Ninja-Bear

On 3/12/2024 at 3:47 AM, Lord Liaden said:

I was always intrigued by the contrast between Conan and Howard's other barbarian-turned-king, Kull. They both come from similar backgrounds, with comparable physical stature and prowess. But Conan is resolutely focused on the practical concerns of survival and profit. He wants to enjoy life to the fullest, and rarely gave thought to life's meaning. But Kull was the opposite. He thought about and discussed deep questions of philosophy and theology. As a king Kull would sometimes agonize over the morality of his decisions, over the "right" thing to do for his subjects. He was also less of a loner than Conan, having a small circle of trusted comrades and advisors.

 

Conan may be the archetype of the fantasy barbarian, but Kull shows that Howard didn't consider depth and complexity to be antithetical to that archetype. Then again, Howard wrote more about Conan than Kull, and the former is the more popular character. I guess there's a strong appeal to the straightforward, easy to understand protagonist, with an attitude of (as Roy Thomas once wrote for comic-book Conan), "Gird my loins, draw my sword, and roll the dice!"

Interesting fact about this is that REH submitted some stories as Conan and Kull and the editor didn’t like them and when he resubmitted the story with the other hero then they were approved.

Unfortunately that was one of my many started but never finished projects. One thing to keep in mind however is that NE STR doesn’t track very well at all with Hero System.  I forgot exactly how much STR in NE you need to make even a low level Brick in Hero. Also not sure how you are going Heavy Armor and Weapons from NE (if you’re keeping the mechanic identical) Because those that are wearing Heavy Armor aren’t affected at by regular weapons.  Naturally you can house rule this or ignore it.

Social “Justice” is not justice at all. It should be scrapped thrown into the garbage dump.

Thanks everyone so far!

3 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

I will try to find time to crack a few books over the next couple of weeks--  at this point, I am curious, too!

 

 

Well if your cracking some books then I’ll extend it to 3rd and previous editions.

1 hour ago, assault said:

Have you got Golden Age Champions? I think there's at least one in there. The British guy in the Expatriates supervillain group maybe?

My copy is in a pile somewhere at the moment, so I can't check.

I do and mines buried too 😂. Plus me and the misses are going away for a vacation. 

9 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

5e's Ultimate Metamorph has several power examples-- I honestly cannot remember if there is a full character sheet or not.  If no one here knows for certain, I will check it tomorrow (heads for bed now; I have done too much research for my own queation in another thread.  They eyes aren't what they used to be. 

 

 

Thanks for the input. (I do have the Ultimate Metamorph) I know that there are plenty of examples of other popular comic book character types. I’m just curious as if there was any Stretchers in 4th Ed. 

15 hours ago, Old Man said:

 

You're not wrong, but I found axes to work well enough against any type of armor.  Plus I could use it to hook shields and limbs, and possibly even throw it depending on the axe type.

 

Furthermore, don't overlook the non-combat utility of the axe.  It's hard to build fortifications, breach a door, or cut firewood with a mace.

Interesting that you mentioned about cutting wood with an axe. Matt Eastman has a video going over which ones would work and which ones wouldn’t. Who knew that some axes are designed specifically for war?

one thing that 8 really like about Matt Eastman (his site is called Schola  Gladitoria ) is that he’s big on context, context, context.

9 minutes ago, Grailknight said:

I know there's one in European Enemies.

Name per chance? And thanks.

Hellos All,

I have an unusual request. Are there any “official” as in printed Characters (wether good or evil) that are written as a Stretching character. I never ever ran across one at least not in the Enemies books that I have. Just wondering 💭 f there was any. 

7 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

It depends on what you want your armor to do.  Its just easier and more clear in a game to have armor just give defenses, but it really does matter what you're defending against.  Plate armor doesn't protect as well as cloth armor against some attacks.  Chain is better than leather except against certain sorts of threats.  The kind of metal might work better against some attacks and not against others.  Light and hard might be great, until its hit by something that shatters it.  Flexible is better than rigid in some circumstances, but in others its worse.

 

So there's really no such thing as the best armor against everything.  But modeling that would require a computer to do all the calculations and your warrior would have a golf bag of different things to use and wear, playing the rock/paper/scissors game.

Maybe not so much a computer model but when D&D was 2D6 there was a matrix that you would look at depending on weapon attacking what armor. It could give you a small bonus or penalty.

@Old Man, depends on what ax compared to what armor. The mace is useful against all armor and it’s easier to use. You don’t have to worry about an edge alignment.

@Old Man, the thing I like about about Todd from Todd’s workshop is that he explains the variances of steel. He uses a mild steel which is roughly comparable to medieval steel. He and Matt Eastman talk about how even In Medieval times there was different grades of metal and they do point out how imperfections in the metal can affect weapons and weapon breakage. Did you know that later Metal Maces actually had a wooden core in the shaft to give strength but reduce weight?

8 hours ago, assault said:

 

I just checked. It's Bronze and Iron.

It goes with "Iron is better" rather than "Iron becomes cheaper", although there is a bit of the latter in that iron becomes the default in price lists for the later period.

It’s been awhile but I believe the book has rules for Iron against Bronze. It acts as AP iirc.

10 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

I believe Testament is Iron Age, though.

The tagline line is Men of Steel in the Age of Bronze. Iirc.

@Asperion, if you get a chance, the Asian Bestiaries have some monsters that are similar but different than Westerners are used to. If I understand correctly, the Witcher’s monsters are more in the vein of Eastern European traditions which seem different. 
 

The monsters you listed are so influenced by Media that by just going back to the original myths would make them seem different too.

6 hours ago, Gauntlet said:

I wonder how they roll. I have found that different dice have different roll percentages.

They roll like any other dice. Sometimes spectacular failure when you need the roll and other times Amazing. I will say the Body Pips make it really easy to teach new players that mechanic.

On 1/21/2024 at 4:22 PM, tkdguy said:

 

I'd much rather go with that. The campaign tells the characters' stories.

Well how does that exactly work with game with a skill system? Fantasy Hero you’re expected to buy skills to represent your character. How you going to do that if the campaign just declares in-progress what is relevant?

In a similar vein, I see people talk about OSR where the answers aren’t on your sheet. “You describe your character’s background and those skills”. Now in the right group? I can see it working. However……I can see problems even with honest players and GM. I rather don’t think the solution is as easy as it’s presented.

7 hours ago, Stanley Teriaca said:

I personally don't have a campaign or game. I basically wanted to keep the character as close to starting level as possible.

 

The thing is, I want the villain to be useable by as many game masters as possible. Remember that I used the Heroes In A Hurry book as a starting point. But it should be noted that the write-ups using the book are not actually ment to be set in stone. The book was written as a quick build guide, as a first draft for the character's first appearance, and that the player and game master should work together to make a balance character after the first game.

Well that’s the rub isn’t it? What is the most useful to the most GM’s? In the vein of what you’re trying to accomplish here’s a small list of suggestions that are hopefully helpful.

1) You played 4th? The same guidelines are the same more or less for Standard Superhero albeit starting characters have more points to spend to flesh out their Powers and Skills and such.

2) I’d reduce Blackhead by Blocks of what he bought down 75 pts. (Here I would have to check what was bought exactly to give a better opinion.) 

3) What is probably the MOST helpful is rather the background and SFX especially to new players/GMs. Seriously a pimple attack? (The character personally skivvies me out but that’s just me.) The idea that you can have almost any Special Effect and you buy the Power that best represents it? That’s Hero System trademark but still can take a moment to understand. 

4 hours ago, Gauntlet said:

 

Basically but an a much larger scale. Doppelgängers are one for one, while Body Snatchers go for the entire planet.

Fantasy Hero has them listed as a Race so in my mind the same thing.

16 hours ago, Gauntlet said:

 

That or the replacement monster like those from Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Doppelgängers

On 1/16/2024 at 12:34 AM, Stanley Teriaca said:

What would you cut on the character to being him down to Standard Superhero beginning cost?

Well not to sound blithe about it but what do you consider Standard Superhero? In theory since Steve Long cut Figured Characteristics we are able to build a 15 DEX, 8 OCV 4 DCV character. However if you are using legacy characters with minimal change then perhaps you want your brick at 18 DEX 6 OCV 6 DCV. Trust me there were some threads debating this.

I’m away from my books (so it won’t be point balanced)  here are some rough examples for ideas.

15 DEX because well because. Still higher than your normal but not “Standard Brick”. 5 DCV he’s a brick and we don’t have to have equal OCV and DCV.  Drop PD to 10 and ED to 5 with Resistant Protection that gives you 30 PD and 25 ED still good for a brick. You probably only need 10 REC and 50 END keep the STUN though.  I’d reduce the Blast from 10D6 to 8D6. And Reduce Striking Appearance to +5D6. If you need to cut some more costs reduce KB to -5 reduce Mental Defense and Power Dense to minimum but I wouldn’t get rid of them as that’s different. Also depending on cost you could keep say KB at original value and just reduce the other two. But again this is very dependent on how your world is built. 

One thing that helps is that if you have an experienced player have him help the less experienced player while combat is going on with other players. Minimize optional rules. Optional rules are great if everyone is comfortable with them however extra rules usually result in extra rolls which results in extra time. And for a very controversial suggestion, keep a tight control on Speed-have all PC’s have the same Speed and adjust villains as needed.

3 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said:

Who isn’t? 

I might be if I knew what it was. 😁

How about Throw you for distance?

I don’t know how to delete a thread but I would encourage that you let it stay up. I’m sure you‘re not the first person who missed the 0 END cost in the calculations. This would be helpful to other people who search for similar things.

4 hours ago, DShomshak said:

That's what I assumed in my Ultimate Supermage playtest campaigns, which began before there was any official word on things like Resistant Mental Defense. And since exotic-defense Killing damage can only exist by creating an NND/AVAD, the only reasons to postulate Resistant versions of those defenses are a) to create such an arms race, or b) an obsession with pattern that demands that because PD and ED exist in normal and resistant forms, *all* defenses must exist in normal and resistant forms.

 

I do not consider maintaining a consistent pattern to be a crucial consideration for game design.

 

(OK, Mental Illusions can deal Killing Damage, but the rules for this are idiosyncratic. You defend by having enough Mental Defense to keep the final effect below the +20 threshold. If you don't have that, whether your pitiful insufficient Mental Defense is Double Hardened Impenetrable Resistant or not doesn't matter.)

 

Dean Shomshak

You missed option C. C) Hero is a tool kit and so it will provided Resistant to powers like Flash or Mental Defense because GM/group feels that this represents the build better. For Example the Master of the Spiting Cobra Clan has a spit attack to the eyes which not only flashes and hurts but does actual killing damage to the unfortunate victim.  However their rivals, the Northern Mongoose Clan has a secret technique to stop the attack hence the Resistant. I see this no more or less an arms race than what the players allow. Do heroes need Hardened Defenses? I bet you see a lot when every villain has an AP attack.