Spence

OMG... I cannot believe this at all. I noticed that the new movie Dune has become available go stream and decided I would check it out. $24.99 to rent!?!!? And $29.99 to "buy"???? Are these people mentally damaged? $25 to watch one time and $30 to have access to to a virtual copy? Unbelievable...

No, not insane. Just not your preference. It has been that way for a while and teams are familiar with it, so it is no surprise. The majority of games end at the official overtime, some will end with a shootout. A more beneficial would be to eliminate all Time Outs and time stopping from gridiron and force them to play a 60 minute game in 60 minutes. Or better yet bring ball Ironman Football, now that would be worth seeing

While I enjoyed the first part of the remade BSG, it quickly went downhill. Fast. I think I enjoyed the initial part because at the time they really seemed to understand the portrayal of a warship. There are a lot of small details that stand out if you are familiar with naval vessels. And the depicted space combat was pretty good. I especially liked the Galactica as it was depicted fully engaged. But all of the good was slowly and relentlessly choked by the crapfest of a storyline. So many outstanding possibilities just squandered.

OK, now that would have been interesting. I misread your intent. Not universally bad as your Battlestar example shows. But it is a bad thing that hollywood has already forcibly converted practically every drama into Grim Dark Conspiracy already. Taking a show and crafting another take on it can be good. And I really liked some of them. But today in the late 2019's and now the 2020's hollywood has decreed well crafted plots shall be forbidden and all must be Grim Grim Dark with Grim Dark Conspiracy. I am not talking about the departures possibly being bad, I am definitely saying that the hard hard turn into "all shows being the same" grim grim dark conspiracy definitely is bad.

Now none of this should be taken as a criticism of the work done on the Table Top Hero mod. I definitely lack the skills to do it myself. This is just me commenting on a few points as I see them applying to me and my gaming style. The machine and internet connection is not an issue right now. But I still hold that "entering characters" is a complete waste and unless there is a "completely turn this off" option I'll probably pass. I have yet to run peoples characters for them and beyond needing it during adventure building (for balance and making sure the to weave individual character information into the campaign) I don't need to see it. I will help new players at first but beyond that, no. And if a player is "cheating" I just don't play with them again. Now this is something that is actually useful, a point to point calculator. Does it do Line of Sight too? Discord? Discord? What is this Discord you speak of? Kidding But I just recently joined(?) my first discord (forum??) for Dragonflight in Oct. It seems kind of disjointed and all water fall instead of a usable and searchable forum.

Could be, I don't consider myself enough of an expert. Like most people I can easily tell if something is broke, but that doesn't mean I can fix it But in this I do not think there is a direct plug in. I think to really reflect the differences in weapons it needs to be a combination of weapon stat, character stat and built abilities. Much the same way we build Talents to reflect things not directly duplicated in the core builds. For me I'll just use the charts as made or not so subtly "borrowing" new ones from people like you I briefly flirted with fencing in the early 80's and then the SCA a short time later, but never really went very far. What I did learn is that I do not have the knowledge to really understand the nuances in a way necessary to build what you are trying to.

I get your viewpoint and actually believe that when B&P green lighted a new show and focused on the new hotness the old, now ignored, series had their best episodes. But do disagree on the overall take. Having the Fed join the Dom wouldn't have been daring at all. It would have been lazy and boring, not to forget a major departure of the basic theme of the franchise. It would have been like the US joining Japan after Pearl Harbor. For me the best stories are the ones that took the hard road. It is why RPG campaigns based on Hero's doing good tend to last far longer than ones based around self centered murder hobo's. Morality and ethics force "good" characters to take risks which lead to awesome climactic adventures. Evil on the other hand can just quit when it looks like it may get dangerous. One of the reasons shows are cratering in the last few years and we find ourselves turning back to the 80's and 90's for something to watch is the utter lack of creativity. Grim Dark - check Conspiracy - check Inner Circle Betrayer - check rinse, repeat La Brea initially looked good, but I quickly lost interest when it started slathering on the "dark secrets" Lost vibe. I am really dancing around watching Amazon's Wheel of Time. I'd love another great series, but I fear that it will be another book destroyed by hollywood hacks "fixing" it. I'll admit I am not the greatest fan of the books, but I hope this time they actually read them first.

I think we are having two different conversations. You seem to be basing them on story type, bright hopeful versus grim dark. I am talking about the quality of the show within its premise. The high quality of the episode "In the Pale Moonlight" is directly tied to the overall standard of Federation ethics and morality. The ethical dilemma and Siskos internal struggle simply wouldn’t have been so powerful if the same thing had happened in a show that was not Star Trek. The episodes where the characters struggled with the conduct expected in the Federation meeting the rest of reality head on is what makes Star Trek, Star Trek. One of the reasons I liked DS9 better than the other series is in all the other Treks they could just Righteously fly away at the end of the episode. In DS9 they had to try and actually resolve things because they weren’t going away. The failures were as interesting as the successes. Now B5 has to be viewed through a different lens. Their morality and ethics are more “realistic” and many characters on either side are more than willing to do what ever it took. For me B5’s shinning achievement was the level of character development and simply well-crafted storytelling. That said, I have a hard time choosing between them because they both have spectacular episodes as well as garbage episodes. I try, not always successfully , to judge shows, books and RPG’s within their context. I try, the struggle is real

I've watched both multiple times and tend to flip flop on which one I like better. Both have outstanding cast and story and both have abysmal cast and story. It depends on the episode I guess

Snipped Proof that there is no such thing as one size fits all I'm certainly glad that existing systems work for you. (Seriously said with no unanticipated meanings) For myself the lack of communication, including visual, crushes my ability to run a game. I've relied on being able to visually track my players reactions since the late 70s. To the point that I cannot operate without it.

The Duke of Sarcasm

Hmmm... for me those two paragraphs can relate but not as rule. I try to build the "frame" of my Fantasy (or other heroic games) as close to "realistic" as I can. As a baseline. Then the players can go all cinematic badass. Wanting the STR 20 DEX 15 fighter to portray his actions as if he had STR 20 DEX 15 is being realistic.

I marked 1-4, but the reality for me is none of the existing virtual thingies are even close plus they have expended most of their resources on irrelevant drivel. Dice rollers, character sheets, auto-trackers if anything are drivel. And then they fail on the few things that actually need to happen. Maps, position of things (people, monsters,erc) and most importantly communication between players and being able to SEE THE PLAYERS real time. A GM guides a game in real time making on the fly adjustments based on player reactions. At the table I can literally "feel" the fun factor of my players. Online is like trying to tie knots when your fingers are completely numb. You can't. I know I've tried. One day someone will have an epiphany and design an actual VTT system that can actually meet the core needs instead of wasting time on cheap bling.

And yet stopping play 3 hours into a 60 minute game for a commercial time out just builds excitement.........

If you can find a copy, the old Arduin Grimoir vol 1 had a character class, Rune Lord or Rune Caster(?) that had a really nice Rune/Spell system. It has been years and I don't remember the exact details, but the overall idea has stuck. I think you could mine itfor some great ideas.

A lot of interesting discussion here. Much of it deeper into the numbers than I usually go. I don't think you can "fix" a weapons table for any system by fixing the table itself. The key is implied by those that have actual experience. It isn't the weapon, it is the wielder. Both physical and skill. As mentioned a zweihander can be wielded both powerfully and quickly, but I guarantee if it was in my hands it would be neither I know you want to avoid the complication of figuring per character, but I really believe that in the end, that is the only way to get to where you really want to be.

I gave up my Disney+ a while ago. I will probably subscribe for a month sometime in the future and watch everything interesting in the first 10 or 11 hours of viewing and then cancel. That has been the way of subscriptions for me these days. While I know there are many shows people rave about, I usually only find one or two that are actually worth watching. I tried HBOmax and was severely disappointed in how little they actually had. A library may have a million books on the shelf, but if 99.9999999999% are cookbooks the library is cr*p.

Late to the response Many points were already addressed up above, such as STUN and END being inherently different than an actual attribute. with 6th Ed divorcing the secondarys from the primaries they can sometimes blend. But as for the attributes and skill roll versus effect roll. Here is an example from an old Star Hero game. The setting was in an old scifi universe such as Heinlein juveniles or Del Ray from the 50/60's. The players ship was running from a hostile spacecraft trying to reach the jump limit and escape to hyperspace but their Astrocomp was damaged. One of the players wanted try and calculate the jump manually using slide-rule and calculation wheels (the way most navigators did their thing pre-PC and GPS). The GM assigned the task a "INT BODY" and the player would role his Astrogator (INT) skill with each success allowing him to roll his INT in damage dice based on how good the roll was. In this case it was 1-3 D6 rolled for Body. But a failed roll would have him roll negative damage dice, as the furiously calculating Astrogator noticed an error and had to back track. It allowed ongoing tension as the Astrogator frantically tried to calculate the escape while rest of the players held off the enemy missiles. I have used that method of a "skill/attribute" Body for a wide range of items for timed drama or extended tasks. Far better than a simple pass/fail skill roll. I wish I could remember where the idea came from, but it has been years.

I'm actually confused. Strength has a skill roll and a damage/effect roll. Just like all the other attributes. I normally play and read 5thR so I checked 6th. Right there it was. A strength skill roll and then a roll for effect. I do the same with all the attributes as they come up.

Haven't been able to do much gaming at all. And to be honest online gaming lacks pretty much everything RPG. You need a map and a way to mark location with a way to maintain the hidden. You need a way to actually see the players. You need to actually hear everyone. What is a 100%, no a 1000000% utter waste of time. Character sheets, rules compendiums and such. I have yet to find a virtual anything that provides the core requirements. Instead you have to deal with all kinds of garbage ( Character sheets, die rollers, etc) not to mention you have to locate separate software to talk and then you really can't tell the players reactions. I have never seen a virtual tables top program that has simple "switches" to turn off the unwanted "stuff". I have pretty much come to the conclusion that all of the people involved with VTTs have embraced a hard core determination to make them as inaccessible and convoluted as possible. When I bought my last car they didn't deliver it in a hundred boxes plus tools with a note saying good luck. I am still waiting for an actual VTT.

You are not wrong 😁 But I think the issue isn't as much the existing weapons list not being 100%, as it isn't actually a complete package in the first place. Just like the Bestiary (any version). It contains hundreds of creatures, but they are not necessarily good for every game. In my opinion, a good weapon build is directly tied to the setting it will be used in. The Fantasy Hero weapons list gives you the raw stock. You have to forge the actual weapons that will be used. A weapon list for a Three Musketeers style game, how they are built plus skills/maneuvers will be drastically different from a weapons list for a chivalrous knights in shining armor game. Hero's supplements are highly detailed and very very complete raw material books. But they are not actually ready to play. I personally think this is why Hero is fading away instead of gaining traction. If a group of players manage to get a handle on the core rules without running away like an investigator that just met a great old one, they will then try to use the gear (weapons) and creature straight out of the Hero supplements without any adjustment. And when things are off, they generally decide the game is broken and it's on to D&D. D&D is a great example. The standard weapons list is not that great. Non-leveling characters can wield them but the weapons are limited in effectiveness. Only when wielded by a character with access to classes, skills and feats do they really become a force to be reckoned with. Just my opinion, but adjusting the weapons won't really do much by itself. Taking the weapons plus the skills/abilities plus the setting and adjusting them as a whole will achieve something.

So basically, figure out it's actual role in game and build accordingly

It all tends to run together on me.....

I'll help. Imagine a movie that pushes movie visual technology ahead a couple generations to a level never seen before. Attach a plot and script that literally makes two seven year old kids yelling at each other sound like high art. Liberally scatter idiocy such as naming the maguffin Unobtainium. The movie is literally better with no sound and is absolute proof that the average movie goer does not care at all about the actors dialog as long as they can say "oooooo shiney!".

You have anti-teleport. Don't forget teleport. And while at it, the anti of all the examples