Vengeance

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Can everybody else see Page 2 of the wedding announcement, because I can't see it. Let me know. Thanks.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Storn,

That "doodle" is awesome! The tiger is cool, as well, but I love the archer.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Storn,

You might want to update your Hero Games message signature to reflect your new website (http://www.StornArt.com). Your message signature is still showing your old rpggallery.com website address.

Paul

Re: Supernatural Special Forces

RDU Neil,

My question is... is it the "water" part that makes it effective... or the "holy" part?

 

See... why "holy water"?

 

Why not holy napalm? Or holy milk?

It's the "holy" part, not the water part. This was proven definitively by those great biblical scholars Monty Python in the movie The Holy Grail. Allow me to quote from the Book of Armaments, Chapter 4, Verses 16 to 20:

Then did he raise on high the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, saying, "Bless this, O Lord, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy." And the people did rejoice and did feast upon the lambs and toads and tree-sloths and fruit-bats and orangutans and breakfast cereals ... Now did the Lord say, "First thou pullest the Holy Pin. Then thou must count to three. Three shall be the number of the counting and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither shalt thou count two, excepting that thou then proceedeth to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the number of the counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy Hand Grenade in the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it."

As you can clearly see, there is a "Holy Hand Grenade", so it is the blessing part that make it effective.

Re: Supernatural Special Forces

RDU Neil,

I've never seen this, but thanks for the tip. I've added it to my NetFlix queue.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Storn

That is really cool. Actually, all your recent pictures have been excellent. You've been posting pictures like a madman recently -- did you have a big backlog to catch up on or are you just finding more time to draw?

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

I'm trying to do character sketches of races for the creatures / species in my fantasy hero world' date=' and I'm trying to make sure that I evoke the kinds of protypical postures and "types" of each race. To that end, I'm having trouble finding examples of what fantasy clothing / armor should look like. [/quote']

 

I don't know where Storn gets his ideas from, but a good resource of what "real" clothing and armor looked like can be found here: http://www.museumreplicas.com/webstore/home.aspx. These guys started off in the 80's making "battle ready" swords but they have expanded since then to do clothing, armor etc... If you follow the link you will see menu items on the left for Armor and Shields and Period Clothing Men and Women (they also have smaller sections here for Fantasy clothing). The poses are pretty cheesy, but the armor and clothing are pretty dead on for the various periods. Hope that helps.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Storn,

Since things are kind of quiet on the boards today let me be the one to say that all three of those are excellent. Keep up the good work.

Paul

Re: Timing of Hit Location/ Armor Application

Neil' date=' i think once you hit 0 stun you are out and not CON stunned, and the condition of CON stunned goes away, so you don't need to spend a phase recovering from it[/quote']

You may find a rule in one of the hero books somewhere that states the above rule is true, but trust me on this one, in the RDU universe (long time player) if you take enough damage to be CON stunned and knocked unconscious (below 0 stun), it will take 2 turns to recover. Neil will change some things in the Hero Games system (toss out the speed chart, etc...), but I guarantee this rule will never change.

 

We use the extra turn from getting CON stunned and knocked unconscious from the same blow too much in the game (grab an extra recovery, hit the foe one more time to make sure they don't get up again, etc...) for it to go away. Besides, for me at least, one of the great gaming moments each round is when you take that big hit that's going to put you under and you start doing the quick calculations to see just how boned you are going to be in the aftermath. Trust me, there is a big difference between:

 

"OK, after defenses I took 22 from that punch, which takes me down to -3. But I'm not CON stunned, and my DEX is higher than his, so I'll recover first and declare I am going to abort to dodge..."

 

and:

 

"OK, after defenses I took 26 from that punch, which takes me down to -7. Unfortunately, my CON is 24, so I'm CON stunned. As I look groggily up from the ground, what do I see? Oh, I see his fist flashing down towards my crumpled form? OK, I'll go get the pizza."

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

... and is a PC of Paul's who does lurk these forums.

Coming out of my lurking place ("Lurking high above the boards, and a little to the left..." -- an homage to "Ambush Bug Nothing Special" special from about 15 years ago) just long enough to say "Great picture Storn, thanks!".

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Daaaaaaammmmn!!! If you don't mind me askin' how much did that set you back?

I honestly don't remember. It was pretty reasonable, but I had hired Storn to do a decent amount of other work for me (web graphics on a long ago defunct website) so I think he cut me a good deal. The scan doesn't do it justice -- it's a great picture.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

This is a lo res version of a picture Storn did for me a few years ago.

Sure, sure, it's probably not up Storn's demanding standards of today, but I still think it's really cool. Now, of course, I can't draw a stick figure so what I think may not matter.

Anyway, hope you like it.

Re: Sex as a skill

I had a Fantasy Hero character where I did buy sex / seduction as a skill set. And, no, it was not for perverted reasons. He was a prince in this kingdom, but far removed from the throne (like 6th in line). He also had a high comeliness, so when hashing out his background the GM and I decided he had probably spent a lot of time with the ladies. So we spent 4 - 6 points on "PS: Seduction, PS: Lovemaking Techniques" etc...

I only remember it coming up in gameplay once. The mission my character had stumbled into was escorting a female half-elf and her daughter to their homeland and he and the half-elf had gotten into a relationship over the course of the mission. Anyway, they were travelling with a caravan and in order to get free passage my character was acting as a guard for the caravan. One of the other guards was a dwarf (male) and the two became friends. Once the two were on patrol and walking past the red light district of the caravan when the hookers tried to get them to come inside for a while. He and the dwarf declined. The hooker then said something along the lines of "oh, so you and the dwarf have a special relationship". When my character's shift was done he went back to his tent, woke up the half-elf, and promptly rolled an 18- on his lovemaking roll. The adventure ended with the half-elf saying "don't worry it happens to everybody".

If I remember correctly, I later regretted spending the points on these skills and not better defenses when the character was torn apart by wolves. But I did get at least one amusing story from the points.

Re: Fate systems

In regards to:

Originally Posted by Kristopher

I'm afraid I don't see the appeal to all these added mechanics and increased randomness.

and RDU Neils follow up:

... this mechanic doesn't actually add randomness... and can in fact, minimize it. It is most often used for those straight forward actions that go horribly awry when the dice roll an 18 or something.

I have to say I agree with Neil. Neil and I have been gaming together 17+ years now and he's always tried to tweak the rules to make them better. Some of the rule changes (stun multiplier changes, etc...) I never really cared about but I have to say the introduction of the luck chits was a phenomenal change.

In the past, games have built to that climactic moment when you are about to take down the villian and then along comes your friend and mine: a roll of 18. It doesn't matter if it was your hit roll, dodge roll, armor activation -- regardless, you're screwed. And the reaction was always: "I can't believe that just happened!" And then you would start trying to justify why it can't happen, and try to guilt trip the gm into a deus ex machina moment where he undoes what just occurred. Sure, most of the time we could talk Neil into not hurting our characters as royally as they deserved because of the 18, but it never felt right.

Now, with luck chits, it puts the "GM Guilt Trip (14-)" out of play. Everybody gets at least 1 luck chit they can use to save their character. And if you treat it like a precious commodity it will. But if you blow it on something stupid (i.e. I re-rolling a punch that doesn't have any real affect on the game) and you really need it later to dodge the 3d6 AP Killing Attack -- too bad. And, usually, you don't try and guilt trip the GM because you know it's your fault. And Neil knows it's your fault.

Actually, one of the more interesting things to me now is when do I use the chits. I'm sometimes get like an insuranceman with actuarial tables. Brick-O is throwing a punch at me that, if it lands, may crush my character. Do I waste a chit to dodge? Hmmm. I figure he's got to roll a 9- or less for the punch to hit. 40% chance that happens. Damage will probably be about 15-20 d6. Average roll will be 50 - 60. Armor and defenses should take it down to 25. My CON is 26 so I probably won't be CON stunned. I'm saving the chit!

I can't tell you how much I have loved this change. I highly recommend you try it in your campaign.

Neil,

You are correct. The reason for having a standard cartridge and not always use the +p round is both cost and wear and tear on the gun. The round is more expensive (probably 40% premium, maybe more), and the bullet fires with more force and therefore causes more wear and tear on the gun. Additionally, not all firearms are rated for +p ammunition. The majority of the "quality" guns (S&W, HK, SIG, Glock, etc...) can use the +p, but "cheaper" quality guns are not rated for them and should not be used. Hey, maybe that's why that TEC-9 disinitigrated when I fired it.

Anwyay, in regards to the intent of the higher velocity, I believe it is more for penetrating power (i.e. police typically use this round with the intent it will get through windshields, etc...), but I can't swear to it.

Finally, in regards to "Does a steel cored 7.62 have a significantly different effect on an average adult male, than a non-jacketed 7.62? " I don't know about the effect on an average adult male, but somebody ran on armor piericing test using different versions of 7.62 (gotta love Google and the internet -- all information is out there somewhere). Anyway, here is what this guy wrote up:

"I just completed a series of tests to determine the armor piercing qualities of the 7.62x39 cartridge. The targets were mild steel plates 12" x 12" x 1/8", 3/16" and 1/4 ". All firing was done at 25 paces with the target plates held vertical in a wooden stand. Firing was done offhand with a pre-ban AKM type rifle. Cartridges used were Chinese and Bulgarian steel core ball, Chinese lead core ball with steel jacket, Russian hollow point with steel jacket, and Soviet Armor Piercing Incendiary (steel jacket, hardened steel core and White Phosphorus point filler). All cartridge types easily penetrated all individual thickness plates, including the 1/4" thick plate. The plates were then stacked one in front of the other, with the 3/16" plate in front of the 1/4" plate followed by the 1/8" thick plate.

There was an approximate 1/8" gap between the plates. This is where things got interesting. All projectiles penetrated the first plate, but the Russian hollow point disintegrated upon contact with the second plate, leaving a moderate dent. The lead core ball projectile left a larger dent in the second plate and "mushroomed" into a near perfect half-sphere shape with the core and jacket typically remaining together. The steel core ball left an even larger dent in the 1/4" second plate, somewhat "mushrooming" with the core and jacket staying together and the steel core swaging itself into the shape of the dent on the plate. About half of the test shots were actually imbedded in the second plate and were difficult to remove. The Soviet API projectile shed it's jacket during penetration of the first plate with a rather large "puff" of white smoke and the pointed, hardened steel core penetrated the second and third plates. The core actually broke in half at the mid-point, with the rear half stuck in the 1/4" plate and the front portion sticking out of the last plate (1/8"). Overall results were disappointing as the steel core ball cartridges showed little increase in penetration over the lead core projectiles and the API projectile proved to be a disappointment in that expected penetration was not achieved. A second round of tests will be conducted using thicker plates, as I believe that the gap between plates spoiled the momentum and ballistic shape of the projectile from plate to plate. The poor performance of the Soviet API could explain why the Soviets did not produce this type after the late 1950's. "

Talk to you later.

+P Ammunition

Neil,

+P (and +P+ which is a new one to me, but I saw it on a couple ammnuntion manufacturers websites) are more powerful versions of a standard cartridge. So the bullet has the same footprint (i.e. it's still a 9mm), but there are more gunpowder grains (or faster burning, or tighter compaction -- not really sure how they do it). So the end result is that while a "typical" 9mm cartridge may have a muzzle velocity of 1000 feet per second (fps) a +P may round may be up in the 1290 - 1350 fps range. So, because of the higher velocity, in theory it will do more damage.

Should have explained that better in my original post. Sorry about that, but I'm not used to gaming bulletin boards, just computer programming ones .

Not to add more die rolls, but...

Neil,

As you know, I like simple rules and don't want additional complications, but an issue (albeit a small one) I've had with Hero Games firearms is that it does not take differences in bullets into consideration. All 9mm (for example) bullets are not created equal. Yes, there is the standard full metal jacket 9mm round, but then you have the variations in velocity (+p and +p+) and then with the bullet type (jacketed hollow point, jacketed soft point, Hydra-Shok ) and they will all (in reality) do different amounts of damage. I know you can replicate this in the Hero Games system by doing power limitations (reduced penetration, damage classes, etc...), but thats a bit more work than I like to do. Anyway, just a minor gripe.

On a side note, I found this website which discusses the test the FBI use when performing ballistic tests. It's kind of interesting (and it's brief): http://greent.com/40Page/general/fbitest.htm

That's it. I'll talk to you later.