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The Broken Kingdoms


Duke Bushido

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The recent arrival of The Broken Kingdoms in the HERO store has made me very happy: I have always wanted to print a couple of copies.  Most of you know how I feel about bootlegs and piracy, so I figured I'd never get a second copy to make a legal "backup" of, and of course, the price of having something printed and bound at that time....

 

It's way cheaper now, and I've bought my second copy of the PDF (having gotten the first from the diskettes, the way I'm sure a lot of you did.

 

I've contacted Storn Cook to see if he might still have the original "cover" image (he's not sure, if you're wondering, but he's willing to look around for a digital copy, as he sold the original physical copy) because I was never happy with the "mini covers" of the HERO Plus PDFs.  My original plans had always been to incorporate the title logo into the blank space between the dragon's head and wing.  But that's neither here nor there.  I was inspired to stop my other projects for a bit and re-read the book, and I caught something I had never noticed before.

 

In the Dwarven Package Deal, there are two things that don't go together:  There is a -2" Swimming _and_ "Cannot Swim."

 

Hunh?  Missing a Hand _and_ the thumb that was on it?

 

You're right: this goes absolutely nowhere.  It just bugs me how long I've had that and never caught it before.

 

 

 

Carry on.

 

 

Duke

 

 

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Uh... hmmm. 

 

I seem to recall that it specified somewhere that you could take "No Legs" as a Disadvantage, and then sell off your Running separately from that.  In fact, you could probably buy it back on a Focus (some kind of mobility device).  

 

I think that's probably something similar.  Though I'd probably want to know a bit more about what makes them not able to swim.  Is it because no dwarf ever enters the water and therefore never has the opportunity to learn?  Is it because they're too dense to be able to swim?  Is there anything in the information about dwarves that explains it?  

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2 hours ago, Chris Goodwin said:

Though I'd probably want to know a bit more about what makes them not able to swim.  Is it because no dwarf ever enters the water and therefore never has the opportunity to learn?  Is it because they're too dense to be able to swim?  Is there anything in the information about dwarves that explains it?  

I can vouch for the “too dense to swim” angle, as I have very dense bones and can virtually walk across the bottom of a pool with lots breath of air in my lungs. I can swim if I want, because I learned how as a child, but I’m horribly inefficient at it and would sell back some swimming on my character sheet. 

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3 hours ago, Chris Goodwin said:

Is it because they're too dense to be able to swim?  Is there anything in the information about dwarves that explains it?  

 

According to the write-up, yes: density is precisely the problem.

 

37 minutes ago, Brian Stanfield said:

I can vouch for the “too dense to swim” angle, as I have very dense bones and can virtually walk across the bottom of a pool with lots breath of air in my lungs. I can swim if I want, because I learned how as a child, but I’m horribly inefficient at it

 

 

Dude, I am so happy.  I seriously spent the last fifty-odd years thinking I was the only one.  Though I can "back float," but it's six inches above the river bed.  :lol:    However, I've always been outdoorsy  (probably goes with being from the Alaskan bush), and swim quite well, but since I don't float, I find it extremely tiring. That, and I don't freestyle: All my swimming is under the surface.  I seem to balance out (relative to buoyancy, that is) at about twelve feet under the surface.    Love to swim though: try to go down to the river every weekend with the kids when the weather's right (which, living in Georgia, is quite often :lol: ).  They have a great time, I get exercise and pain-releif (since I'm not caring weight on my spine, exactly), and I go home very, _very_ tired.  :D

 

 

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High density bones here as well.  I never learned how to swim until about 11 years ago, and I don't swim well but I could probably avoid drowning at least.  I seem to have gotten somewhat... less dense... than I was as a child (fat is less dense than water...).  For me swim goggles helped immensely as I could get my face into the water and change the point at which I balance in the water.  

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10 hours ago, Brian Stanfield said:

I can vouch for the “too dense to swim” angle, as I have very dense bones and can virtually walk across the bottom of a pool with lots breath of air in my lungs. I can swim if I want, because I learned how as a child, but I’m horribly inefficient at it and would sell back some swimming on my character sheet. 

 

Decades ago when I was on a swim team I had a similar issue.  Treading water was difficult and I could only do backstroke if I kept a certain amount of speed going.  If I paused my feet would swing down and I'd drop to the bottom of the pool like a lazy yard dart.

 

I do miss having a body fat that low though.  :)

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1 hour ago, drunkonduty said:

@DukeBushido, I'm interested that you use the phrase "Alaskan bush" to refer to the country side. I thought that was a uniquely Australian thing.

 

Nah-- we used it quite frequently, I expect the same way you do: to refer the wild or totally undeveloped areas (large, large areas: not like a city park or something).  It's why we used to refer to the lunatics who transported goods to the more inaccessible settlements as "bush pilots."

 

1 hour ago, drunkonduty said:

 

I also can't swim for <expletive.> In Australia, especially the sunny northern climes from which I hale, this is tantamount to treason.

 

Seriously?  

 

No; I'm not laughing-- I'm learning.  As an American, I assumed no Australian could swim because there were forty-seven-thousand deadly life forms just waiting for you to get your toes wet.

 

Now I'm going to level with you: swimming is not something we did back home: every river in the state was either glacier melt or mountain ice melt, and most of them were, in the hottest stretch of summer, about 34 degrees.  It was bad enough having to bathe in the things ankle-deep; I can't imagine trying to dive in for fun.  :lol:  I didn't learn to swim until adulthood, when I came to Georgia back around '79 or so.  Can't get enough of it.

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2 hours ago, drunkonduty said:

I also can't swim for <expletive.> In Australia, especially the sunny northern climes from which I hale, this is tantamount to treason.

 

I'm another Australian who can only barely swim. In my case, I've never had enough upper body strength to keep going for very long. My technique isn't very good either, for related reasons. It's hard to get good at something you can't do for more than a few moments.

 

I also live inland, rather than on the coast. Going to the beach is a big deal, rather than a trip across town.

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8 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

Seriously?  

 

No; I'm not laughing-- I'm learning.  As an American, I assumed no Australian could swim because there were forty-seven-thousand deadly life forms just waiting for you to get your toes wet.

 

 

Aussies LOVE to swim. Seriously. 

 

There are definitely parts of the country you do NOT go swimming in  a natural body of water (be it river, billabong, or ocean.) Crocs will eat you.  But they're up north, most of the country is fine. Well... there's various stingy jelly fish. They are mostly in the far north too but from roughly October to March they drift south with the currents. They can stop your heart if you get stung badly (it's pretty unusual for that to happen, a fit adult should be fine.) Always have a bottle of vinegar if you're going swimming at the jelly fish time of year, you pour it on the stings. 

 

Other deadly sea life is very rare. Stone fish, only in coral reefs and only if you're dumb enough to step on one. Coral snakes, also the reef. The blue ringed octopus is really deadly, but also very rare. Found in rock pools in the Sydney region. I have wandered around and through many rock pools in the area, never seen one. Those are the most famous ones. Getting killed by anything else is so rare I don't even know where to start.

 

Oh and sharks. But hey, sharks are everywhere. They aren't just Australian. We certainly talk about them a bit more than most people, because we as a nation, not me personally, like to spend time in the ocean. Shark attacks happen very very occasionally. But they don't really want to eat you. Seriously. Sharks aren't fond of human. If they mistake you for a seal (surfers in their wetsuits look very seal-like to a shark) they'll take a bite out of you, but spit you making the  sharky equivalent of lemon face. You might bleed out before you got back to land...

 

Fun statistic: This year in Australia there have been 6 unprovoked & 1 provoked shark attacks. No, I don't know who the hell goes out of their way to provoke a shark. No fatalities.

 

Fatal croc attacks have averaged about 1 per year since 1958 (no idea about before that.) Here's a link to a news article.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/australia-s-recent-croc-attacks

 

and here's a link to an interesting video. A place I would visit, in fact I'd do the swim.

 

 

 

But hey, wasn't this thread about the Broken Kingdoms campaign setting?

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On 5/6/2019 at 4:33 PM, Duke Bushido said:

The recent arrival of The Broken Kingdoms in the HERO store has made me very happy: I have always wanted to print a couple of copies.  Most of you know how I feel about bootlegs and piracy, so I figured I'd never get a second copy to make a legal "backup" of, and of course, the price of having something printed and bound at that time....

 

It's way cheaper now, and I've bought my second copy of the PDF (having gotten the first from the diskettes, the way I'm sure a lot of you did.

 

I've contacted Storn Cook to see if he might still have the original "cover" image (he's not sure, if you're wondering, but he's willing to look around for a digital copy, as he sold the original physical copy) because I was never happy with the "mini covers" of the HERO Plus PDFs.  My original plans had always been to incorporate the title logo into the blank space between the dragon's head and wing.  But that's neither here nor there.  I was inspired to stop my other projects for a bit and re-read the book, and I caught something I had never noticed before.

 

In the Dwarven Package Deal, there are two things that don't go together:  There is a -2" Swimming _and_ "Cannot Swim."

 

Hunh?  Missing a Hand _and_ the thumb that was on it?

 

You're right: this goes absolutely nowhere.  It just bugs me how long I've had that and never caught it before.

 

 

 

Carry on.

 

 

Duke

 

 

 

I had Jason Vester in one of my games when he still lived in Las Vegas, and I'd have to say that he built some of the most efficient characters that I'd ever seen. He also had a wicked sense of humor, so I could see him embedding selling back a hand one finger at a time in a description, to see if anyone noticed.

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3 hours ago, C-Note said:

Will this release of "The Broken Kingdoms" contain a map?  That was always the dealbreaker for me.

 

Well, a much earlier incarnation of the Hero Games website included a link to a free ZIP download of several JPEG maps of the setting by BK author Lisa Hartjes. Although no longer on this version of the site, the Internet Archive still has the page with the link, and it still works: https://web.archive.org/web/20040608174522/http://www.herogames.com/FreeStuff/freeimagedownloads.htm

 

Just be warned that the maps are very simplistic, good for a general idea of where major areas are in relation to each other, but not really usable in actual play.

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10 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

Well, a much earlier incarnation of the Hero Games website included a link to a free ZIP download of several JPEG maps of the setting by BK author Lisa Hartjes. Although no longer on this version of the site, the Internet Archive still has the page with the link, and it still works: https://web.archive.org/web/20040608174522/http://www.herogames.com/FreeStuff/freeimagedownloads.htm

 

Just be warned that the maps are very simplistic, good for a general idea of where major areas are in relation to each other, but not really usable in actual play.

 

Thanks!  The maps are better than I expected.  They leave a lot of room for GM expansion.  Sometimes simpler is better.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On ‎5‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 11:44 AM, drunkonduty said:

Oh and sharks. But hey, sharks are everywhere. They aren't just Australian. We certainly talk about them a bit more than most people, because we as a nation, not me personally, like to spend time in the ocean. Shark attacks happen very very occasionally. But they don't really want to eat you. Seriously. Sharks aren't fond of human. If they mistake you for a seal (surfers in their wetsuits look very seal-like to a shark) they'll take a bite out of you, but spit you making the  sharky equivalent of lemon face. You might bleed out before you got back to land...

 

I just don't see sharks as being gourmand enough to care. Compared to car number plates even Long Pig must be appealing...

 

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