Lycanus

Naruto deliberately stretches the traditional concept of ninja, the author himself admitted he wanted to do something "different"

when you get down to it, each country has basically privatized its military with allowances for people to hire out its soldiers for all sorts of tasks...this includes people from other countries...the only set that really follows the spy and assassin reputation of ninja from other traditions are the Anbu, most of whose faces you never see (or at least think you never see...for all we know, when they're not on duty as Anbu, they're walking around like common ninja)

Basilisk...gah, saw one disk at anime at the alamo and that is all I want to ever see...

as to the ninja set, haven't played it much yet, but I can't say I have a problem with oni, reminds me of Tenchu Stealth Assassin

Also, the "oddball" comment wasn't that every set needed something oddball, but was specifically talking about ninja set because the first two powers are rather vanilla (ninjas are the ultimate in faceless goons) so having something stand out at the end is appropriate...

My sister is so terrified of ants that when the ant-scene came up in Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull that she spent the entire scene tightly closing her eyes, cringing and twisting in her seat.

And that's her in her mid 20s, after 20+ years of building up a tolerance (bad incident with fire ants as a child)

I knew someone else who was so terrified of spiders that her husband replaced the spider deal of the drow in D&D with ants....and ran into my sister's problem...

said person had to leave the apartment for five to ten minutes to calm down after someone said "you know there's probably a spider in every room you ever walk into"

Granted those are pretty much full out phobias (though I think not diagnosed by any doctor)

for myself, I freak out imagining mosquitos in my room at night occasionally due to having had frequent problems with them getting in my apartment in Korea...though personally I like the idea of an insect control or insect mastermind set...kept in the world of fiction, I'm fine with it

Main characters generally possess some of the same traits as a Mary Sue, something you have to watch as a story writer at times. For example:

My character Lucretia from the Bystander book referenced below was designed before her world setting was. The world setting was, in fact, designed around her. On the one hand, that sounds like a Mary Sue, but it is HER story being told, so it is less so.

In addition, there are consequences to her actions. The first story is pretty much kicked off by her mistakes and efforts to correct them.

My decision to make her the most powerful being in the world (whether she knows it or not right now) is fine given that it's her story and the world is designed for her.

Statesman as well would be fine with just some moderate tone downs if this were a television series or comic book and the like. However, as an NPC he has always been in the "I'm the Hero!" stage for most of the time I've thought about him.

This game is NOT about Statesman, it's about the players. Hence why he enters into Mary Sue territory for the beginning of his career. He overshadows the players terribly in his original version and you start to wonder why he needs anybody else when he has the "I win" button that Jack complained that we all wanted.

anywhere I can get a PC-playable version of that? never finished it

Spider-Man can take a fair beating with only mild injuries.

Though my universe is one where skill trumps power. As one character says "there's ways around every armor, you just have to know what they are".

Of course, then you have the people with skill AND power

I put it about the same as the pointy ears on elves. Something to mark them as exotic without putting them into the category of alien.

I especially would appreciate a lack of skulls in some dark powers.

I know of a couple of people that are annoyed that all tails animate the same way and want some differentiation between at least the dog and cat tails

The crusade aspect is the one I was objecting to. Constructive criticism is, of course, necessary. Such as when there are mechanical difficulties involved.

For that matter, so are most Europeans and those Americans descended from them. Who've grown up with Aesop...at least I did.

Fred Perry is an awesome and cool guy, by the way.

Haven't read the manga, the anime is excellent though...got it while I was in Korea

I was definitely thinking Gally and Lina. Also, Yin, Akane, the girl from Escaflowne. Actually, small-chested or average build girls who are jealous of their larger peers are fairly frequent. Though one of my favorites is the repeated descriptions of Jubei-chan as having big breasts despite the fact that the art style makes them seem more average (for comic books and anime, meaning high Bs low Cs) rather than the gag boobs (Ds and sometimes Es).

In any case, Bad Influence, the issue isn't whether or not you dislike anime (your perogative). The issue is that you think your dislike of anime is qualification alone of condemning someone else's suggestion. Your perception of what is or is not a superhero is NOT the one true philosophy on things, nor is mine, nor is Fleetings, or Leo's or anybody's.

Frankly, if you're only comment on a thread is likely to be "no thanks" or "I don't like X, so I'll pass" then it would be better just not to post. There are plenty of suggestions that I dislike intensely. My response to them: NOT POST TO THEM. That is someone else's opinion, and it is what would make the game more fun for them. It is usually not going to impact my game play in the slightest. If it does, then I will comment.

Costume pieces are not something that falls into "affects my gameplay". If I run across a piece that so thoroughly offends me that I'd rather not be faced with it, I'll just not deal with those players that use said piece.

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What follows is basically due to me enjoying a good discussion and would more or less continue the argument that anime does not equal furry...or big breasts for that matter, and some discussion on good anime.
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Medusa, Nagas, Faerie, Satyrs, Fauns, Mermaids, Werewolves, Werepanthers (South America), Weresharks (pacific island), Raven shapeshifters (couple of places), Centaurs, Camazotz, Succubi, Echidna, Anubis, Isis, Horus, Set, Minotaur...

Anthropomorphized animals or, more precisely, human forms with added animal features are a common aspect of pretty much every culture.

As to characters that fit the trend from Western culture, there are, indeed, less of them in the Hero category. We have a long history of demonizing those particular aspects of our culture to a greater or lesser extent. In addition, we have drawn significantly from the Greek concept of perfect mind and perfect body so that we like our heroes to be physically perfect specimens: ideals.

But we do have:

Dark Angel and it's animal-hybrids (aside from the human looking ones)

numerous heroic werewolves

Wolfsbane (might fall under the same)

Hawkman and Hawkgirl

Angel

Killer Croc

A few characters from some incarnations of GI Joe's Cobra

A large number of characters from Champions' universe.

Beast

Nightcrawler

A couple of Black Bolt's people.

Wolverine to an extent.

Some phases of Spiderman's career.

Thundercats

Gold Digger (admittedly, having a Japanese style artwork and using some Japanese tropes, but still mainly drawing from Western stories)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which has a large variety of mutant animals heroic and otherwise

Street Sharks

There's one sci-fi western cartoon aimed at kids initially which is cow people.

There's a cartoon about mutated dogs.

Duck Tales

Tale Spin

Darkwing Duck

Bugs Bunny

Daffy Duck

Johnny Darko's Pooka

Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood

In reality, the stereotypical furry/anthro art is NOT very related to anime art styles.

In fact, the most often used art styles by furry artists, at least Western, are Disney and Looney Toons style art.

Anime "furries" are generally limited to cat ears and tail, maybe with sharp teeth and some fur...they are actually somewhat LESS tolerant of full blown anthropomorphism in their main characters than Western cartoons are.

I think the catgirl there is actually a wolf-girl...she claims to be a werewolf, but I disregard that.


anyway....you could have mentioned some of the following too:

Darker than Black (this one is especially good for CoH and those of you that want anti-heroes...I may have just unleashed a host of Chinese Electric Batmen on us all): http://www.hulu.com/darker-than-blac...n-and-Cartoons

Shikabane Hime (though the last two episodes will make you want to bash your skull into a wall)

Ghost Hunt

Full Metal Panic!

Oh My Goddess!

Trigun (there's an excellent dissertation out there making the entire series into an allegory of the life of Christ in some aspects)

Ruruoni Kenshin

Monster (oh hell, Monster)

If you want a fantasy that focuses on economics rather than war: Spice and Wolf

Actually, the vast majority of anime and manga has nothing even remotely looking like a furry...and they MAKE FUN of people that dress like that regularly).

Heck, I can't even name that many real cat-girls or other animal girls that show up in anime.

As to big breasts, yeah, there are a few, most often secondary characters, most of the female characters I like are rather slender.

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probably would end up two...or, heck, could do one gun and one knife as an optional weapon selection for some people willing to handle the animation details

OOoooOOOooo!

That sounds fun!

Rumiko Takahashi's work has some clear parallels to Tex Avery's. Ranma 1/2 and Rockin' Red Riding Hood especially.

That's weird, it works for me...let me PM it to you.

Well, one problem I can foresee on using scent is my lack of it do to persistent allergies, but yeah, I'll see. I do use scent occasionally in everyday life, just not something I think about all the time and alot of my emotional responses are probably different.

for example, I absolutely hate perform due to the fact that it gives me migraines

opening a door to a hallmark shop can be a physical blow to the face, almost exactly like being struck, especially around Christmas.