Julio Cezar

Lucky YOU! ^__^

Everyone here in the office looked in my direction! ^^;

(Lesson One: "CEZ, always check the volume of your audio speakers before clicking on an unknown URL link")

I guessed something was "wrong" when I saw the wrong mouse pointer icon on that last field... but I admit got pretty scared nonetheless!

Hmmm, that would be interesting. Please do it.

And I remember Pipps saying that the damage ratings for the various ammo types are slightly inaccurate ("12mm shouldn't be 4d6+1"). Maybe someone of you could take a look at those, too?

Then maybe we can include it all in the Apostasis project...

I'm still waiting for a Windows version of some of those great DOS games... "One Must Fall 2029"... "Deathtrack" by Activision... do you remember them? Never heard about them any more...

I envy you.

I never get to have my complete "kit" (watch, phone, keys, wallet, etc.) with me: something is always missing because I have left it/lost it/forgotten it somewhere. I'm the kind of guy who leaves his office badge at home, and later in the same day forgets his home keys in his drawer at the office... -___-;

Currently, is my small coin purse that is missing.

I'm always carrying a small blue rucksack. Inside it, you can always find my old school pencil bag full of pen and pencils, my old pocket address book and a tiny notebook. I usually carry a couple of book with me, so I can read on the underground, going to work. Today' s choices are Tezuka's Buddha (vol. 4) and a book about Spanish Literature in the 17th century, a textbook I have to study for my next exam. Some days I can be found carrying a basketball magazine or a RPG-related book.

No tools, no weapons and no lip balm. My motto is, "be prepared to be unprepared!"

If you were born in medieval Japan, your sensei would have forced you into using the sword with your right arm.

There were almost no left-handed samurai back then.

You mean you can even do Iai maneuvers with your left hand? Amazing! Roman legionaries used to keep their gladius on the right side and unsheated it with the right hand (the left was busy holding the shield), but in bringin the weapon into position, they did lose some precious time. Which was not a problem to them, since they usually did this before charging the enemy lines, but could be fatal to a samurai facing a sudden menace.

"Well, that's the end of the film. Now, here's the meaning of life.

Thank you, Brigitte...

M-hmm...

Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations."

I think we all here agree that Xmas is not about religion or good feelings anymore. All those merry lights and commercials are saying is "Open your wallet and SPEND, you little b****rd!"

So, don't feel forced to feel any special "Xmas spirit". Take what you like and ignore the rest.

Anyway, there are many reason you may like Christmas. Holidays, christmas trees, presepi (cribs), gift giving, and, most important, delicious food! :9

Here his my favorite reason:

Like in Germany, the Italians have been begged to spend money with a TV commercial which reminds you that going shopping is the most effective way to help the struggling national economy. This comes in a moment where Fiat is closing down entire factories and thousands of workers are losing their jobs.

Now, the TV is telling us that people are again filling the shops and the streets, and that everything is good.

Oh, well.

Yeah. ^__^

63% pure.

Only 63%? I have been a good boy for all my life (so far), and I only get 63%?

Nah, being good doesn't pay. Maybe I should try and get naughtier.

Hey! You COPIED my answers!

Admit it!  

Now that's not a bad idea.

Pass some links!

Yeah! Maybe with a label on it, reading "A.B. Normal" (no offense intended!).

(You all know this movie, I hope...)

DragoonCav:

I see your point, but... saying that there was "nothing wrong" in that campaign... sorry, I'm not going that far.

Quoting MonSTeR: "they're no longer playing Cyberpunk".

They are abusing the system.

Is there something "wrong" in that? It depends on how you look at the game.

How do you define a "good" (or "proper") CP2020 campaign?

One which has your characters trying to survive and prosper in a cynic, dark, dehumanized future dominated by cybertechnology, in the true Cyberpunk spirit?

Or, simply, any campaign in which you can throw in some cyberpunk elements (Solos, 'Runners, Night City), and have fun?

My opinion is, you can abuse the game and have fun. But please don't call it "Cyberpunk 2020" anymore.

Would I call that a good campaign? Well, maybe, for those who like to play that way. A good *Cyberpunk* campaign? Definitely not.

Sure. But would you call a game where each player has maxed out stats and skills, superior technology, and enough money to buy an Orbital Station for himself, "balanced"?

I think that "balance" applies also to how characters fit in their world. A campaign where the characters are the best at everything they do, where every character can buy everything he may desire, but he usually doesn't even NEED to, because he can have it for free... well, that's not a "balanced" game to me.

And, in addition to that, even if you choose to play "Armageddon 2020", a six-wheeled supercar/jet fighter propelled by a fusion engine located in another dimension is STILL complete bullsh*t, IMHO. ^___^

I mean, I've done some "power play" myself, but there is a point where it just ceases to be funny.

I've seen the topic on "how to counter munchkins".

But what if the referee doesn't want to "counter" at all? What if HE is the biggest munchkin in the party?

Well... I've heard some things from a friend of mine, who happened to play with a Power Master, and a bunch of Power Players... things that you humans cannot even imagine...

He spent an evening telling me tales from that campaign, and I spent the evening laughing!

This master used to play his favorite character while refereeing. His campaign featured undead, demons and the like, and this character was the adopted nephew of a 1000-years old vampire. And this vampire was the Big Boss and proud owner of THE single biggest corporation in the world, something which dwarfed both Militech and Arasaka.

As a consequence, this character - and hence the whole party - had access to virtually ANY resource (Weapons? Vehicles? Cyberware?) available on earth. And if it wasn't available, some corporate scientists could always invent it for them.

At the end of *each* session, this referee awarded the characters with 5 points each, which could be used to increase *any* skill the player wished to. They soon ended with 9's and 10's in ALL of the skills listed in their character sheet.

A character in that group with less then 5.000.000 E$ was a poor character.

The group also had a "car".

It was a 6-wheeled parallelepiped, 3m wide and 6m tall. This "car" could turn into a supersonic jet and fly at MACH 5. Of course it was heavily armed, had a VP 200 armor and 200 SP. It was powered by a nuclear fusion engine. When asked about how could a (supposedly big) "fusion" engine fit in such a small vehicle, the Gamemaster had answered: "Magic. The actual engine is in another dimension. There is a small magical device which links the machine with the dimension where the engine is located."

This is where I almost passed out laughing.

Those characters were fighting to save the world, facing the menace of Satan (yeah, the good ol' Lord of Hell) and his hordes of demons and devils, which had invaded our world.

Of course, for such a heroic task, they needed some extra help... so the referee introduced the Wizard character class! A real spellcaster, with fireballs and the like.

Most of those super-characters were unfortunately killed when the wizard rolled a critical failure and discharged a Lightning Bolt inside the party's van. The lightning bolt reportedly bounced 45 times inside the van, frying everyone inside.

The last thing I've heard from that group is that the survivors are busy in a new campaign fighting the armies of Gabriel (the Archangel) who rebelled against God and is out to destroy humanity.

Again.

It's tough to be a hero.

I guess that the moral of the story is that, after all, every gamer is free to do what he wants with his campaign, as long as he and his friends enjoy the game...

As a football (soccer) fan, I'm rather horrified...

I can understand (well, sort of... ^^) what is happening there. Here in Italy, too, many hard-core supporters associations - the so-called "ultras" - have a strong political connotation. For example, many Inter (FC Internazionale), Lazio or Verona ultras organizations are known for their nazi-fascist sympathies.

In Milan, we have two top-level football teams, like in Glasgow. As you can expect from a nation where football is the official religion, this means a fierce rivality between supporters. And like in Glasgow, the two suppporter organizations don't share the same political opinions.

Nonetheless, "milanisti" and "interisti" have never fought each other, and I hope we never get to that point.

Forza Milan, anyway!

Off topic - wow, I went up in level! I'm ranked as "Chromer" now! Do I get extra hit points, special powers, or what?

Congratulations daddy! ^___-

May Colin enjoy his future life!

A toast to him! (CEZ raises his beer...)

Get well soon Bunny!

My dad and an aunt of mine have had their thyroids out (it's a family thing, and I'm keeping MINE controlled...). The operation is relatively simple, everything went OK for both of them, and they have never had any problems since.

"In bocca al lupo!" (a way of saying good luck. You should answer: "Crepi!")

Bullet, want some good manga (and not the same teenager-with-heavenly-superpowers crap?)

  "Blade of the Immortal" by Hiroaki Samura (Dark Horse Comics). File under "Not-cyberpunk".

The best cyberpunk around, instead, is Ghost in the Shell: STAND ALONE COMPLEX

Anime series. Based on the GITS manga, co-authored by Shirow, but heavily influenced by Oshii's GITS movie, which means good news (looks like someone has learnt a lesson).

And for all of you, fans of the "kawaii", there are those cute talking Tachikomas!

Thanks Bunnycakes for the cool link... here's my diagnosis:

  Schizotypal:  Moderate

  Obsessive-Compulsive:  Moderate

"Low" in the remaining categories. Fortunately, my pills are made of chocolate.

Are you wondering which is the Most Common Mental Disorder

here in the forum? Well, here are the current standings (3 pts for each "Very High" occurrence, 2 for "High", 1 for "Moderate"):

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX   Schizotypal  22

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX          Schizoid      18

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX          Avoidant     18

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX              Histrionic     16

XXXXXXXXXXXXX                   Paranoid      13

XXXXXXXXXXXXX                   Borderline    13

XXXXXXXXXXXXX                   Narcissist    13

XXXXXXXXXXXXX                   Dependent   13

XXXXXXXXXXXX                     Antisocial    12

XXXXXXXXXXXX                     Obs./Comp. 12

It seems that we gamers are an eccentric bunch of people ("odd forms of thinking and perceiving")... no surprise...

Chaotic Good Half-Elf Ranger.

(Ehm! ANOTHER Ranger? ^__^

I have to agree with Agamennon. A lot of friends of mine in RL are people I have met on the net. Including my girlfriend (who lives in a small town, 400km away from my place... argh!)

This is one of the best online communities I have seen, indeed. You seldom find people thanking each other, or expressing their concern and sympathy for other people's problems. Most of the times they are too busy with flamewars.

I'm glad to be here.

Wow, this is good for my english. ^__^

The Devil's Panties 21/02/02

So, why Miyamoto Usagi? Well, I love japanese culture and samurai history, I love comics, and I don't mind seeing myself as a rabbit because my all-time favorite fiction book is "Watership down" by Richard Adams, where the characters are rabbits.

My girlfriend says that my perfect avatar would rather be Kermit the frog, because she says I am a slim (almost skinny), cheerful and funny guy with a big mouth...

So, I'm an italian with a brazilian/portuguese nickname, whose avatar is a japanese character from a comic written by an american guy. And I might add that "Watership Down" was written by an english, and made into an (innovative!) animated movie by a canadian director. O_o;

"Julio Cezar" was a (semi-unknown) football player for Flamengo in 1983 when the brazilian team came to my city (Milan) to play in a then-famous summer club competition called "Mundialito". The name just sounded nice, and was close enough to my real name (Giuliano). So, when we went out to play football and everyone pretended to be some famous player like Zico, Eder, Rummenigge or so, I proudly proclaimed "...and I am Julio Cezar!".

(Chorus: "Julio WHO?")

Unfortunately, I did very little to help his fame, since I've always been lousy at sports.

The funny thing is, I've never known anything else about the guy.

I started using CEZ as my signature in coin-op videogames in the 80's, and nowadays CEZ has become in some ways my real identity. Some friends of mine in RL don't even know what's my real name.

Of course my avatar (Usagi Yojimbo) has nothing to do with it. Maybe, another interesting thread would be: how do you choose your avatar? Is it related to how you see yourself, or is it more about the way you would like to be/appear? ^__^

Wilphe: thank you for your welcome and avdice. It looks like  that I don't need to ask you where YOU are from...

Mephostophilis: OK, no Hardwired then. And with regard to american beer, I've only tried Bud and I didn't like it at all.

And... I think my English is not good enough for me to understand what that "unless it had hops in it" means, sorry.

(Should we start a thread on beer? If it's been done for Alan Ford, it can be done for everything!)

Forza Milan!