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FANTASY HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?


Steve Long

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You asked for it. :)

 

Fantasy Hero Design Goals

 

Most important: focus on the overall user experience. Make this a fantasy book before it's a Hero book.

 

Provide GMs with all the rules-related material needed to design their own fantasy campaigns.

Provide this material in a manner which allows it to be used “as is†for GMs who do not wish to design their own fantasy campaigns. This is NOT "Create a default world/magic system"; but more like what Star Hero did (provide a lot of equipment and other stuff that could be lifted).

Rules-related material specifics:

Races:

How to handle characteristic maxima changes: rather than rules to increase/decrease maxima, GM permission should be changed based on racial tendencies

Several examples of how to create “race templates†(just all the different things a race might have; these races can be used by GMs who do not wish to design their own.)

Minimize generic D&D/Tolkien/etc. ripoffs and other cliches (i.e., "cat people"). Better to create something specific than generic.

Dealing with races with Extra Limbs: can a four-armed race use three shields?

Characteristics:

Discussion of stats which can become problematic in fantasy games

Importance of STR

DEX vs. Skill Levels (how to deal with the fact that more DEX is usually the better bargain)

INT vs. Skill Levels (+5 INT costs the same as +1 to all INT skills).

High PD and ED can make the character very effective in unarmed combat

SPD is critically important, especially because the average is so low. Also, SPD can be a better way to increase running speed than Running.

Skills:

Details on tailoring specific skills to the fantasy era (Weaponsmith, Security Systems, etc.).

Talents:

Create some fantasy specific talents.

Magic Sense: ability to sense auras

Magic Resistance: Defense that works against all spells

Beastlord: ability to speak to animals

Powers:

List of powers that are appropriate for normals to buy. (Running, Swimming, etc.)

Frameworks:

Discussion of why frameworks can be good/bad in fantasy campaigns (possibly under magic system creation).

Equipment:

For every item:

Text description of each item (free of game mechanics).

Cost of each item

Weight of each item

Concealment modifiers: how hard is it to hide this item (include wearing armor under clothing, etc.)

Game effect (OCV, DCV, DMG, DEF, movement, etc.)

Rules/skills/time/equipment required to create item

Skills required to use item

Armor specific properties:

Include realistic rules for weights of partial armor (based on more than the 3d6 bell curve)

Include realistic pieces of armor (i.e., most people don’t buy sectional armor based on the Hit Location chart, but on what pieces logically were built together).

Weapon specific properties:

Suggestions for emphasizing slight variations in weapons (less than +1 OCV or DC): these can be ways to simulate well-crafted items or minor magic items without unbalancing the game

Re-roll all 1s on damage

Re-roll if missed by one

Include blowguns

Poison specific properties:

Method of application

Skill required to apply poison (if any)

Chance of detecting poison

Type (for LS:Immunity)

Method of creation

Include effects of alcohol (it’s a poison!)

“Kit†specific properties:

Include a list of items which raise skill rolls

Thieves’ tools

Disguise kit

Climbing gear

Mage’s library

Instrument specific properties:

How music/performances can be used in game.

Food: Tie in to starvation rules in FREd.

Mounts/vehicles: Stats and text for horses, wagons, ships, chariots, camels, elephants, etc.

Siege weaponry: how to make it effective against large targets but not small mobile ones

Other:

Adventuring equipment

Trade goods

Caltrops

Other gear

Vehicle rules:

Mounted combat

Medieval chase scenes (wagon fights, etc.)

Ship to ship (naval) combat

Sailing rules (wind direction, skills required to crew a ship, etc.), based on TUV rules.

Magic:

Importance of special effects

A spell’s point construction is only the beginning; only through imaginative application of special effects is the fantasy genre sustained

This requires the active cooperation of the players

To emphasize this, there should be NO writeups of spells, items, etc. that just supply points. In order to drive this point home, all examples and writeups should have detailed and interesting descriptions which go beyond the point costs to provide a proper fantasy “feelâ€.

All the cool "how to build a magic system" concept stuff from 4th Ed. FH -- or something similar

Different magic system philosophies

Spells cost character points

Spells don’t cost character points (work like equipment)

Hybrid (one KS per spell or spell theme, etc.)

Describing a magic system is more than just "how to build spells". All magic systems (and the text for describing how to create one) should include more:

"Tech levels": how powerful can different types of spells (healing, defense, teleportation, scrying, etc.) get in this magic system?

How are items made?

How do mages evolve -- what is the highest power level possible?

How are innate abilities handled?

“Superheroes with Skill Rolls†syndrome: what it is, how to avoid it

“Vancian†syndrome: what it is, how to choose alternatives if you don’t want it.

How to sustain limits on what magic can do without alienating players

Proper and improper uses of the Independent Limitation

Sample magic items

Curses

The Defense Issue: how to deal with 15/15 Force Fields in a 6 DC game. Should defense powers cost more?

Different roles for deities

Healing magic and its implications

How to do “portable holesâ€

How to do spirits: use the Incomplete Character rules!

Movement

Facing and acceleration: humans running really do have a turn modifier, this should be simulated

When does the "from behind" bonus apply?

Doesn't human swimming cost more END (more tiring to swim than to run...)

Combat:

How to differentiate TWF from Sweeps

A careful analysis (more than “do what works for youâ€!) of the different fighting styles (weapon, weapon & shield, two weapon, unarmed) and how GMs can differentiate between them

Include at least one “suggested set of optional rules†to serve as a starting point for GMs who are new to the system.

What weapons can and can’t Sweep / Rapid Fire

Simulate blocking with a weapon being easier/better than blocking unarmed

How does one Block with a shield?

Shouldn’t thrown weapons like daggers have less range than bows?

Guide to GMs: How to retain balance when creating new weapons

Exhaustion rules (http://www.shalott.com/hero/fred/5th_exhaustion.asp)

Discussion of which optional rules to use

Address statistical problems with Bleeding rule (as written FREd, it's more likely for a heavily bleeding character to stop bleeding)

The World:

Traveling cross country: how fast can characters move? (http://www.shalott.com/hero/fred/5th_longdistance.asp)

Handling scales larger than 1†= 2m

How to generate weather and adjudicate effects of weather (including while sailing!)

How to handle random encounters

How to start combat (spotting people at distance, etc.: specific examples based on the rules in FREd)

The Genre:

All the good genre analysis type stuff from 4th Edition FH, or something similar

Standard Fantasy Scenarios: discussion of common scenes/tasks in fantasy and how to handle them in Hero. Include specific examples, skill modifiers, etc.

Pickpocketing (include distraction, bump, switch, etc.)

Stealth (sneaking up on enemy camp, sleeping guard, etc.)

Camping out (PER rolls while asleep, waking up)

Disguise (posing as random guard, different race, etc.)

Poison in the lord’s drink

Jousting (a la Knight’s Tale)

Mage duels (varies by magic system)

Drinking competitions

Bases:

Castles:

Example castles

How to handle sieges: not mass-combat rules, but how battering rams, scaling ladders, siege towers, ballista, work within a small-scale combat. (If the PCs want to batter down a door or catapult a wall, what are the balanced rules for doing it?)

How to stop characters from chopping down stone walls with greatswords.

Dungeons

Etc.

Traps:

How to create traps (skills required, power writeups, etc.)

Example traps listed (chance to detect, disarm, effect, etc.)

NPCs:

Samples of commonly encountered types: Farmer, guard, craftsman, etc. (for quick reference/improvisation during the game)

General:

How to deal with Champions players encountering FH for first time

SPD vs. Running: how to address high SPD characters getting more Running than low SPD sprinters.

The importance of limiting what players can do/create, to maintain the campaign’s atmosphere without smothering the players.

Swimming: how it works with encumbrance, how to reconcile lack of serious END requirement (1 END per 10 points means most swimming is at 0 END).

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Re: Wish list

 

Originally posted by eepjr24

A grimoire and fantasy bestiary soon after the main book. Not in it, but published within a year after.

The Fantasy Hero Grimoire: If there's one thing a fantasy game needs more than anything else, it's spells - magic is one of the major defining elements of the genre. While the HERO System provides gamers with the unfettered flexibility to create any type of spell or magical power they desire, sometimes they don't have the time or desire to do all the work themselves. The Fantasy Hero Grimoire satisfies their needs by providing hundreds of pre-built spells for wizards and other spellcasting characters.

Release Date: September 2003

 

Monsters, Minions, And Marauders:

What's a fantasy game without monsters and enemies to fight? Monsters, Minions, And Marauders is an enemies book for Fantasy Hero. It features not only common "generic" monsters (such as orcs, ogres, giants, and trolls), but a generous selection of named adversaries from the Turakian Age setting.

Release Date: October 2003

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I second the call for an Ars Magica-like system. And VPPs don't cut it in my experience. many spells, that are not even combat, will exceed the active pt limit. Making it really hard for a mage to feel like a mage to me. Most Hero mages feel like walking artillery. And 8d6, in my experience, EB is emormous and capable of Con stunning almost any foe. And with END costs, the Fantasy Hero mage has no reason not to cast it 4x a combat. HOwever, most 150 pt Mages have 3 - 6 spells. That is too few, IMO. FH magic has always felt very limiting to me because of the point costs.

 

I also second the call for travel times thru various terrain. Caravan speeds, how far a horse can go. Also, trading vessels, how far can a ship at sea go, or in coastland waters, in a day. I've had to fudge that more than once in my games. (I tend to have a lot of travel in my fantasy).

 

Swordbearer had an over extensive, but highly useful, chart for overland travel in various terrain for foot and for horse. And in sections of Overland, Path, Road.

 

I am very concerned about martial arts in Fantasy Hero. Not that they shouldn't be there. But if they are, you are looking at more of an Exalted like fantasy situation. Martial arts BLOW past armor in the 3rd and 4th ed of FH. Especially if combined with weapons. A broadsword of 1d6+1 with martial arts Weapon Element, is suddenly doing 1 1/2d6, with a STR of 17 or Offensive Strike, it is doing 2d6. MAXIMUM armor so far is a 8 (full plate). Worse, take a 2h sword, ding 2d6, now all of a sudden doing 3d6 with an Offensive strike. It is not so much the Body that is the problem, it is the Stun. My 20 str martial artist was Con stunning foes with his barehands and they were in full armor most of the time. And in my experience, Con Stunning in FH is MUCH more of problem, advantage (to the non-con stun side) than in Superheroes.

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I've been seeing a lot of "How much do things cost" and "travel time" stuff. I think that the economics should be presented as: "Here is how much a shirt costs in a world that models the middle ages closely... Here is how much a shirt costs where technology/magic/whatever has changed shirt-making from a one person, skilled job (which it was) to a mass produced item." The economic decisions, as the magic levels and effects of religion, will be made on a game by game basis, so the coverage in Fantasy Hero should be some examples on how shirt cost will change per the other decisions. I am completely uninterested in a list of costs, because it will take up room much needed for more necessary things. And, what if I decide that I don't want the economics in my world to work the way they're presented? Much better idea to discuss the underpinnings of shirt cost, rather than just a straight cost based on things that might not apply.

Travel time will vary dramatically also, depending on the availability of magical/technological means. Not just standard magical gates, but what about magical horseshoes that turn a horse's running to 0 END?

I would prefer thoughtful discussion of ramifications of various magic levels over straight lists of proces/things any day. I can see the piecemeal armor stuff, and the mass/weight of standard things would be cool, but costs and times are too variable to make a list.

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Originally posted by Grymlynn

I can see the piecemeal armor stuff, and the mass/weight of standard things would be cool, but costs and times are too variable to make a list.

I do not think that is the case. I believe travel time is fairly important to the genre. Do you know how fast a horse caravan travels? Do you have any idea how STR effects a horse differently if it is pulling a wagon or if someone is riding its back? I know I have no idea to the answers of those things, but I do know that many PC adventures seem to revolve around being caravan guards, or having to get somewhere on a tired or injured horse. Those things are very much a part of the fantasy genre and there should be some guidelines in the book to cover it, IMO.

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Thanks for the kudos, Storn.

 

I think it's critical that the next Fantasy Hero addresses all of the aspects of a fantasy game, even those that Hero tends to overlook or downplay. It should be a book that non-Hero players will want to buy for its insightful treatment of the genre--and I don't mean theoretical stuff like "what are the sub-genres of fantasy", I mean game-applicable material.

 

In particular, I think there's a lot of room to establish the framework for describing magic systems. Based on old FH, the standard right now is pretty much "here's how you build a mage character, that's it". But a magic system is so much more than that: how do mages learn their spells, how do they gain in power, what types of spells exist, etc. If you take D&D as an example, you have a huge range of spell-technology issues: scrying vs. anti-scrying, teleportation effectiveness, etc. Those issues should be identified and spelled out in any magic system description. Something like the Star Hero tech levels could be used to describe how powerful a given system is in different areas of magic -- and FH could define and describe what those areas are, so that GMs would know where to start when designing their own campaigns.

 

I would also invite Steve (and anyone else) to look at my page, http://www.shalott.com/hero, for some house rules for fantasy campaigns that have worked well. This includes a set of long-distance travel and exhaustion rules that do a very good job and fit nicely within existing Hero rules.

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Adding my 2 cents in support of some of the other requests:

 

Weapons - tables that include various weapons. There were reasons to use axes, vs spears, vs swords, etc. As much as possible the weapons table should reflect that. If two weapons have identical stats except one has a lower strength min then sensible people will always use the one with the lower strength min unless there is some non-stat based reason not to. (ie special material or workmanship and the cost in money associated).

 

Archery - firing into a melee should cause problems (then again there might be rules on this in 5th that I forget).

 

WEIGHT - since there are encumbrance rules there need to be weights for weapons, armor, and everyday things like clothes, bedrolls, etc. Take a look at the encumbrance rules vs the defense that can be carried. with a 20 strength you can wander around in very heavy armor with almost no ill effects.

 

Perhaps something about heat and armor. A full helm is HOT. (and yes I saw Conquest on armor recently which got me thinking about this).

 

Economic systems how to create them, possibly a sample of costs etc. Barter as well as monetary exchange needs to be considered.

 

LIGHT - how far can you see in torch light, how far away can you see the torch if you don't have a light source, light spells - fixed area vs moving area... how do you do the gandalf light up the tip of the staff thing.

 

TRAVEL - maintenance of riding animals, travel times, effects of magic on trade - ie if you can easily fly your freight it completely changes the nature of the economy.

 

Tech levels of magic OR magic that changes the tech level - what spells are going to have major effects if they are common or easy.

 

Hech different tech levels stone, bronze, iron, etc.

 

Ars Magica - something that allows a magic system similar to ars would be very very spiffy. Spontaneos vs formulaic spells, magic duels (certamen), rituals vs other kinds of spells.

 

Spell Resistances and Spell defences - how easy is it to affect people with no magic at all etc.

 

The classic priest turns or banishes undead. How do you get rid of a summoned creature? dispell? surpress? presence attacks, mind control? Other physical lims on Undead, demons, extraplanar things, etc that allow the magic system to have specific effects on those critters. similar to the lycanthropy its sort of handled in the bestiary but... something more explicit would be nice.

 

Item creation - ways to limit it. A system that requires rare resources (like in ars magica and raw vis as the rare commodity) might have a better flavor than points from character to item ... which would give fighters an inherent advantage over enchanters whose points would be bleeding off into items. Times it takes, skills needed.

 

Subset of creation - Alchemy

 

Legal systems and Governments! - feudal vs republic vs mad priest wizard dictator etc.

 

More on Mounted combat (though the section in 5th edition is an improvement in clarity over earlier FH).

 

Fortifications vs siege engines. Toughness of various fortifications.

 

Educational systems and their impact (literacy etc).

 

Cool stuff :-)

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Originally posted by Steve Long

Money and such gets plenty of coverage in Chapter Five.

 

Don't worry -- already got unarmed combat guys and elves in the list of Package Deals. For a drow, you'd take the "Elf" Racial Package Deal and the "Deep" Environmental Package Deal, perhaps add a few minor magical powers, and voila. ;)

 

Other non-standard Fantasy races would be appreciated for a warm, happy Elf-Free environment

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MANY excellent points here.

 

1) I would like to agree with the importance of a magic system. It took my group years to develop one, and this after buying the earlier FH books and finding that the previous system was just a mess (in our game-testing opinion).

 

I would recommend that if there are any tradeoffs it would be OK to have fewer than 12 magic systems as long as each was better developed. I would rather see 4 genuinely considered and play tested magic systems than 12 partial systems I can't use. Also it would be nice if they were numbered so I can tell new players, "we use magic system 2."

 

2) Rules on creating magic items would, indeed, be nice

 

3) I really like the extensive talent list you mentioned. That should silence the d20 refugees who keep complaining about a lack of feats. They just can't seem to absorb that they can build their own!

 

4) Body and DEF for fantasy objects like wagons, hearths, etc. Also maybe some skill modifiers for fantasy objects (climbing a thatch building, etc.)

 

5) How about a random fantasy name generator? :)

 

-DG

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I'd like to see an armor chart that is more than just

Cloth DEF 1

Leather DEF 3

Chain DEF 5

Plate DEF 7

 

I'd like to see armor write ups that model things like:

Maille armor is great against slashing weapons, ok against piercing weapons, and poor against impact weapons.

Plate armor is lighter than scale armor for the same level of protection.

A Maille hauberk is one size fits many, but a good suit of plate has to be custom fitted.

and

Armor get hot to wear.

 

And a note for GreyGuardian, I saw that episode of Conquest also. The "look how useless maille armor is" demo was wrong to the point that _NOTHING_ that show says can be accepted as true. The maille hauberk used in that demo was a modern reconstruction, the rings in it were just wire bent into a circle. In an actual suit of period maille armor each individual link would have been riveted closed and thus would have not come apart like that from the axe blow. Also an actual hauberk would have been worn over a padded arming doublet, giving some protection from the mace (not to mention that the mace was being used on a fixed (and probably brittle) piece of wood, not a flexible human body which would have moved with the blow instead of breaking). They also claimed that people fought with 15 pound swords, which is just as wrong.

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Originally posted by Max Callahan

I'd like to see armor write ups that model things like:

Maille armor is great against slashing weapons, ok against piercing weapons, and poor against impact weapons.

Plate armor is lighter than scale armor for the same level of protection.

A Maille hauberk is one size fits many, but a good suit of plate has to be custom fitted.

and

Armor get hot to wear.

I think you will probably not see to much specifics on things like that until the Ultimate Armor comes out. You will probably just get the general overviews similar to the ones in 4th Edition FH.

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For those looking for Martial Arts with weapons, might I suggest The Ultimate Martial Artist?

 

For price lists, travel times, feudalism, and so forth, I have been using Chivalry & Sorcery the Rebirth. I don't mean to plug another system on a HERO board, Steve could even use these books as references for FH. The system revolves around Medieval Europe, and the detail is mind-numbing. Want to build a castle? Decide what kind, get out a calculator, and you'll know how long, how much, how big, how everything (the 3e Game Master's Handbook is best for fortification information). The chapter on travel is excellent (you can't get as far as you think you can). Wage and price lists are extensive. The problem with C&S is that the rules themselves are sometimes very obtuse. The rules for actually learning and casting a spell cover only 1 to 1-1/2 pages; I've read those rules several times and still have no idea what they mean.

 

As for world creation, that sounds like a good subject for its own book. A volume that would be a resource for all genres, whether creating a continent for a fantasy campaign or a solar system for sci-fi. Let's see: geology, plate tectonics, ecology, meteorology, climatology, water cycles, astronomy, cosmology, orbital mechanics--hmmm, what am I missing?

 

Oh yes, what do I want to see in Fantasy Hero? A fantasy version of Star Hero: lots of options and examples; suggestions, culled from literature, history, and mythology, for different ways to approach magic and 'monsters'; how did Romans fight? how did knights & peasants fight? how did Ren duelists fight? how did Romans interact? how did knights & peasants interact? how did Ren citizens interact? Y'know, everything, and in a 128-page booklet that's easy to carry around and costs $5.00.

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Originally posted by Monolith

I do not think that is the case. I believe travel time is fairly important to the genre. Do you know how fast a horse caravan travels? Do you have any idea how STR effects a horse differently if it is pulling a wagon or if someone is riding its back? I know I have no idea to the answers of those things, but I do know that many PC adventures seem to revolve around being caravan guards, or having to get somewhere on a tired or injured horse. Those things are very much a part of the fantasy genre and there should be some guidelines in the book to cover it, IMO.

 

Guidelines yes, decisions no. Just basic averaged travel times would be a good starting point, but you can go overboard with this, too. How long does it take a fully loaded trade zepplin to get from Arcadia to Aquilonia? I don't care, unless I have zepplins in game... Granted, you're more likely to travel by camel than zepplin, but if I've decided to keep my game in Europe, camels don't enter into it, either.

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Modern Fantasy

 

What I want to see is a detailed description of modern fantasy. I consider modern fantasy everything from steam punk to modern times with magic. Modern fantasy is the absolute hardest thing I have seen to get right for fantasy.

 

The things that need to be considered are:

  • Re-introduced magic vs. alternate time-line/-world vs. hidden reality.
  • For re-introduced magic:
    1. Where has magic been?
    2. Why has it come back?
    3. What were the immediate and long term changes society has to adopt?
    4. How to handle a campaign where the world starts normal (what is normal anyways :D) and then magic is re-introduced, whether or not the characters had anything to do with it?
    5. How to handle a resurgance in the mystical powers of the faithful (assuming there was one when magic came back)?
    6. How to handle the secret societies that kept magic traditions alive and now find themselves really powerful?
    7. How to handle magic if the magic level is still increasing?

     

    [*] For alternate time-line/-world:

    1. If magic exists, why has technology developed?
    2. How has magic changed the direction technology would develop?
    3. How to handle the changes magic brings in an alternate history in ways players can accept?
    4. Are there inventions that magic-technology fusion has allowed (the Steamjacks of The Iron Kingdoms comes to mind) that we do not currently have and how to handle their effects on the world?

     

    [*] For hidden reality:

    1. How has magic/the supernatural been able to stay hidden all this time?
    2. How to handle exposure?
    3. How to handle the secret groups in this hidden reality, and how they exist in relation to the "real" world?
    4. Government and the hidden reality. How to handle governments that know, governments that don't, and governments where only select groups know?

     

    [*] The effects of technology on magic and vice versa (ie. can magic and technology work together, if not, ways the GM can use to keep them separate)?

    [*] How to handle low, moderate, and high level magic in a technological world?

    [*] The social/political aspects of being someone who uses magic vs. technology vs. using both?

    [*] Magic and computers/internet, what can and can not magic due to the information world?

    [*] How does a wand of magic bolts compare to a pistol, a fire spell compare to a pocket lighter?

    [*] The mystic races/beasts and there place in modern fantasy?

    [*] How the mythic races/beasts of different cultures will interact with each other with modern considerations (how does a GM handle an Oni from Japan getting on a plane and visiting a demon's home in the Alps)?

    [*] The darker side of society. How the average street punk, or the mob, deals with groups such as goblinoids or dark elves?

    [*] How different modern cultures would be affected by the presence of magic? This would be useful for all three versions of modern fantasy, even as examples for alternate time-lines/-worlds.

     

    [*] AND MOST IMPORTANT - How to keep modern fantasy in the fantasy feel as opposed to supers or sci-fi?

 

The difficult part about modern fantasy, even such as steampunk, is that players have certain expectations about what to expect, similar to sci-fi. What is needed is a section, preferably a chapter like in StarHero for Time Travel, to give the GM and players hints and guidlines in how to mesh player and GM expectations of the world with the many possiblilities opened up by the fantasy element.

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Prices, wages, and tech

 

Originally posted by eepjr24

I will second asking for mass on any equipment. Price lists are nice as well, but only if you include some type of reference to workers wages. 12sp for a dagger means nothing if you don't know how much a blacksmith or miner, etc costs to hire for a day/week/whatever. I don't want a treatise on midieval economics, just some guidelines.

 

As the resident economist, I will back eepjr24 on this. In order for prices to be meaningful, you need to have some idea of how much people earn. I would recommend using a basic wage level of 1 silver piece per day for unskilled labor and pegging the price list(s) to this. GMs who want to use different base earnings levels could then adjust the whole price list up or down by a constant, or change silver to copper, or whatever.

 

As someone else suggested, relative prices will vary with the technology/magic level. There are two ways to approach this problem:

 

1) Specify the tech/magic environment in which the listed prices would prevail, and then provide guidelines on how different tech/magic levels might affect relative prices.

 

2) Specify three different tech/magic environments and give three corresponding prices for each item, separated by slashes. Players would quickly get used to looking at, say, the first of the three prices if that is the price structure prevailing in their campaign.

 

Some consideration should also probably be given to what happens in a small local economy when PCs start hauling treasure out of the local dungeon after slaughtering the inhabitants - or when gold or diamonds are discovered in the hills just beyond the town.

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Originally posted by Geoff Speare

I suspect that modern fantasy, as a sub-genre (like cyberpunk), will get no more than a minor mention in the main FH book; later on, if there's a market for it, a separate genre book would give it the detail it deserves.

 

Yeah, I'm *really* interested in Urban Fantasy as a genre (and it still seems to be a trendy genre, if In Nomine, Vampire, Exalted, Unknown Armies, etc. are any indication), and I'd love to see it treated well. I suspect that trying to coerce more than a passing reference to Urban Fantasy into the Fantasy Hero book would cause a lot of loss of focus, but I'd still really love to see it.

 

Please, please, please consider an Urban Fantasy sub-genre book!

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Originally posted by bcholmes

Yeah, I'm *really* interested in Urban Fantasy as a genre (and it still seems to be a trendy genre, if In Nomine, Vampire, Exalted, Unknown Armies, etc. are any indication), and I'd love to see it treated well. I suspect that trying to coerce more than a passing reference to Urban Fantasy into the Fantasy Hero book would cause a lot of loss of focus, but I'd still really love to see it.

 

Please, please, please consider an Urban Fantasy sub-genre book!

 

Truthfully I have to agree. While I do think modern fantasy should be given due consideration in FH, it really does deserve it's own book to cover the many details that GM and player expectations will add to the game.

 

These details should not be slighted. They may be small and add some more work for the GM, but without them the players and GM will quickly feel that something is missing, something they expect to be there, even in an entirely seperate world setting like steampunk.

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