Big Jake's page

Has order #1211502 been shipped yet? I just got my new address, and changed it in my profile.

If it is not too late, please ship my order to:

[Edit: Address redacted.]

And if you have any problems with the address in your mailing system, please let me know.

Thanks,

Casey

I consider movies based on books to essentially be re-makes, and should be included in this type of discussion. Even if the latter one isn't a remake of a previous movie, they still go up against each other when compared critically, sucessfully, or which ever.

Big Jake wrote:

The Three Musketeers (1993, with Sutherland, Sheen, and Platt)

Dear god, I figured, given your awesome screen name, I'd have similar movie tastes with you -- alas, I was horribly, horribly wrong! There is no end to how much I disliked the Disney "Musketeers" (although Tim Curry was really good). On the other hand, I never get tired of watching the Gene Kelly version, as hokey as the acting is.

There's a lot to like about the Three Disney-teers:

1: Rochefort. Isn't that a smelly kind of cheese?
2: Porthos: Champagne?
Athos: We're in the middle of a chase, Porthos.
Porthos: You're right - something red.
3: Bad Guy: Dead. They're all dead!
Aramis: Not all of us.
4: Tim Curry!

Remakes that I think are better than the original (or prior attempts):

The Thomas Crown Affair (with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo)
Cheaper by the Dozen (with Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt)
Of Mice and Men (with Gary Sinese and John Malkovich)
Hamlet (1996, with Kenneth Branagh)
The Three Musketeers (1993, with Sutherland, Sheen, and Platt)

That's five I can think of off the top of my head. I picked the 1993 Musketeers over the others with the noted performance of Tim Curry.

Here's the Captain Amercia Reborn Trailer at the Marvel.com website.

It looks cool. And this is the type of writing that has brought me back to reading comics lately. Very cool.

Is it too late to change the shipping address for my order, (1188033)? I am moving soon and would like the book shipped to my next address.

If you can, please use the following address:

Casey Jacobson
9804 Love Road
Ft George G. Meade, MD 20755

Thanks,

Casey Jacobson

Just started Jim Butcher's Turn Coat (Dresden Files).

Recently finished:
Goblin Quest, Goblin Hero, Goblin War (They are the literal representation of don't judge a book by its cover. I think the cover art doesn't do the novels justice, and made me put them off for a long time)

Soon I Will Be Invincible. Cool super hero book.

I saw them together in San Antonio Texas back in 1994. They were both fantastic. Possibly the best use of money I've ever spent to see a concert.

Though Wynton Marsalis was super cool. And Eddie Van Halen totally wailed at UNLV. And Sting's great no matter how big his tour band has been. And Lyle Lovett is surprisingly low-key cool in concert (and I was at the San Antonio concert they used for their Live in Texas album).

But, yeah. Billy Joel. Elton John. Two cool.

I think that Dr. Who benefitted from four great recent seasons. If not for David Tennet and Christopher Eccleston, the show might only be at #10, knocking V into a lower bracket.

Myself, I wouldn't have included V at all. Of course, this if the mini-series V, not the television series.

I'll think about my own top 10. It would have been easier if I hadn't read that article first. I really like most of those shows, and only a few I've never seen, though heard of.

Wizard Magazine named The 25 Greatest Sci-Fi Shows Ever! (click link to read on line)

I have to say that I like the list, but I'm disappointed that Stargate SG-1 didn't make the cut. The magazine cited that it basically went on too long and that two spin offs make Stargate a poor choice.

I can't agree with that logic. X-Files (#8 on the list) went at least one season too long, and two Star Trek shows made the list.

I don't think I would put V over Stargate, and I would have easily taken Night Gallery off the list, which I always saw as more of a horror show, anyways.

Oh well. I'm still a Stargate fan, and it brought my wife into Sci-Fi as well. She just suggested last night that we begin all 10 seasons over again, now that the summer's coming up, it'll give us something to watch.

Sean broke it down correctly. It takes two consecutive saves to cure disease. (Though I thought it was three, and that's how I ran it for my healers.)

This changes the dynamic as presented from 72 a day to 72/2 days (or 3 days if you want three saves). 72/2 days being treated while hundreds more being infected each day... some of them on purpose, mind you.

And treating that many people in a day requires help and supplies. You don't just walk in and roll a die. That's fine for a once-in-a-while check, but if you're treating hundreds of patients a week, you need to consider the cost of the herbs, sterile bangades, etc. as more than the neglible cost of doing one heal check per week. Add the cost of healers kits, if used.

My clerics and alchemists handled the situation in a superb manner. They went above and beyond, treating people, creating alchemical cleansers, and ultimately creating a cure, becoming heroes of the city.

It was a great piece of the AP.

Beetle sat there, Mouse taking up a significant

I've been re-reading some older Marvel storylines, and I came across this gem in Captain America #400, page 8, part of Operation: Galactic Storm.

Iron Man had left Cap back on the Kree world Hala, possibly to his doom, and defends his position to the rest of the Avengers by saying:

"Cap was getting out of tight scrapes before you were born. He'll manage. I'd be willing to bet Tony Stark's fortune on it."

Then thinks to himself:

"Am I just whistling in the dark? Can Cap survice everything the Kree may throw at him? Will the blood of one of the greatest heroes the human race's ever brought forth be on my conscience...?"

Gotta love the moment.

Damn you Tony! (...for being right.)

There is a cleric of Sarenrae in my group. He took the library of books about diseases from Rolth's lair in Edge of Anarchy. I handed him the pages about disease from Seven Days to the Grave (edited out the part about Vorel's Phage and the assasins) and he spent time between adventures to study up on them.

He did preliminary studies on blood veil and was stumped, other than that it was spread by contact.

The party wizard and bard then worked some alchemy skills to create a cleansing agent to be used by the temples and businesses to clean all the money they get in and give out.

The disease was quickly getting under control, but little pockets of infections kept popping up because the Queen's Physicians were spreading the disease with their "poking sticks."

It all ended with the raid on the hospice, but the works of the "PC Doctors" was too effective for the disease to continue spreading on its own. It quickly became apparent that the disease was being spread intentionally, and the group took action against the hospice.

It was a Looooooooong battle, but ultimately pretty cool.

My group is led by a cleric of Sarenrae, who offers "the bad guys" a chance to redeem themselves before entering in combat. Even then, he tries not to kill anyone, if he doesn't have to (and he never *has* to). He also sees his mission to redeem as many people as possible, and tries to make as many contacts with the NPCs as the AP goes along.

So when the party met Devargo Barvasi, he made sure to leave with the encounter with a contact, if not a potential ally, regardless of alignment, deeds, etc., believing that further contact would only help redeem Devargo later on.

Of course, as written, Devargo dies shortly after the quarentine of Old Korvosa; Devargo closes his docks and is killed by his ettercap ally. I didn't particularly like that ending for him, and that he wasn't around to put up a fight against Pilts Swastel as he sets up his Empire.

Now, my group just finished searching the Direption and decided to take the dead body to Old Korvosa, specifically to Orisini's place, to question the body. They came on shore unnoticed (using water breathing to bypass the patrols) near Eel's End. They quickly noticed the change of Old Korvosa, empty streets, empty Eel's End, and instead of going towards Orisini's place, they stop by to see Devargo to see what's going on.

So, they enter Devargo's throne room, which now is covered in webs like the hold below, and occupied by ettercaps, large and medium monstrous spiders, and a spider swarm, with five "cocoons" hanging from the ceiling in the back of the room.

They fought off the monsters, and rescued Devargo from one of the cocoons (0 Str, 5 hp). After healing him up, and letting Devargo know about the Queen's Physicians, Devargo now owes the PCs big time.

I'm looking forward to Escape from Old Korvosa, to see what the PCs will request of Devargo to potentially liberate the city from oppression, murder and fear.

I must have missed some xp that I didn't include at some point. I'm going to go back through the first two modules and see if I can find out what I missed.

I always give out xp at the end of a session (unless they're close to leveling up at the begining of the game), and sometimes we break the game late... it's possible I didn't award a session or two's worth of xp.

That's what it seems like to me right now.

I've been running CotCT for a few months, and my group of 4 PCs, having finished everything else in the adventure, is about to storm the hospice, but they've only just made 5th level. Escape from Old Korvosa says it's an adventure for 8th level characters... so is my group falling behind?

They've hit every encounter in the first two adventures, and even had a little more, and they'll hit sixth by the end of Seven Days, so what am I missing?

Have other groups ran into this problem?

I've heard that someone will set up WWDDGD here in Seoul, Korea, but I haven't volunteered yet. I've run events in all but one of the events so far (when I was in Iraq), but this year I'm not sure if I'll run a table.

My group didn't switch to 4e like I thought we would (I'm running a 3.5 CotCT campaign), so I'm not really up on the 4th edition rules. I'm familiar enough to run a short game like the ones they have at game days, I suppose, but I'd feel a lot better if I had been running a 4e game for a few months.

On the other hand, it might be fun for me to just show up and play for a change.

I was (and am not) happy at all that Marvel killed off Steve Rogers. I've been following Captain America for decades, and then... what?

But, BuckyCap is an incredible character. As a fan, I wouldn't want any other person (if it couldn't be Steve) to take up the Captain America persona. I am in awe of the new character and the stories so far.

Equally, the Marvel superheroes have instantly accepted Bucky as the rightful heir to the mantle. I love the dialogue in New Avengers 48:

Spider-Man: This--This is Captain America's house?
Wolverine: Yup.
Spider-Man: And that guy at the fight.* He's the new Captain America?
Ronin: Yup.
Spider-Man: Do we know who he is?
Wolverine: Bucky.
Spider-Man: What's his adult name?
Ronin: Bucky. Cap's old partner. He's Cap now. This is Cap's place.

*The final battle of Secret Invasion.

I love the under-played acceptance of Bucky and their immediate acceptance to follow him, even though Bucky himself has his issues to deal with.

turned to face Murphy and the Leprechan. All

Any bets on whether we'll see Thor vs Sentry in the near future??

All in all, I don't see the Dark Avengers lasting long. They immediately ticked off the "real" Avengers, and set Thor off at a glance.

I think a Sentry/Thor fight might be one of those things that helps Bob see what side he's on. He stayed out of WWHulk until the very end, stayed out of Secret Invasion too long, and probably feels that he needs to be doing some good. When you end up fighting Thor, you gotta wonder what side you're on.

All in all, this ain't gonna help his psyche one bit.

and that gave him a place to start.

There certainly is room for a lot of role-play with Dr. Davaulus. If the PCs manage to meet with Davaulus to ask questions, he certainly should be ready to explain away some inciminating evidence.

Something like:

PCs: We found the wreckage of the plague ship Direption, and the documents show that you are the owner of the ship.

Davaulus: Yes, and I also own two other ships that I use to study diseases that are too deadly to study in a city. Taking my research out to the water limits contact with anyone not trained to properly handle such volitile substances.

PCs: We found a plague rat and tainted coins... just like the ones in the city.

Davaulus: Yes. I found that using coins was the most effective way of studying the growth of this disease without resorting to the unethical threatment of animals.

PCs: We found the body of one of the Queen's Physicians in the wreckage... he was a cultist of Urgathoa!

Davaulus: Yes, I employ many from the followers of Urgathoa. They tend to have a great respect for the research, and they are somewhat religious to their duties, if I can say so. You may find that many of the Queen's Pysicians in the city are also followers of Urgathoa.

PCs: We spoke with his corpse... he said that he was in league with the Red Mantis assassins to purposefully spread this disease.

Davaulus: That is grave news! And yet, I feel a little comforted. I have been tormenting myself over the spread of this disease, thinking that I was at fault. Now I know that I have been used... a pawn in their nefarious plan.

That's just a few conversations I "imagined" my players could have with Davaulus, especially if they confronted him early in the adventure.

You can have Davaulus admit to knowing a man he suspected to having ties with the Red Mantis assasins, a man named Rolth. Then you can have him set up an ambush for the PCs to run into, with Rolth and some back-ups.

After some more investigation, though, all signs should lead them back to Davaulus. Hopefully the PCs will eventually go through the Hospice and find all that lies within.

A better question: what does your avatar do to Smurf?

We finished the Blackjack scene... and it went really well. My players participated in the event, but that was because of how they handled the Trinia encounter.

My group found Trinia, and were convinced that she was framed. The didn't want to turn her over to the city guard, so they took her to their only real contact they could trust: Vencarlo Orisini.

After a few days of city violence, Croft convinced Sabina to announce that the fugitive had been captured, to try to curb the violence, and allow the city guard to continue their search unimpeded by riots.

The announcement worked. It worked so well, that the queen decided to announce the execution of the criminal.

So, the players knew that the queen was going to execute an innocent, and made plans to try to help "Trinia" escaspe.

The party fighter has a hat of disguise. He disguised himself as Sabina, jumped up on the executioner's platform just after the Queen's speech. All the guards started toward them, when Blackjack appeared, finished the scene, then escaped into the crowd, with both Trinias, with some other contacts immediately throwing blankets and whatnot over them to help them get away (a la Stargate) and some other contacts (via Devargo Barvasi) made enough of a commotion to allow everyone to escape.

Orisini was so happy to see the PCs take an active stance to help Trinia (twice), that he revealed himself to the group, and said he would call for them in a couple of days with a favor.

So, it went really well, but our experience was definately more than a cut scene.

My group was already suspicious of the Queen, but they're still unsure of the Queen's motives. It's evident that she is at best a person willing to sacrifice an innocent "for the better good of the city" (because her motives might be to try to stabalize the city) and at worst an out-right evil dictator ready to get the city under her thumb.

Of course... there's also the truth. ;)

Wow... Arizona really showed up to play. That's fueling my hope for the Chargers. I'll be at work again... Aaargh!

Bring on the Colts! We'll send them home just like last year!

I didn't actually get to see any of the game. We don't have a TV where I work, so we just checked the score every 30 minutes or so.

Well, I guess I get another week of hoping. :)

Yeah... I feel your pain.

I was in Saudi Arabia in January 1995 when the Chargers suffered the largest defeat in Super Bowl history... to the 49'ers.

No one (except us fans... it's the dellusions!) expected the Chargers to have a chance, but it still hurt a little to see them get blown out... and at 2 a.m. on a workday, at that.

Still... the Colts/Chargers could go either way. I saw someone called the Chargers the "scariest 8-8 team in history" or something like that.

It should be a really good game.

Enjoy your delusions while they last.

You totally understand what it means to be a San Diego fan!

*sigh*

Go Chargers! (Thank you, Bills!)

Bring on the Colts! We'll send them home just like last year!

an all too familiar cold blue hue. "Damn,"

I don't remember what I was into at 8, though I do remember really liking ice cream.

There was a drug store called Thrifty's that had an ice cream counter with 15 cent single scoops and 25 cent double scoops.

Mmmm... chocolate fudge ripple.

I think that was where I had my first Tin Roof Sundae ice cream.

They just happen to have made a game I don't care for - kind of like the Beatles' White Album, and yes, I did just compare them to the Beatles.

I mean, look at some of the songs:

Back in the USSR
Ob-la-di Ob-la-da
The continuing story of Bungalow Bill
While my guitar gently weeps
Blackbird
Rocky Raccoon
Birthday
Revolution 1

Ooops... didin't mean to side track.

As for 4e, I really tried to like it, but I'm still not on board. Maybe it's because the people here aren't playing it, or that there is no game store to promote it.

Who knows maybe in the next city I live in there'll be more people who are interested in it where I can get a chance to play.

I was volunteering at a book fair for the elementary school my dauther attends, and I noticed they had the digest-sized Spider-Girl, Vol 3. I thought it looked cool, and wondered how it would do.

As if reading my mind, a couple of 8-year old boys walked up and said "Cool! Spiderman!" "Huh? Spider-Girl?"

Then: "Gross! You can see them!" (I hope I don't need to say what he was talking about.)

The two boys quickly went looking for another book.

It was kinda funny to watch.

I recently started buying comics on a regular basis again earlier this year. The two titles that got me to start buying:

Invincible Iron Man (currently on issue 7): the 1st issue had multiple movie tie-in covers. The first story arc (Issues 1-6, and 7 was kinda an epiloge) was outstanding.

Captain Britain and Mi-13: I've always like the Black Knight, and seeing him on the cover of #1 was enough for me to get it. The first four issues were a Secret Invasion tie-in, and the story was kinda choppy. Since then, it's already very interesting.

Since those two, I've been picking up:

Moon Knight: really interesting developments here. They recently got a new creative team, and the last two story arcs have been really good.

Amazing Spider-Man: there was an event (One More Day) that pretty much "reset" all the Spiderman story arcs. They cancelled all the Spiderman titles except Amazing Spiderman, which now comes out three times a month. The new stories have been really good.

Captain America: Things have settled down, and the new Captain America has been accepted by the super hero community. Again, so far, really good.

Daredevil recently introduced "Lady Bullseye" and looks neat.

And my brothers claim that Ultimate Fantastic Four is the best comic out there right now, but I haven't been reading any of the Ultimate line, other than a couple of trade paperback a friend let me read.

I haven't been keeping up on any DC titles, but I've pretty much have toted the phrase "Make Mine Marvel" since I was old enough to think that was a cool thing to say. Robin looks interesting, though.

a piece of chalk from his duster's jacket.

it had been in contact with a powerful

Hey Fizzban...

I was thinking about you, and was wondering how things have been going for you lately.

I don't mean to open any wounds, but if you don't mind, how's things going?

-Casey Jacobson

So my question for CCF then becomes "Why was Fisher House so quick to accept the donation?"

I've had friends stay at a Fisher House for an extended period when their first child was born nearly four months premature.

The accomodations they provided meant the world to my friends at the time. They lived three hours away from the hospital that was taking care of the baby, and just being able to be near the hospital *for free* was a huge mental relief.

Who wants to worry about how you're going to pay for lodging when the only thing you need to worry about is your family?

I'm glad to see that the Fisher House accepted the donation. I've seen them in action, and it makes me feel good to see them in a positive light, though at someone else's expense.

Wow, this is a hard one. They've all been great to me, but:

1) Shackled City: I loved that everything was right around Cauldron; both of the groups I ran through the SCAP really took to the city and the NPCs

2) Age of Worms: Though I missed the "hometown feel" of Cauldron, I loved all the chances for side quests. The areas were rife with things to do, encounters to flesh out, and pretty much anything the players wanted. The main story arcs were almost a back seat to the locations and NPCs (Loved the AoW Overload!!!)

3) Curse of the Crimson Throne: Another city-campaign, but with a neat twist: you don't have to wait a few levels for everything to fall apart!

4) Savage Tide: I loved the inclusion of the affiliations, and the great back drop articles; if I were rating the AP based on DM and Player options, this might be my #1 choice; I wish all the APs had affilitations and detailed organizations; it's the biggest reason the CotCT or RotRL aren't in the top spots

5) Rise of the Runelords: I love the tone of the adventures, especially the very first encounters. They start off with a bit a levity, but get deadly serious. The players I usually play with like to have fun, but also take the game seriously, and this AP fits that really well.

But, man, I could have really picked any of these as my favorite, depending on what I was basing it on.

Sure, there are 14 other people who use MY avatar (and I know you wish you did, too, so don't go on denying it) but I was the first one to choose it!

You know, back when there were like 15 different avatars or something like that.

You kids today don't know what it's like to choose from such a select group of available avatars! NooOOooo, you have to have hundreds to choose from, then make aliases just to try out different ones.

Not me. Nope.

One avatar. From the beginning. Never changed.

That's right. It's a bullette.

I call him Bite, the Bullette.

*Just remember the trials and tribulations the small, Britain-based company AP Dent Publishing has gone through.
"You cannot demolish my house to make way for a bypass!"
"Oh, but we can. It is in the license you signed."
"Not in the one I signed!"
"But that one states that we can change it at any time, and if you don't pull out within 24 hours of its publication, you accept it."
"Publication? PUBLICATION??? You didn't tell me about it at all!"
"We are not required to. We put the amended version onto our website, so you can look at it."
"I can look at it? It was on a hidden website. It doesn't even have a name, only an IP. And you needed IPv6 to get there. And then I had to fight myself through 3 firewalls, 2 password protection systems, and then locate the file itself. It was named 'organHarvesting101.zipp' and hidden. And in a hidden, 26th-tier folder called 'pension funds NOT FOR PUBLIC PERUSAL'. Then, I had to locate a decompression software for the zipp software, which isn't like normal zip. The guy who writes it only sells it in his store, 20 miles from any larger village, somewhere in the Ukraine. They had -3 Kelvin there, I still don't know how that is possible. And then the password was only hinted at with 'third eleven-digit prime number in Pi'. My hardware was destroyed by a super-virus I got form that decompressor. The only print-out I got out of that file had first be decoded by a navaho code talker."
"Yes, as I said, it was published. Have a fun time finding a new home, but do it in a bus, your car is ours also."

I don't think Paizo could have made a mistake either way.

Paizo makes outstanding products, and I'd like to think that they would be successful no matter what edition they supported.

If they had decided to switch, and spent the months leading up to the 4e release selling 3.5 adventures, or even non-edition fluff books (like Guide to Korvosa), I think they would have been successful.

They probably wouldn't have seen an increase in sales like they did upon the announcement to create Pathfinder, but I'd like to think that their products would have been good enough to keep them all employed until they got out their first 4e products.

And I have NO DOUBT IN MY MIND that the Paizo 4e products would have been the best products available.

I thought I would be playing 4e by now, but I'm not. And the reason is that the 4e stuff out there just isn't up to the standard that I've become used to under Paizo's days of running Dragon and Dungeon Magazines, and in a sense, running D&D itself.

I still expect to play 4e sometime, but right now I just don't know when.

You're right, most of my NPCs aren't from the source material. ...

Yeah, my PCs don't have such involved back stories, but still I have four different NPCs just for them.

In one of my SCAP campaigns, one of the PCs started her own guild, and she had about a hundred people in her organization, too. We kept them unnamed until someone was needed to fill a niche.

But it seems you're well involved already!

Are there really all that many to track?

I've been reading through them, and I actually thought there weren't enough! Maybe I just haven't noticed all of them, or maybe I'm just looking at ones that will pop up again and again.

But then, I fell in love with Age of Worms Overload. I could use a huge PDF of NPCs like that.

For those not subscribing, what changes would entice you to subscribe? Higher quality of dragon magazine? A reduction in price? Having print versions available? More payment options?

I'm kinda surprised that I'm not, because a few of my friends were interested in me running a 4e game. But when it came time to kick off a new campaign, we were all too interested in the Paizo APs.

So right now I'm running CotCT, but maybe next year?

I'll pay for the resources when I have a need for them. It's like others have said... it's not about the price. It's about my needs as a gamer.

And I really miss the print mags.

We just started over the weekend. I made a couple of changes to character background; each character received a magic item as a result of a "chance" meeting with Black Jack. Each item tied to their background trait.

Here's my group:

Connor: Male Human, NG Cleric of Serenrae; Unhappy Childhood (Religion); Black Jack happened upon Connor, mourning the broken pieces of a holy symbol to Serenrae and gave him the hope he would need to make a change in his life: a beautiful holy symbol with powers he has only just begun to unlock.

Ayllianna: Female Tiefling, CN Evoker, Student at the Acadamae; Drug Addict (Personal Addiction); Black Jack saw something in Ayllianna that she herself did not, and to help her through a difficult time, he gave her a Ring of Sustenance. Now, without the need to worry about where her next meal would come from, and a renewed stength of body, she focused on strengthening her mind through arcane study.

Borador: Male Dwarf, LG Fighter, Korvosan Guard; Framed (Family Honor); Borador's brother killed himself after their family had been framed for poisoning the local milk supply with metallic additives. As a result, none of the family could find work, and after months of living as a beggar, he could take the degradation no longer. Black Jack seemingly knew of the false accuasations, and offered Borador something that would give him a chance at a new life: a hat of disguise. Borador was able to secure a spot in the Korvosan Guard, and with some training from Vencarlo Orisini himself, quickly rose in the ranks.

Zartok Thundercaller: Male Human Shoanti of the Skoan-Quah, CG Bard; Missing Child (Missing Granddaughter); Zartok travelled to Korvosa a year ago when his daughter reported that his granddaughter had disappeared, and her husband murdered. Though well-meaning, his age (59) left him weak and frail. An unknown human (Vencarlo Orisini) found him weak after searching too close to the truth of his granddaughter's disappearance, and led him to a family that would nurse him to health, and left him with an amulet of health that restored him to his vigorous youth.

Wow.

I really liked both episodes. I'm not saying they were perfect, and I won't argure over originality or accents or Michael Shanks-alikeness.

I just really liked the shows.

Maybe in my favor, I'm not familiar with any other show with quite the same premise, so I may be more accepting of the setting than if I had some other exposure. (Like comparing Fringe to the X-Files, for example.)

As for knowing where the crypt was, Tapping's character said something about not trusting intel from their weapons dealer, so he must have found out about it and said it wasn't heavily guarded.

I didn't find the scene changes confusing.

And, as for the large sets of unending empty rooms, and the bridge, I read somewere that the majority of the sets are all virtual.

But I suppose they're in some big, old city... Ney York or Chicago? The cops in the first episode referenced being in the Old City, or was it the Under City?, and it made me think of Dresden Files' type of Chicago.

You need a silver weapon to by-pass damage reduction 10/silver.

The players should have found one vial of silversheen in Edge of Anarchy with Gaedren's treasure trove, so they can coat at least one weapon.

Oh... and a fourth option, as stated above, is to get some NPCs to help out the party.

A possible problem from this is that the glory might be taken away from the players, or that the sheer lack of hp is enough to keep the fight beyond the group's ability to win.

Also, it adds more for you to track during combat. You'd not only be running the bad guys, but also one or more NPCs helping the PCs.

Now, done well, you might give your players a "life-long friend" in the form of the helping NPC, which was the case for my group in the SCAP when they got help from the town guard.

And in retrospect, I use this option often if the EL is only slightly off what the group can handle, and it's usually gone well for me. To stop my players from abusing the "endless pool of NPC meat shields" I have them pay for his help, usually an equal share in loot, or a heafty sum in advance.

In the end, you know how your players like to play, what they expect in the game, and whatnot, so use your best judgement.

Let us know how it turns out!