Spence

Re: My Cool Color Hudson City Map So..... You're saying the whining isn't working. Right? time for Plan B

Re: FH Gripes Combat Luck: I only use it to: Simulate a specific need. In supers/pulp/greater than normal campaigns In Wuxia/Asian "Flying Dagger" movie type campaigns. For a "normal" FH campaign it generally only appears as a "Simulate a specific need" item, like magic. A player just buying it because it is in the book? No. But to each his own.

Re: FH Gripes Never thought of that. Thanks from the peanut gallery

Re: Heist Hero Sounds like the "Getbackers" anime.

Re: Modern Age vs Silver Age

Re: Modern Age vs Silver Age Hmmm..... so many good choices...

Re: FH Gripes

Re: FH Gripes No, I am the one who should apologize, though I was not misrepresenting anything but rather responding to your ever changing position wher you start with "typical" and end up with "Paladins". But I was letting a crappy week at work bleed over. And as usual was not being clear. And things sounded clear when I wrote them, but looking back it probably wasn't. For that I apaologize. In the way I look at it Hero must be looked at in a very compartmentalized manner. For it discusses "normal" compartment 1, then "heroic" "compartment 2 and Super heroic compartment 3. Compartment 1 can function well all on its own. You can open compartment 2 which adds many things. But you are no longer in "normal". The example of Deadly Blow being in the Paladin Package. It isn't. The package deal says that he gets 20 points of Paladin Powers. Now there is a page of sample powers that a Paladin might have. One of the powers is Demonslayer where a God has granted him special powers to slay demons. The game mechanic used to model this divine power was Deadly Blow limited to vs demons. That doesn't mean every PC in the game is suddenly at liberty to slap 4 pts down and start wacking demons. And it definitely doesn't mean everyone can start slapping down 10 points for an extra die of KA. The same applies to Evil's Bane, Lay On Hands, and Righteous Courage. They all are examples of how to built Divinely Granted Powers. Not a permission for PC to go hog wild. In my opinion, and it is just mine, Hero is not a game where a person flips through the book, finds something cool, pays the points, and calls it spending experience. In the games I run (and the better one I have played in) the PC with XP to spend has to explain in character concept where the ability is coming from. If it makes sense in the particular game they then point it out and the GM either approves the build, adjusts the build for balance or says try again. Deadly Blow is a Talent and is unnatural. If the PC is a Paladin there are a couple of ways he can explain it and easily stay in character conception. But a regular joe warrior type will be hard pressed to come up with a good reason to suddenly have magical powers. But in the end, simply because one of the many packages uses a power or talent to simulate a specific ability, doesn't mean the PC's just run hog wild. In the same manner, just because a prestige class exists in some supplement doesn't mean all the PC's in a D&D game can automatically start using them. When I first used Hero (Champions) I always ran into problems because when creating a character I followed the method I learned in D&D. Step One, open the book and read the available classes and races. Step Two, after choosing a target class with the abilities I want roll for stats until I get a combo I like. Etc. I would flip through the book looking for cool powers. Then it clicked. Now Step One is take a blank sheet of paper and write out the character concept. After that is done, Step Two determine the best way to create the concept using the game mechanics. Until I have a complete character concept the rulebook stays on the shelf. When players spend XP my favorite question is Why? Why can you do it? Why did it get better? Etc. For Deadly Blow, the question is not only why can your character do it, but what is the reason for it. For a Paladin it is Divine. For the other characters is it magic? Chi? Bad breath? What? It is 10 points. And in Hero 10pts can do a lot of things all of which may be technically legal but generally inappropriate to a genre. 5th is very specific, FH is more broad and gives you information to assist in running everything from Low fantasy to Epic Fantasy. It is a general book. Examples that are not appropriate to the specific genre you are running should be skipped. If you want more definition get a setting book. TA, VA or TM with TM being the most specific in detail IIRC.

Re: My Cool Color Hudson City Map Tuala Mourn is the newest FH setting book. An very cool celtic'ish world that has some cool maps. Nothing to do with Hudson City at all. But they both have MAPS So far the no spiffy color Hudson City map is available. Steve has one and Edsel made himself one. But there isn't one for purchase and it doesn't look like it may ever happen. But I believe that if there is enough whining and people poking and prodding, they might put out a high resolution PDF version just to shut us up What?? It could happen

Re: FH Gripes Never mind. You don't want a discussion, you just want to bash the system and pick and choose bits and pieces of points of posts that are convenient. Very well. FH Hero is completely broken and all copies should be burned in order to save mankind. You have won. :hail:

Re: FH Gripes Oh, I am not trying to say you do or did any thing wrong. And I am not trying to say that you don't know what you are wanting to do in your game. But I am saying that the defaults for a "normal" are pretty well defined, both by the rules, FH and the myriad of other supplements by example. I am countering your very specific comments 3a, 4 and 5. You state that these mean that FH is essentially "broken" because the rules are not in "black and White". Well they are. For 3a there are many books for FH with many many standard write ups. How can the FH troll be too powerful or too weak. It is the standard FH troll. It is it's standard. If your conception of a Troll is bigger, that is your conception, not theirs. Neither is wrong. In one RPG a Fairy is a 6 inch tall tinkerbell, in another it is a 6 foot tall elf like being. Which fairy is the "correct" one? In a "standard" FH game where 90% of the warriors will have a STR between 12-16, a troll with a STR of 35 is a combat monster. For 4, you have chosen to not use the "limiters" that keep FH at the "standard" FH power setting. NCM is simply a cost bump rather than a limit. PC's are allowed to purchase Talents and Power applications as if they were simple skills. This has completely eliminated the "standard" FH supplements value for you. Again, this is not anything "bad" or "wrong". But it isn't their fault you decided to follow you own direction. And for 5, if you retain the built in limiters (NCM, weapon damage lims, etc), then FH combat isn't long, it is short and vicious. All the rules and guidelines are written in black and white and very very visible. If you choose to not use the recommended guidelines that is great. I deviate all the time. But if things don't work out it is my problem, not the system I altered. I think a lot of the comments you are perceiving as criticism of you as a GM, are more a response to the way you made your statements. (of course with my vast talent > in writing I shouldn't say much ) For example, the whole thing about the high strength and a 5D6 normal sword as an example of how FH has no controls or balance. When the controls are pointed out, the response is that you just don't use NCM (control #1) and we aren't actually discussing "normal" at all. We are discussing a warrior with supernatural abilities (Talent Deadly Blow). If you remove the brakes from your car, don't blame the manufacturer and call the car defective when you crash. Once again, I really have no opinion on whether you game is good or bad, and cannot have any clue about you as a GM. But every single example you gave consisted of FH is broken because of X, and when the solution Y is pointed out, you say that Y is simply a suggestion that you don't use and therefore it is broken. I'm just saying.

Re: FH Gripes Incorrect. The rules applying to "normal" weapons used by "normal" PC's are very specific. Hence the quote from the rules. Deadly Blow is a talent and like applying a power to a weapon makes it "magic". Buying a talent makes the PC "more than natural". And that pesky quote "As always, the GM should review and approve them before allowing PC's to buy them" rears its head again. Boy, that GM sure keeps having to make decisions. A weapon may never get above x2 DC's. But if I the GM make it a MAGIC sword it can do as much as I want by purchasing POWERS. The rule applied until I the GM said the sword is no longer normal. With Deadly Blow, the talent cannot just be purchased because it is "cool", anymore than a character can "just" buy danger sense, Eidetic Memory, Divine Favor or Berserk Fury. There has to be a reason other than min/maxing. Unless of course min/maxing is how you have fun. Yes, it is possible to take a 2D6 weapon to 5D6 by making the warrior or weapon "unnatural". But that is not because the system is "broken", it is because you, the GM have chosen to use extras and options that allow either the weapon or the PC to "no longer be normal". Why bother with Deadly Blow at all? It is limited. Why not just buy 15 pts of killing attack? Just using Str Min 6-14 (-1/2) Real Weapon (-1/4) and OAF (-1) will drop it to 5pts per die. Heck for the cost of DB I can get 2D6K that isn't limited at all. In D&D as a DM I can give a Holy Avenger to a PC's 1st level character, in fact I can give everyone in the party artifacts. It will certainly destroy any reasonable use of 1st level adventures and campaigns. But it isn't because the system is broken. It is because I "chose" to ignore the guidelines and do my own thing. But my question is. Why are you (not really you AmadanNaBriona, the rhetorical you) playing FH at all. You obviously don't want to. You want to play a wuxia style supers with swords game along the line of an anime like Inuyasha. Nothing wrong with that, it is a fun type of game but it doesn't have anything to do with a "regular" fantasy style game where the PC's are supposed to be "normal" humans etc. It certainly isn't the default build that is FH's norm. If I was playing in your (again a fictional you ) game I would never waste 10 points for something as useless as +1D6K. Heck, I'd spend the 10 points on Flight and use a bow. I know my mother was a pixie so I can fly. Cool isn't it. I'd just swoop around and shot arrows and drop rocks. If my dad was a rock troll I can buy up my skin as hardened armor like Colossus in X-Men. 40 STR fits that. A super strong flying pixie troll. Coooool....... sorry...being a bit of a smart aleck there. But with a point. Playing a game with a super strong flying pixie troll is actually doable in a manner that stays within the rules with Hero or Fantasy Hero. Fantasy Hero isn't broken. You (and yet again the fictional you) just gave your players a blank check and have refused to establish any control, you are doing the equivalent of a D&D game where you can use anything in any book you own. I prefer the games where the DM states on day one which books may be used and then does not allow anything else for that campaign. In the end, saying a system is broken because it allows you to do what ever you want as it was designed to is just wrong. It drew a line and said that a FH "standard" game should remain at this level of power/effect, and you, the GM made the choice to alter that that standard. Which is great. Hero is supposed to be used to do cool stuff.

Re: My Cool Color Hudson City Map Where?

Re: FH Gripes Incorrect again. A weapon can never cause more than 2x its base damage. Refer Main Rules page 405. "A character's extra maneuver damage, extra STR, damage bonus from movement, and CSL's used to increase damage, put together, cannot more than double the base Damage done by an attack or weapon. For example, a knife (HKA 1/2D6, or base damage of 2 DC's) cannot do more than Killing Damage 1D6+1 (4 DC's), regardless of how the character adds damage to it." A sword of 2D6 (6 DC's) can never do more than 4D6 (12DC's). Now you are free to ignore it, after all it is Hero. But don't call the system broken when in reality you didn't read the book. The guidelines are all there if you choose to read and use them.

Re: FH Gripes Incorrect. NCM is defined as "an upper limit on the Characteristics of normal humans." and 20 is the maximum Str for a human per the charts. The system has a mechanism to allow higher stat progression if the GM allows it. Key words IF THE GM ALLOWS IT. For instance, if the characters father was non-human or maybe of supernatural origin. Hercules has greater than 20 because dad was a God. and so on. A human in a heroic game with a Str higher than 20 has exceeded the possible. The only way to do so is to use magic, technological assists, bio-augmentation or the GM choosing to ignore human maximums. All legal in the system. But don't blame the system because you chose to ignore the guidlines.

Re: My Cool Color Hudson City Map "Turakian Age" I beleive.

Re: My Cool Color Hudson City Map True, but SotEB is the only one I can see on the map Of course if I had one of those mondo big cool detailed maps like some people I might see more

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I pick mine up tomorrow

Re: FH Gripes repped with misspelled word WOOT

Re: FH Gripes Don’t see the point here. All good campaigns are a lot of work until they have been in play for a while. And then the reduction in work load is more about being able to recycle bad guys. This is true of any RPG. I don't follow the problem here. It falls under enforcing the rules. The only reason for the player to not use END is if you decided to mod the game and ignore it. Once again, not the system but the players and GM. Everyday I go by my FLGS I see some player ticked because the DM of his D&D game has ruled out the "really cool official supplement book" the player just bought. Probably because the DM doesn't have it and doesn't want to buy it that day so he can be sure his campaign won't be unbalanced. I see D&D games all the time where the DM has ruled core books only. I see D&D games all the time where a GM has altered the actual rules to fit his ideas for his world. And that is a straight jacket game system. In hero where you are SUPPOSED to tweek and alter the rules to suit, this doesn't make sense as a complaint. For me, and just as my personal opinion they work fine. The only advice is to actually use the applicable rules, NCM, combat, end etc. And to put a halter on the munchkins and take back control of your game. One last point, NOTHING in your game is WRONG. Hero is designed to be tweeked and modified. So how you run it is how you run it. My comments are solely based on how I understood your statements. FH does have a very good base with very good "standard rules". Between all the supplements 11 directly applicable, 2 Grimoire's, 3 Bestiaries, 2 antagonists (MM&M + NK&N), 3 settings (VA, TA and TM), Fantasy Battlegrounds not counting FH itself it is a well supported as many games on the market. But no, it is not a game designed to take the GMing out of the job. If you run FH you will need to make the adventures. But I ran my first mini-campaign using all stock (out of the books) creatures and magic with no problem at all. If you wish to allow easily accessible, ultra powerful magic and godlike characteristics you can. No problem. But it will completely unbalance the exiting FH material. Just like Pulp Hero and Dark Champions material is completely overwhelmed if the PC's are 400+ point supers. Not a problem with the system, but with the specific campaign. Sorry, not the correct term since it can't be a "problem" if it was intended. To me, with the very little information I have, your game sounds more like high powered anime than high or low fantasy. Good for me because I like anime, but 40 STR warriors with 5D6K weapons are more to do with demon fighters saving worlds than mere knights and magi fighting goblins and trolls.

Re: Dark Teen Champions: The Anime Series (genre concept) Keeping with the private school setting. If the number of players is small - say 3-5. Then if you go with them being related somehow. A brother and sister plus step-sibling (edit: make the step sib a half brother or sister) who run into their Aunts girl and boy. Spread across one or two grades this isn't really that implausible. Having a group of students related in a private school is not that unbelievable and could 1) explain why only they seem to have powers and 2) gives them a good reason to be a "team". If heroes have "faded into history and legend" maybe it is because their powers are limited and they seem to burn-out, or appear to. Try this. The school and faculty are clueless. There are 3 conspiracies. 1) a benevolent group that locates and monitors supers from afar. Both to study and prevent harm from group 2. 2) a evil group that wants to discover and harness the powers displayed by supers. After a period of hands off observation they will attempt to abduct the subject. Abducted subjects tend to become the faded away types. 3) the government, a security agency knows "something is going on" and has enough information to know that "it could be really really bad" but are clueless as to what it exactly is. Sprinkle in a few independents and the players will be in the bottom of dark well of conspiracy. Just who is that creepy old teacher working for? Is he working for anyone? Do the players know there is more than one group? Do they realize there is a conspiracy in the first place? In Full Metal Panic the evil agancy tries to kidnaps Kaname by having the plane hijacked. Kaname's class trip is to Okinawa from Japan. The rest of the class and teachers fall for the line about the "terrorists" making political demands. But Sousuke has to rescue her, all while keeping his real purpose as secret as possible. In this case he would be part of Group 1.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... That is why I like a lot of Weber. His books are FUN. They tell an adventure. They don't beat me to death with "reality". Like movies I get enough reality in real life. On occasion I just like a book or a movie that is just fun. Weber, Flint, Moon and Stirling, just to name a few all can write fun adventures and I really enjoy them. Hell hath no Fury, was a good read.

Re: Anime series as a campaign Or low powered supers. One of my favorite anime. Rep for the mention:D

Re: Astounding Arrival! AARARRGggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was the cry of my wallet in pain........