[X] My Assistant

[ahammer]

did you miss the whole conversation in the end about the leader giveng his share away, mostly, he did buy himself a tesla.

realy I thoght that they were talking about the money from the 1st job.

[hobgoblin]

i dont know why, but it seems i cant enjoy live action series any longer.

i recall enjoying the pre-air, but i find myself giving up on the episode after 5 min now.

somehow the humor of the show just makes me groan in pain...

[Arcblood]

First episode made them all enough money to buy an island and retire. The money they are making on interest alone would pay for thier adventures. Also if you haven't been paying attention to the market the last 4 months, stock manipulation can make you tons of money and destroy people real quick. Thier colective skills alone means they can print money at anytime they need to.

[WeaverMount]

I've read a couple of things that make comparisons (not necessarily positive) to the A-Team. How close are these to being accurate?

A-Team is pink, leverage is back

[hyzmarca]

Leverage is more Equalizer than A-Team, meaning mohawk in a 3-piece suit.

[Ed_209a]

I took the 32 mil payoff in the pilot as a thematic way to take money/greed out of the plot equation.

The crooks aren't in the game for the money anymore, because they don't have to be. It is just for the thrill.

Robin Hooding can be just as thrilling as shooting people in the face for money.

[Fortune]

But is there any actual shooting people in the face, money or no money?

[Malicant]

Sometimes shooting people in the face is it's own reward.

[Rotbart van Dain...]

My only complaint from the SR POV is that the show takes a much more human/goodguy vibe rather than the mercenary vibe.

Hooders have been a part of SR since first edition. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Dashifen]

I've been evangelizing Leverage to everyone I know since I watched the pilot. It warms a scabbed over calloused part of my soul, it does.

[Matsci]

But is there any actual shooting people in the face, money or no money?

No shooting people in the face, but there is a lot of neck-punching and things exploding.

[MJBurrage]

I liked the first episode very much. Definitely made me think of Shadowrun. My only (very small) nitpick was the overly large size of the stock shorting payout (it was five to ten times too big to be even quasi-realistic). I can let it go because I understand that few people have the financial background to understand that the team would have to have borrowed over half a billion dollars worth of stock to get the payout they did.

The second episode was also fun, but two things bothered me (more so than the pilot's payout). 1) The bad guys would never have believed the "lost tourist couple" in the middle of a shipping yard that big. 2) The very public way they gave the cash to the client, would cause tongues to wag, and lead trouble back to the client.

Having said all that, still better than much on TV, and I like Parker. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[hyzmarca]

I liked the first episode very much. Definitely made me think of Shadowrun. My only (very small) nitpick was the overly large size of the stock shorting payout (it was five to ten times too big to be even quasi-realistic). I can let it go because I understand that few people have the financial background to understand that the team would have to have borrowed over half a billion dollars worth of stock to get the payout they did.

It is possible Alec was shorting naked, in which case they wouldn't have had to borrow any stocks. Worse case scenario, they fail to deliver a very large volume of naked shorted stocks and the SEC investigates the fake identity that Alec was trading under. Given his skill, this would just lead them to a metaphorical brick wall.

[hobgoblin]

hmm, seems my taste in humor changes depending on my level of rest and other stuff.

still, this is one show that needs to be taken in measured doses...

[masterofm]

Boo to the ditsy thief. Everyone else is cool.

[Fortune]

No shooting people in the face ...

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[Caine Hazen]

Thanks for the reminder... forgot to set this up on the DVR. All set now though!

[Dashifen]

Boo to the ditsy thief. Everyone else is cool.

Boo to you, my good sir. Parker is clearly superior to the others. Unless, of course, you include Tim Hutton's character in the list, who is, in my humble opinion, made of awesome.

[ludomastro]

I was finally able to sit down and watch the second episode tonight - love my DVR. Anyway, I enjoyed the episode immensely. I too was struck by how out of place the reports showing up at the container seemed. Sure, it's possible but compared to complete screw the guy in the first episode got, it was a little bit of a letdown. Nevertheless, I have high hopes for this series.

[hyzmarca]

Reporters showing up at the container had the advantage of being unspinable and unburyable. The best they could do would be to kill all of the reporters, and their cameras probably had satellite uplinks that would make such violence counterproductive.

[nezumi]

Thanks for turning me on to this show : ) Those of you without cable - it is on TNT's website (it requires installing a windows media player add-on).

[Xenefungus]

So, by now we are already five episodes into season three. Anyone of you still watching? I think although some kind of...routine got established quite fast (i think still in season 1), it's still one of the better series on TV. I just as well had some shadowrunesque moments during the series so i searched dumpshock and found this topic here. Perhaps we could collect some impressions here that could be of use in our favorite game?

Things i noticed:

+ Everyone is a little grifter. Like really, even the Hitter. And although Parker has her ..problems in social situations (thumbs up or having a FEMALE character with LOW empathy and social skills btw, Leverage, bravo, thats seldom!), in fact all of the main characteres are good for the occasional con. And they really put those social skills to good use. The real Grifter just excels in it. And wow, how she does.

+ Extensive Pickpocketing. Wow, sleight of hand is really underrepresented, at least in my games. They indeed put it to good use, and again, mostly ALL of them.

+ Hacking doesnt get in the way. Ok, "Hacking", i know it's not realistic. But really, the hacker doesnt seem to be jobless at all although you almost never see him spend lots of time "in" the machine apart from the others. Thats how it should be! Partly of course, this is because he has other areas of expertise as well (like, playing the Violin as we know now.. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) )

+ They got a Brain. Awesome. Every Shadowrun-Team should have one! And he can also join the team on the run. Problem: There are little skills to support this role, its mostly a player- not a character- thing. Suggestions? Do we really want do let someone do a roll do the GM tells him a cool plan?

+ Concluding from above: I'd say most of the Leverage characters are generalists, which are generally (pun intended) looked down upon in Shadowrun. They all just have some little feats the others dont have to make them stand out - and it works.

+ Hooding can be fun. You already discussed it here before, they really dont have any money-problems from episode 2 on. Nevertheless they work, and it doesnt seem to get too simple for them cause of the money. Problem i see here in connection to Shadowrun is that in the game, money allows you to buy ware and foci and other gamebreaking stuff that we possibly dont want our players to have in infinite amounts. On the other hand, i wouldnt mind my players to have the money to save a hospital, or even arrange expensive setups if they get a plan that involves quite some money. This is difficult to solve i guess.

So, any suggestions, comments, ideas from the fellow dumpshock community? I personally think Leverage is a really great Oceans / A-Team Hybrid with a shadowy touch and think we might even lern a bit from the series.

So, "lets go steal some ideas" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Yerameyahu]

In the latest episodes, everyone is becoming more generalist. Hardison talked about super-skrull, but everyone's doing some face work, some security work, etc. I wouldn't say that means they *are* generalists, though. Parker is extremely specialized, Hardison is extremely specialized, etc. etc. They're all great (as in, world class) at their main focus.

[nezumi]

Yeah, I stopped watching in Season 1, because it did get a little repetitive. Burn Notice seems to have more variety in plots and responses, and Hustle and Real Hustle are hands down better across the board.

Is it worth coming back to?

[Yerameyahu]

*shrug* I watch all three. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) They don't have to be gold.