It depends on experience/maturity/trust but you can let players help in setting creation. The amount of buy-in and world knowledge the players gain can be truly beneficial. Outline your parameters brainstorm your ideas then underlay your meta plots after the shared creation.

Are we talking rules or world?

What's irritating me at the moment is the monolithic mono-cultural pantheon. They need to build in regional differences, they need to demonstrate how the average person worships, do the venerate one God or do they venerate the beneficial ones and placate the dangerous ones... Do pregnant women make little sacrifices to Lamashtu in the hope she doesn't "bless" them with a still birth or birth defects, do farmers placate Pazuzu so birds don't eat their crops.....

I don't recall general misogyny on the the behalf of Asmodeus. He does have some hatred for some of the female deities, but I don't think it's specifically because of their gender. It has a lot to do with the fact that they're goody-two-shoes.

But I could be wrong about this.

Now Erastil on the other hand does definitely prefer typical gender roles from what I understand.

Erastil has been retconed he is all fluffy and nice now... No imperfections anymore.

It comes down to communication with the whole group as to who wants what out of the game and then negotiating any conflicts in individual players/DMs desires.

Our pre campaign chat starts like this.....

DM "No Bob* you can not play a 20th level aboleth paladin named Pete!
Res spells are rare to non existent. I will fudge to prevent any pointless or stupid deaths, but not deaths caused by your own stupidity.
Sex is fade to fire place I am not describing any of you guys bumping your uglies.
My gore description is set to 11, unless you guys want me to tone it down.
Common races only unless you can give me a good story....
No Bob you can't play a 1/2 Drow 1/2 Iffrit Harajuku girl called Ms Kitty.
Yes Hero points will be given out at the start of each session, standard rules plus you can play props and all the other suggestions made.
How do you want to do party background set up... You all know each other and that's written into the back stories or did you want to do pull another character name from a hat and make up the name and one paragraph description of a novel where both your characters were the primary characters....
No Bob you can't play a Twi'lek Sith Lord called Darth Sexypants....
Ok Bob you want to play Dhampir witch, daughter of a broken and faded linage of a Ustalavian noble family nothing left but a burnt and crumbling castle on an abandoned estate, your family name cursed and reviled by the peasantry and treated with fear and suspicion by the nobility.... Sounds cool

And so on......

*Bobs name was changed because he posts on here occasionally .

I have always wanted to run an all dwarf game...

But I have the type of players that will be super enthusiastic say yes what a great idea then turn up with a character sheet with elf written on it...

"hey Bob why are you playing an elf?"...
"um yeh, he is adopted, the dwarves found him after some orcs killed everybody in his village..."
"You don't want to play an all dwarf game do you Bob?"
"I'm sorry no....."
"Why didn't you say so in the first place don't you know how much effort I put in".
"I could make my character human or halfling.... I don't like halfings much though".
My head hits the desk at that stage....
"Ok guys standard fantasy game be what you want I will get a module out because I can't be arsed anymore".

We don't have res spells - we do have hero points, and we RP our use of hero points, to save dying characters.

If a character dies we RP the intro of the new character, and new characters just don't show up.

We had a character death about 8 sessions ago, the battle was epic we had all used our hero points (props, spell recalls, re-does for saves and so on) and the Druid who had turned the tide for us got isolated and killed by the big bad.

We still talk about the character and how much they are missed, the character death has made the party harder and edgier we aren't soft when we are interrogating prisoners. It's personal.

Quasnoflaut wrote:

Skreeeeeeeeee wrote:

I've always been interested in doing a campaign where every character, for whatever reason, is shrunken down to only a few inches tall. Along with it just being kinda weird, there's a whole lot to come up with concerning rules and stat blocks for now gigantic(or gigantic-er) sizes. That, and along with balancing out magic items and such(you can't really buy from Ye Olde Magic Shoppe effectively when you can't even carry your gold).

And I'm pretty sure players would get a little fed up with being so comically underpowered compared to your everyday commoner.

It'd be neat to try out sometime, still, with a willing party, but there'll likely be a lot of work to do keeping it all in line.

That sounds like an interesting plot point! I would just be lazy and have the party fight spiders or frogs and just use the stat blocks for "giant spider" or "giant frog." there's also a possibility for a really interesting shadow-of-the-colossus feel, but that's almost like asking for HD surround sound in a pen and paper game.

Sounds like a good excuse to apply the rules for Kaiju to stuff like the common housecat.

The Goodies (1972) - Kitten Kong.

Edwardian style Diesel Punk game with biplanes, Zeppelins, land ships, and the great game with all sorts of rebellions, brush wars and minor conflicts going on between the great powers.

I would use Earth have a Shadowrun style Awakening/Goblinization based on mythology.... Trolls in Norway, Korbukuru in Japan, Minotaurs in Greece, Redcaps in Scotland and so on.

The reason for the Awakening would be that somebody opened Pandoras Box (dimensional gateway) and let the magic back out.....

There would be factions wanting to put magic back in, others wanting to let the Angles/demons/Devils/Elder Evils out....

So in essence it's a D20, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Shadowrun, Rifts game.

Liz and James thanks for being super cool people, it's the fact the Paizo is staffed by people I would welcome to my table anytime is what keeps me from abandoning the forums.

:-)

I dont always drink soda, but when I do, its ginger beer with a shot of whiskey.

Bundaburg also makes rum and adding that to Bundaburg ginger beer is called a Dark & Stormy...Great drink for sitting on your veranda on a hot summer afternoon.

Bundaburg Ginger Beer, the The Soda Hunter reviews it...

Wolfmother - White Unicorn.

Wolfmother - New Moon Rising.

Wolfmother - Joker And The Thief.

The Darkness - Barbarian.

The Beards - You Should Consider Having Sex With A Bearded Man.

THE BEARDS - If Your Dad Doesn't Have a Beard, You've Got Two Mums.

The Beards - Got Me a Beard.

Touch Me in the Beard - The Beards.

I play Pathfinder because my group does... It's my preferred version of D&D.

I would prefer to be playing RoleMaster, GURPS, or Shadowrun.

I am participating in the free Beta play test for RoleMaster. Because ICE has nowhere near one tenth the resources of Paizo, its a very small community and a very slow process.

My favourite Shadowrun characters street name - his human parents were fans of an early 20th Century fantasy author and they named him after the 8th dwarf through some guys door..... So he called himself The 8th Dwarf... Been using the handle since the 90's and the Shadowrun BBS.

The funny thing was when communist dockworker Ork physad on the team found out my characters name he would rant about how the Author was a racist and his books were basically Mein Kamph for Elves.

Kylie Minogue & Nick Cave - Where The Wild Roses Grow.

To be honest anything from Nick Caves Murder Ballads Album.

The other way to go is explore other systems. See how magic works in GURPS, Shadowrun, Rolemaster (which began as an alternate combat and magic system for D&D), Savage Worlds, WOD, WHFRP, and see what works for you.

It's totally cool to be a fan of more than one system. The Devs play other RPGs I am sure it helps with inspiration for PF.

I wish it wasn't 10,000 kilometres away in another country :-( I hope everybody going has lots of fun. Post some pics and reviews, please.

BADGER RAP | Dan Bull, Dave Brown, Mr Weebl, Brian May & BRIAN BLESSED.

Lord Snow a lot of those Middle Eastern problems stem from post 1918 and post 1945 western colonialism.... The British, Russians, French and USA exploited, meddled, assassinated, repressed and set up tyrants all for profit and power...

The mess is ours and we aren't fixing it or likely to anytime soon too much money to be made.

On the other had my country's next door neighbour is the most populous Muslim country in the world and I find the most Indonesians I know to be layed back, welcoming, fun and generous people. My family lived in Surabaya For 2 years and probably wouldn't have come home if it wasn't for the Asian Econmic Crisis.

At Uni she lived two doors up from me in our Residential College (you guys call them Dorms), we were good friends, we liked the same things, history and sci fi. She asked me out because I was totally oblivious to her flirting.

We have been together since 95.

The 8th Dwarf wrote:

Letric wrote:

TriOmegaZero wrote:

kyrt-ryder wrote:

I HATE the idea of level one characters [whether they be humans, elves orcs or goblins] being a threat to high level characters. It makes me question the entire point of growing in level rather than just building an army.

stuff

I played MERP and had at least 3 characters die from the most stupid things ever because of a crit.

Once I clearly remember was a simple trap, an arrow one. It was triggered, Critical E, dead.

I mean, I don't mind dying if I make stupid decisions, but dying out because of a trap, it's the most stupid thing ever.

You and I like different styles of game and that's cool.

I don't have a problem if my PCs die even if I have written few pages or so of back story, because character death shapes a party gives it a grittiness I like. The threat of death makes the rewards sweeter.

I don't know what OBs your GM was giving traps but he probably wasn't scaling them to the party. An arrow trap is the same a goblin its assigned an Offensive bonus scale it low your passive DB should negate the low OB no serious injury.

Fights are interesting because the losing party retreats or surrenders due to broken bones, severed limbs or bleeding, it's higher risk for players characters thus when you obtain your goal it's like riding your bike without training wheels for the first time.

mplindustries wrote:

World of Darkness/Exalted/Trinity, Savage Worlds, Shadowrun, Legend of the Five Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, Mechwarrior, FATE, FUDGE, Castle Falkenstein, Dogs in the Vineyard, The Queen's Cavaliers, BRP (like runequest or call of cthulhu), Traveller, d6, Children of the Sun, Godlike/Wild Talents/Reign/ORE, Burning Wheel, FASERIP, Tri-Stat, Starchildren, Artesia, FUSION, Chtulhutech, GURPS, HERO, jeez, I could keep going for hours. Class/level is a d&d thing. It doesn't show up much in modern rpg design, and was hardly universal even in its heyday.

To be fair, classes and levels are a lot more common in CRPGs than in PnPRPGs.

Also, I suppose you could argue that in an entirely point-based system (e.g. GURPS, Mythic RPG), 'points' are your level. Same with games where you directly spend xp--it's just that xp and level are the same.
But yea, classes are pretty rare outside of D&D clones and videogames.

A lot of those games have things that work and feel a lot like classes (with a lot more flexibility than D&D), WOD all the Clans, Tribes, Magical groups. Shadowrun- Street Sam, Decker, Shaman, Physical Adept and so on, Traveller - Navy, Marine, Merchant... Cthulhu Tech I have only glanced at the books and I am sure there were some thing like Shadowrun.

TriOmegaZero wrote:

kyrt-ryder wrote:

I HATE the idea of level one characters [whether they be humans, elves orcs or goblins] being a threat to high level characters. It makes me question the entire point of growing in level rather than just building an army.

I'm amused that people would rather have a single character capable of taking on everything over requiring numbers and strategy to overcome things.

Have you ever played MERP? Middle Earth Role Playing Game?

Randomness sounds nice on paper, in movies, but not in games. When you're attached to your character and a Goblin level 1 kills you because he rolled a 96 on a 100 and you get hit by a Critical E Hit and lose your head, not funny.

I'm ok with enemies doing damage to due despite being low level, but not being able to kill you.

You're supposed to be a hero, even if fighting 50 level 1 being a lvl 10, you should kill them.

I still play Rollmaster 2ed/Classic (which was originally designed as a replacement for AD&D's simplistic combat system), MERP was the basic version of RM2. I love the thrill of a fight having that very small chance of being taken out in a dramatic way by a minion. They have to beat your Defensive bonus and roll high enough to get a critical that is deadly at 96 so you are looking at your 1st level rolling high enough to get an open ended roll and then add that roll on to get a 120 - 130 for a crit that will hurt then roll high enough on the crit table to kill you. It doesn't happen often, I have seen it once.

I say explore non D20 systems for a change, the RPG cycle is just clicking into the phase newer gamers from 4E PF period are maturing and wanting to try other stuff. It is also possible to like more than one thing at a time so you can play both.

Number 3, indeed, is a huge one. The "No True Roleplayer" is indeed a problem. I get that a lot. I play a bunch of RPGs ranging from Pathfinder, to D&D, to Saga Edition, to White Wolf, to Savage Worlds, to FATE, to Big Eyes Small Mouth, to M&M, to Forged, to...

Okay I have been gaming since I was 8 and am 34 now... I have played a lot of games...

Anyway, I can roleplay in any system... But I also like solid mechanics. I *love* roleplaying. It really REALLY makes me mad when someone who likes a rules-light setting bashes another game, like Pathfinder, or White Wolf, or whatever, because they don't like complex, or in-depth, rules systems by saying, "I don't like those because I like to roleplay." or "I like game X because I'm a roleplayer."

Nothing shoots my blood pressure up faster than hearing that. My response is always the same. "If you like games that are rules-light then say that you like games that are rules-light. Don't toss a passive aggressive comment around like that which basically insinuates that those people who do like those games don't roleplay."

There is no need for gamers to attack other gamers. We all grew up, well okay the older ones of us, probably the younger ones too, so sure, most of us grew up, being picked on, or at least mocked, for our hobby of gaming. That shared pain should unite us, not give us carte blanche to be passive aggressive jerks to one another because we like a burger with extra pickles and you like a burger sans pickles. At the end of the day we are all still eating burgers.

I am right there with you, been playing since primary school and I am in my mid 40's. Played a lot of systems and its a balance of quality of player/GM/system that makes a good game or bad game.

The 8th Dwarf wrote:

And he is Welsh not Scottish... Especially with that name.

Who here can tell the difference?

Frankly, I can't make heads or tails of Welsh v. Scottish v. Irish.

I can and I am Australian.

It's saying I can't tell the difference between a Canadian, a Yank, and a Mexican... Highly insulting and a good way to get a very hostile reaction from all 3 of those nationalities.

And he is Welsh not Scottish... Especially with that name.

p-sto wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

If the drow were extinct, then the game would lose one of its most interesting and iconic villains. Therefore, they are not extinct.

I'll grant you that they're iconic but if you don't mind me asking from a designer's perspective what makes them interesting. Granted that I haven't read all the way through Second Darkness but from what I've seen in Pathfinder scenarios the Drow are a more or less homogeneous violent society that as villains are nearly interchangeable with Derro or Duergar.

I actually wish people did more with the Duergar. All I get from most campaign setting books comes down to just a quick glance at them that boils down to "Dwarves but angrier and with more magic" before moving on to the Drow. There's so much one could build on with them, it's annoying how they are just thrown away like that. Even the Deep Gnomes got more love! But hey, at least one can build them up in an interesting way in homebrew settings. Better than nothing, I guess.

You could go the whole 1984/Brave New World with the Duergar. It's a perfect fascist state to go to war with.

Dwarves in pathfinder are boring and clichéd and the same short angry beer swilling Scottish Vikings ported over from D&D.

Some Australian army slang. Shifty can confirm if correct.

BOHICA - Bend Over, Here It Comes Again. Often heard prior to the delivery of a pineapple (q.v.); i.e., one is about to be lumbered with an unpleasant task.

Boots - A suck up. Refers to somebody who is so far up somebody else's backside that all that you can see is his/her boots.

Coffin nail - A cigarette. Also known as 'lung lollie'.

Dart thrower - A member of the Australian Intelligence Corps. Refers to the perceived method of identifying compounds/areas of interest for future operations, usually conducted eyes-shut with non-master hand to ensure statistically random results.

Digger – A soldier of the rank of private or equivalent in the Australian Army, for example Look after your diggers, Lieutenant. Term comes from the Anzacs.

Dog and pony show - A painstakingly prepared briefing, usually of little real substance or value, pandering to the whims of a senior officer. Also used to describe having to participate in some sort of display for civilians as a recruiting drive. E.g. 'The boys got stabbed to do a dog and pony at the footy on Friday night.'

Fitter and turner - An Army cook. It means "to fit good food into a pot and turn it into sh-t".

F.R.E.D - A small device which is a combination of a can opener, a bottle opener and a spoon. Officially named a "Field Ration Eating Device", but more popularly known as a "F--king Ridiculous/Retarded Eating Device". In the Air Force this acronym can also denote a 'F--king Ridiculous Electronic Device'.

(To get) Holes In Your T Shirt - To get shot, usually on a "Two Way Rifle Range".

Koala Bear - Refers to somebody who is generally considered a protected species and useless in the greater scheme of things. Usually accompanied by the phrase "Not to be exported or shot at" was used to refer to 1st Armoured Regt.

Mango - Term for Army Reservist. Green on the outside, yellow on the inside and too many of them give you the s&&~s.

Mordor - Canberra, the Australian National Capital and location of Army Headquarters.

Motion thickness - Involuntary erection experienced by male personnel when sitting over the wildly vibrating wheel arch of a Unimog truck. A traveller (q.v.) or travel fat . The sort of pun you find really funny when you're 18 years old.

Motorbike licence - A ruse to get diggers to volunteer for something. Sgt: Has anybody here got a motorbike licence? "I have Sergeant!" Sgt: Good. Grab these shovels and go dig a latrine.

Two-way rifle range - The battlefield.

Wanking spanner - Your prominent hand

I had 2 great managers at the cinema and one annoying one. It was a fun place to work, I got to watch movies for free, got a free meal from the caffe, got to sit in booth with the projectionists and learn how to make up and breakdown the film and operate the projector. I considered becoming a projectionist but they talked me out of it... They could see digital coming and thier jobs fading away.

Meh I worked in a cinema in a university town "adults" are the worst. Cleaning up vomit was the bane of my existence. Blood spattered bathroom was the worst thing I had to clean after two guys had a fight.

I had a mother come and complain to me because she took her under 15 daughter into a M rated movie.... She screamed at me and I was just an usher, my manager walked over told her to calm down, she went ballistic and was going to call the police. The manger said fine go ahead.... Then he grabbed the ratings pamphlet highlighted text and read it to her.

"Children under 15 may legally access this material because it is an advisory category. However, M classified films may include classifiable elements such as violence and nudity of moderate impact that are not recommended for children under 15 years.

Parents and guardians may need to find out more about the fiilm specific content, before deciding whether the material is suitable for their child."

He then asked her name and said you're banned for a year because you are rude and a s&&& parent.

The nearest other cinema was two hours away in the next town.

We need the ultra left to stop us veering to the right.... The right has infested Australian Labor and killed the party. I can't vote for them anymore, the greens and the socialist alliance get my vote.

Where are you from 8th Dwarf?

We in Australia have an aggressive conservative Christian as PM. But he feels the need to disguise what he is to make himself more acceptable to the public and his own party.

The PM is opposed to marriage equality, but we may get it as the government has other problems, and they may not fight on that. One can hope.

Sydney.... I'm your typical lefty inner west Chardonnay socialist.

60. Attempting to spread or engaging in Bieber Fever .

Distant Worlds is so good I bought it as book rather than PDF. Mr Sutter should be unleashed more often.

I would like to see a Hodge, Pratt, Logue, Sutter collaboration.

I love heist movies can I suggest

Two Hands
Idiot Box
Malcom
Chopper Based on a real criminal.
The Hard Word

Sarusan is a difficult prospect how do you balance a pre and post colonial Oceania/Australasia. Most Australian/NewZealand players want a colonial/post colonial with major threads of the indigenous past woven through, it's what most of us understand and relate to... Americans all ready have thier own story's of genocide, land theft and indigenous exploitation as part of thier history and if they tackle that in a Sarusan product they will have to be very careful on that edge.

On the other hand if it's pre colonial, than interest is limited, not because Oceanic/Australasian cultures aren't fascinating it's because are hard to shoehorn a faraway often misunderstood region into the U.S./Europe/Med/Near East analog focused campaign.

So far I have yet to find and RPG setting that does the region justice..... White Wolf came close, Shadowrun was a joke, TMNT down under was good for the animals.

I use Alkenstar as my post colonial Australia analog... Settled by the poor, the radical, the unwanted, survivors with that hard edge. It's harsh, dry and full of mutant things that want to kill you.

I think that would be the best you get.

If you have the Alkenstar Light Horse (mounted musket/riflemen) fighting Gnoll Raiders, while, version of Ned Kelly is holding up a whole town, as a 50' horned death spitter lizard has decided that the main road is the best place to sun it's self so traffic is backed up as nobody wants to go walkabout through the wastes to find a quick way around. Then you have Australia.

English food can be very good. Home made Baked Beans on sourdough with bacon, poached eggs, corriander, and sausages is one of my favourites.

Then again you can have your Supersized Mac & cheese with cheese whiz and velveeta and grits in a big gulp bucket and think to yourselves you are the kings of cuisine....

HP is also a reflection of stamina and fatigue... Still it's too vague... That's why I like Rolemaster broken arms and legs, bleed stacks, guts spilling out. Combatants flee and surrender a few rounds into combat.

Feros wrote:

Her first PM? Winston Churchill.

:D

Yes, that's occurred to me too - the monarch is now the vizier!

My fellow Americans, I think we are actually reaching a consensus here - let's rejoin the British Commonwealth!

You will need to understand Rugby and Cricket... You are getting better at beer. You must always do your best to annoy the English and you have to know the difference between England, Britain, Great Britain, the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Nations.

This lists some of the free stuff out there Linky

We love the queen because we get a day off work.

Oceanshieldwolf wrote:

@8th - Ehrmagherd, those shirts are hilarious. And spot on. Eshay-lads indeed.

Other random thoughts:

* I'm with Scythia, I watched Mad Max a few years back and almost couldn't make it through to the end. Looks like a student film. I appreciate where it was headed, but some of the sets were...laughable. And the social commentary incredibly hamfisted.

It doesn't exist. ;)

Mad Max starts with Mad Max 2.

Thunderdome was a logical progression (for the "movie starz" approach of the eighties) that was...unfortunate in many ways, but at least we got the costumes.

I never did understand why the gyrocaptain in Thunderdome is "not-the-same-character-or-is-he?"

* I am intrigued that there will be a sequel to Fury Road.

* That you never get to see the faces/culture of the dirt biker/pass gang, or the foreign-tongued bristlemarauders is, to my mind more annoying than intriguing. And the dirt bikers costumes seemed uninspired.

Add me as another who thinks the Mad Max Universe really starts with Road Warrior. I don't think the first movie is bad, actually it's pretty good and Mel actually makes it shine.

However, there's this disconnect between the first and the second. You go from a relatively civilized area with some savage characters and actions, to this complete wasteland of a place where everything and everyone is completely bonkers.

It's like two completely different worlds...a complete disconnect.

Road Warrior and Thunder Dome at least seem to be in the same world. The first one and the other two seem completely different worlds to me and hence two completely different settings and themes.

Even the character of Max is different between the first one and the second two.

I am wondering if this new movie somehow branches that disconnect and is something that connects the first with the latter two (something that really does need to be done). Going from civilization exists but with pockets of savagery to it's entirely gone, the...

Mad Max is the very beginning of societal breakdown - the TV in the background is showing lots fuel riots and foreign wars. In Australia the cities are verge of collapse it's only the police holding things together and they have a high attrition rate. Also Australia is as big as continental USA the majority of the population lives on the east coast the further west you go the less people & infrastructure you get except for the big mining towns.

So the cops are holding the bike gangs out of the big cities and the gangs are preying on the small towns.

In between 1 & 2 there is a world war society collapses industry and infrastructure is all gone the majority of people die. Australia may be as big as the U.S. But we have less people than New York.

So going tribal is the best bet for survival, raiding takes precedence over trading if your tribe has nothing of value. Savagery becomes the norm. Just like the collapse of Roman Authority in Britain.

Never saw the original movies, might have to check this out.

1 and 3 polarise people. If you do watch the first movie do not watch one dubbed with US voice actors, you need the 2003 release not the 1980's release.

The first movie is the set up - it's the reason Max is the way he is.

Thunderdome is just a steeming bucket of dung.

I don't actully believe the third movie exists, just like there are no prequels to Star Wars. But the first two movies were big on social comentary as well.

My thoughts on the MRA issue....It's a film that explores women fighting to determine their own reproductive rights, it's not just feminist it's humanist and realist with bonus explosions.

It's also original and exciting because George hasn't taken anything away from the Maxverse he just shifted the lens slightly so we get to see what is ignored or peripheral in your typical action movie and it's fresh and can only make story telling like this better.

George said he didn't start out making a feminist move but the story as he crafted it went in that direction. He wanted to get away from the typical action movie made and cut by the same typical action movie makers.

So the MRAs can go "sooky la la" in a corner because nobody is interested in their butt hurt tears, and the rest of us humans can watch a fresh take on an action movie and hope that other directors get the hint.

The Jalopnik interview Ambrosia linked is interesting. The guy that built the cars built Pricilla Queen of the Desert.

Favourite convenience food - pasta with a lighttly fried egg, ketchup, and some raw carrot and/or bell peppers on the side. (or, y'know, prefab pizza - Dr Oetker makes one that's not as good as real pizza, but better than warm sandwiches).

English muffins make good mini pizza bases.

The late 70's - 80's Ninja craze - good times. Ran around a mates backyard with rubber shuriken, nunchucks, and bokken smashing the crap out of each other. Star Blazers, Astro boy, MONKEY!!!, then Robotech.