maiden transatlantic journey in 2016. Basically as a floating 1912 theme park.

Her designers said it would be the "safest cruise ship in the world."

Yeah.... they said that about the first one too....
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

Trust me, you really don't need to read this; I'm just venting in a convenient space.

This is a thread about the races in IST.  I'll start with the first two races, listed in I.S.T., and then see about converting some of the other races from GURPS Aliens.

Kyz (GURPS I.S.T. pgs 32-35)
44 points

Attributes Modifiers:  IQ +1 [20], DX +1 [20], HT -1 [-10].

Advantages:  Appearance (Attractive) [4], Acute Vision +3 [6], Empathy (Psionic, -10%) [14].

Disadvantages:  Shyness (Mild) [-5], Truthfulness [-5].