BoloOfEarth
Oct 15th, '03, 05:54 AM
It’s that time of the month again, so here’s my review of DH #14. Sorry for the delay; I had to fix some virus and trojan horse problems on my niece’s computer, which ate up a few days, and we celebrated my daughter's 11th birthday. But enough excuses. On with the show!
Cover Art: I mentioned this in another thread, but Nato’s cover is great! I really liked all of it – the color, composition, character poses, expressions, background… All in all, a work he should be extremely proud of.
When Last We Left Our Heroes: The Fantasy Hero Grimoire sounds like it will rank right up there with the USPD as a great resource for both players and GMs. I like the breakdown on the spell categories; it seems to cover everything pretty well.
HEROglyphs: I agree that a mechanic is needed to simulate activating other characters’ weapons/devices/powers. However, I’m not sure Activate does this quite to my satisfaction. It seems slightly inexpensive, even with Ranged and Continuous, for the potential uses. For instance, a cyberkinetic with “Activate any Battlesuit at Range, Continuous” is only 50 points. With this, he can turn Defender against his own team with little difficulty. I think what’s missing is Adders or Advantages to cover controlling progressively more complex devices (in game terms, those with multiple Powers) and maybe something other than a straight Characteristic contest to resolve control issues. Just my opinion.
Hero Universe: Dobroy dehn, tovarisch! More Sentinels fun, an enjoyable read with some good character writeups. Of these, I liked Beowolf the most, though Boroh is neat too. I’m looking forward to more installments on the Sentinels.
Typically good character art by Derrick Thomas. My favorite pic was Boroh.
You Gotta Have Character (Aimee Semple McPherson): Another good history lesson from Jason, with Aimee’s writeup suitable for an interesting contact or NPC in a pulp or 20’s horror game. I do find myself wondering how much Jason ‘tinkered’ -- did she ever work with the FBI in any capacity (hey, if Elvis did, so could she), or was that added for dramatic and game purposes?
Your Horoscope For: Virgo: A nice, quick FH adventure with a few twists to make it interesting. As with other YHF’s, this was fun to read, with a few cool side bits (like the story on the Beaten Mug) to really flesh things out. Allen has a way of making his characters more than two-dimensional stock characters.
The maps are straightforward (as is the town itself), though I’d think a hex map of the tower would be better than one of the town. (The large-scale map covers the town well enough.) I don’t know about other players, but the ones I game with are just as likely to break the Edwardsons out as they are to take on the wyrm. (Plus, I’d think a map of a ramshackle tower would look neat and get later use outside this adventure.)
I’m not fond of Horletta’s picture, but I liked the one of the chicken-legged hut. Both look a bit sketchy, but for some reason it bothered me with Horletta but fit well with the hut.
Leftover Hero: I liked the Bujanga, especially how demonic-looking the picture is. I’ve always like the “things aren’t always what they seem” situation, and after meeting the Bujanga players will be sure to avoid judging on first sight. The Iron Demon Warriors are appropriately tough and could even be used in a Champions game.
Miniature Hero, Part Two: A nice completion to the article from DH #12. The steps taken to customize and finish the miniature sound like they would translate well to making similar changes to other miniatures. As I mentioned before when the first article appeared, this is well done.
Refigured Stun Multipliers: A decent article on Killing Attack STUN Multipliers. It seems like a set value of 3 would balance more with Energy Blasts than 3.5, but the differences aren’t horrendous. The reduced Multiplier range (2-4) sounds like a good idea if lots of KA’s are flying in your campaign, though I’ll probably keep things the standard way in my game. I liked the Reduced STUN Multiplier Limitation and plan to use it in my campaign.
Cause and Effect: Flying Carpet: I liked how John presented the different methods, each with its plusses and minuses. Each method seems pretty well done, with all i’s dotted and t’s crossed.
On a side note, I appreciated how the examples for each method followed the example from the preceding method like a story in parts. Things like that are a nice bonus when reading.
Finding Your Inner Totem: This was a neat article, and seems like it would go well with Dale Robbins’ excellent Meriquai Falls series of articles. While the Totem Code’s influence on the totem powers is covered well, it does miss questions I had immediately: is the Totem Code a Psychological Limitation, and if so, at what level? (I’m assuming Common, Strong.) Or is the Totem Code just something that’s part and parcel with the totem powers and the character gets no extra points for it? The text says "...equivalent to" a Psych. Lim. but not that it is one.
The Inner Totems sidebar was okay, but I thought a list of sample animals, a few more sample totem power sets, or totem codes for different animals might have been a bit better.
However, these are relatively minor things, and all in all this article was very good, IMO.
The Medieval Village: Gates to Adventure: This well-research, detailed article has a lot of information to help flesh out Fantasy Hero village life. IMO, it feels like it goes a bit before bringing up suggestions about gaming. Given the broad range of the article, this is probably to be expected. Some sidebars with game-related ideas might have added nicely with this, though this might not have been possible judging by the length of the article.
Honestly, I think this could have benefited from being split in half and presented as two articles – one half on the village itself (structures, basic layouts, etc.) and the other on the villagers (professions, personalities, sample skills, etc.). That way, more attention could be spent on each, including from a game perspective. (By the way, this isn't a criticism, it's meant as a complement -- I enjoyed it enought that I wanted more. :))
Cover Art: I mentioned this in another thread, but Nato’s cover is great! I really liked all of it – the color, composition, character poses, expressions, background… All in all, a work he should be extremely proud of.
When Last We Left Our Heroes: The Fantasy Hero Grimoire sounds like it will rank right up there with the USPD as a great resource for both players and GMs. I like the breakdown on the spell categories; it seems to cover everything pretty well.
HEROglyphs: I agree that a mechanic is needed to simulate activating other characters’ weapons/devices/powers. However, I’m not sure Activate does this quite to my satisfaction. It seems slightly inexpensive, even with Ranged and Continuous, for the potential uses. For instance, a cyberkinetic with “Activate any Battlesuit at Range, Continuous” is only 50 points. With this, he can turn Defender against his own team with little difficulty. I think what’s missing is Adders or Advantages to cover controlling progressively more complex devices (in game terms, those with multiple Powers) and maybe something other than a straight Characteristic contest to resolve control issues. Just my opinion.
Hero Universe: Dobroy dehn, tovarisch! More Sentinels fun, an enjoyable read with some good character writeups. Of these, I liked Beowolf the most, though Boroh is neat too. I’m looking forward to more installments on the Sentinels.
Typically good character art by Derrick Thomas. My favorite pic was Boroh.
You Gotta Have Character (Aimee Semple McPherson): Another good history lesson from Jason, with Aimee’s writeup suitable for an interesting contact or NPC in a pulp or 20’s horror game. I do find myself wondering how much Jason ‘tinkered’ -- did she ever work with the FBI in any capacity (hey, if Elvis did, so could she), or was that added for dramatic and game purposes?
Your Horoscope For: Virgo: A nice, quick FH adventure with a few twists to make it interesting. As with other YHF’s, this was fun to read, with a few cool side bits (like the story on the Beaten Mug) to really flesh things out. Allen has a way of making his characters more than two-dimensional stock characters.
The maps are straightforward (as is the town itself), though I’d think a hex map of the tower would be better than one of the town. (The large-scale map covers the town well enough.) I don’t know about other players, but the ones I game with are just as likely to break the Edwardsons out as they are to take on the wyrm. (Plus, I’d think a map of a ramshackle tower would look neat and get later use outside this adventure.)
I’m not fond of Horletta’s picture, but I liked the one of the chicken-legged hut. Both look a bit sketchy, but for some reason it bothered me with Horletta but fit well with the hut.
Leftover Hero: I liked the Bujanga, especially how demonic-looking the picture is. I’ve always like the “things aren’t always what they seem” situation, and after meeting the Bujanga players will be sure to avoid judging on first sight. The Iron Demon Warriors are appropriately tough and could even be used in a Champions game.
Miniature Hero, Part Two: A nice completion to the article from DH #12. The steps taken to customize and finish the miniature sound like they would translate well to making similar changes to other miniatures. As I mentioned before when the first article appeared, this is well done.
Refigured Stun Multipliers: A decent article on Killing Attack STUN Multipliers. It seems like a set value of 3 would balance more with Energy Blasts than 3.5, but the differences aren’t horrendous. The reduced Multiplier range (2-4) sounds like a good idea if lots of KA’s are flying in your campaign, though I’ll probably keep things the standard way in my game. I liked the Reduced STUN Multiplier Limitation and plan to use it in my campaign.
Cause and Effect: Flying Carpet: I liked how John presented the different methods, each with its plusses and minuses. Each method seems pretty well done, with all i’s dotted and t’s crossed.
On a side note, I appreciated how the examples for each method followed the example from the preceding method like a story in parts. Things like that are a nice bonus when reading.
Finding Your Inner Totem: This was a neat article, and seems like it would go well with Dale Robbins’ excellent Meriquai Falls series of articles. While the Totem Code’s influence on the totem powers is covered well, it does miss questions I had immediately: is the Totem Code a Psychological Limitation, and if so, at what level? (I’m assuming Common, Strong.) Or is the Totem Code just something that’s part and parcel with the totem powers and the character gets no extra points for it? The text says "...equivalent to" a Psych. Lim. but not that it is one.
The Inner Totems sidebar was okay, but I thought a list of sample animals, a few more sample totem power sets, or totem codes for different animals might have been a bit better.
However, these are relatively minor things, and all in all this article was very good, IMO.
The Medieval Village: Gates to Adventure: This well-research, detailed article has a lot of information to help flesh out Fantasy Hero village life. IMO, it feels like it goes a bit before bringing up suggestions about gaming. Given the broad range of the article, this is probably to be expected. Some sidebars with game-related ideas might have added nicely with this, though this might not have been possible judging by the length of the article.
Honestly, I think this could have benefited from being split in half and presented as two articles – one half on the village itself (structures, basic layouts, etc.) and the other on the villagers (professions, personalities, sample skills, etc.). That way, more attention could be spent on each, including from a game perspective. (By the way, this isn't a criticism, it's meant as a complement -- I enjoyed it enought that I wanted more. :))