Spence

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

Re: UNTIL Uniforms - Now I know why they BUG me so much. Exactly!!! Without changing a single frame or word of dialog except then name. Call it "Bug Hunt" and it would have been a campy scifi show that poked fun at the the book Starship Troopers. But when they advertised it as "Robert H Heinlein's Starship Troopers" it became an entirely different thing. They lied, false advertising. As a "Scary Movie" still campy thing it was pretty good. As a scifi movie bringing the book "Starship Troopers" to the screen it utterly failed. Just an opinion of course.

Re: Converting Players to HERO

Re: Converting Players to HERO I hope the upcoming Character Creation Handbook will tackle the issue.

Re: UNTIL Uniforms - Now I know why they BUG me so much.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Forgot to mention. Tomb from the Repairman Jack series.

Re: Converting Players to HERO I think some of us are talking past each other. Ignore me if I'm the one out in left field Hero System is actually two distinct parts. Character Generation and Play. The Good: The Play part is easy and straight forward. IMO much easier that many games, and definitely easier than D20 systems. Everything you need is on the character/vehicle/base sheets will virtually no need to "look up" anything. The Bad: Character Generation. (Or base, or vehicle, etc.). While not "hard", it is extremely detailed and requires a completely different approach and method than most other RPG systems. It has no built in safe guards, requirements or constraints relating to "what you can do" or "what is allowed" for concept or design. Without some kind of guidance, newly exposed players flounder and sink because there are too many options available and they cannot find a direction. So when some of us say Hero has a step entry curve, we generally mean from the character/NPC/vehicle/base creation aspect. Not the actual in game play aspect. Clear as mud, huh?

Re: UNTIL Uniforms - Now I know why they BUG me so much. Yep, but don't forget that the stupidity is from the movie, not the book.

Re: UNTIL Uniforms - Now I know why they BUG me so much. The whole bug fart and meteor was movie only. In the book the Bugs had ships and tech weapons. They were tool users. After a few paragraphs about why plastering Klandathu with H-bombs wouldn''t achieve the needed result: "So suppose we did ruin the productive surface of Klendathu? They will still have ships and colonies and other planets, same as we have, and their HQ is still intact - so unless they surrender, the war isn't over. We didn't have nova bombs at that time; we couldn't crack Klendathu open." Here are a few other quotes: "But don't make the mistake of thinking that the Bugs are just stupid insect because they look the way they do and don't know how to surrender. Their warriors are smart, skilled and aggressive - smarter than you are, by the only universal rule, if the Bug shoots first." "Only about one in fifty is a warrior - but he makes up for the other forty-nine. Their personal weapons aren't as heavy a ours but they are lethal just the same - they've got a beam that will penetrate armor and slice flesh like cutting a hardboiled egg, and the co-operate even better than we do...because the brain that is doing the heavy thinking for a "squad" isn't where you can reach it; it's down one of the holes." I can't find it right now but BA wasn't hit by an "meteor", it was nuked from orbit by a Bug warship that penetrated Solar System defenses. All in all the Bugs were a high tech starfaring civilization that resembled spiders and we just called them bugs. That was the biggest disappointment in the movie, it when from a clash between power armor and space fleet and a high tech hive minded aliens to keystone cops against meteor farting cockroaches.

Re: UNTIL Uniforms - Now I know why they BUG me so much. NO NO NO We must ensure all of our starships pack into the smallest volume possible so if they have to turn they can run into each other. For our combat troops we have to make sure they just run around in mobs and make no use of their weapons capabilities. Never ever let them establish supporting zones of fire. What were you thinking??

Re: buying weapons (money or points?) In my fantasy type games (knights, swords,etc) I run heroic adventure. Not D&D dungeon crawl. The PC's can buy a level of wealth if they wish more that "normal". The PC's are not scrapping by, they are persons of renown to one degree or not. In 13th Warrior you didn't see Arab dude counting penny's to see if he could afford a sword. He had a sword, and then armor. In my game the PC's will lodged and feted by the local lord or hetman. Why? Because they are Knights (or something). If the party accepts a charge to destroy a beast that is terrorizing the countryside and the warriors all want boar spears, they can have them. Why, because the object of my games is the quest not the accumulation of fictional coins. The only time I wouldn't let the party do something like that would be if their location disallows it. If they are at the local lords keep and the 4 warriors want boar spears, no problem. If they are in a small hamlet, there may only be 1 or 2 boar spears available. If they are in the wilderness when they get the idea, well, tough luck. Boar spears don't grow on trees. Now the could make spears them selves, with the type and quality being dependent on the PC's skills, knowledge and raw material available. But in none of the cases do the "pay" money. I treat all non-point items as everyman SFX. I use variations of this for Pulp and Spy games. Bond never paid for his gadgets. The only time I worry about money is if it is part and parcel of the game. For instance a Shadowrun game were one of the central tropes is barely making enough money to get by.

Re: Traveller-era guns

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... It's a good thing IMO. But it would spoil the story line.

Re: Converting Players to HERO Exactly, I'm in 100% agreement. I guess that is why I think finding a way to cut down that entry barrier is a worthy goal which hasn't been really explored yet.

Re: UNTIL Uniforms - Now I know why they BUG me so much. Wow! I got the complete opposite out of it. The movies was an extremely poor attempt to put across a political statement hamstrung by the director complete lack of any knowledge in the subject he was slamming. While the entire book was about Rico changing from spoiled kid to a man of honor, courage and duty, the only character development in the movie was the shower scene. I had written a longer explanation, but it would be more appropriate for the NGD and I am trying to avoid that. I still find it amazing though.

Re: UNTIL Uniforms - Now I know why they BUG me so much. You Watched Starship Troopers Of Your Own Free Will??!? OH THE HUMANITY!!!!!!!!

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Off Armageddon Reef. Ghost in the Shell novelizations v1-3. Crest of the Stars novelizations v1&2.

Re: Converting Players to HERO Ding ding ding. Give that man a prize That is why I always thought having complete balanced "starter adventure" for each line would be great. Not a huge long campaign. But a one-shot. The Champions one-shot would have the Heroes, the Villains and the scenario plus maps. This would give the new Hero gamer something to use as a benchmark. A starting point.

Re: Converting Players to HERO Not to much to say to that. One thing I see as a great opportunity is the "Character Creation Handbook" planned for around Oct 07. The core books and genre books all have info about building PC's in a genre. But not a single Hero book actually tells you how to build a character. I have had more than on person say they couldn't figure out how to build the a first character from the book. While all of the games out there have various levels of complexity in character building with some, IMO, being actually harder because they require the constant reference to a bizzilion mandatory books. But they are almost all easier to start. What I mean is, if you take a game like D&D or the Palladium games. Since they are built on a class/level system it is extremely easy for a new gamer to whip out and character. Pick a class, select a handful of skills/feats/abilities/etc, spend the money and shazam instant character. Now I didn't say it would be a good or viable character. But it is a character and as such allows the new player to understand character creation in a personal sense and give them something to build on for the next ones. In Hero we really don't have this. There are loads of good advice and several finished examples, but nothing showing the thought process used. A real example of the meaning of "power from effect". Now if the CCH isn't just a compilation the information needed for character creation, but contains several step by step examples that narrate not just the points and calculations but the reasoning behind them. That would be great. "Now that we have built Superdudes movement powers, lets move onto offensive powers. Looking back at our concept write up, he has the ability to fire flame blasts from his hands. Just what can they do?" And then show two or three different flame blast builds with the whys and hows, before picking one. I would have 2-3 Supers, 2-3 Fantasy Hero, 1-2 Dark Champs, 1-2 Pulp, 1 Star Hero, 1 Teen Champ, 1 Post Apocalyptic and 1-2 Martial Artist types. These examples would cover enough ground to give a very solid foundation in HeroThink concepts. In the end the buyer would have several complete PC's and a guide to how they were built. Once again, just my 2 cents. But I really do think it would be a great benefit.

Re: Rebuilding yourself But there are "gorgeous healthy lunged gold diggers"

Re: Rebuilding yourself enough points in wealth and you could go with the "gorgeous healthy lunged gold digger"

Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... dandelion eaters, neck munchers or flea bags Elves, Vampires, or Werewolves

Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy... Don't forget "Witch Hunter Robin", "Aquarian Age", "E's Otherwise" and "Bleach". They fit into the Urban Fantasy mold. The only "hates" or really strong dislike I have is when dandelion eaters, neck munchers or flea bags are a central part of the world view. Cropping up once in a while as a disposable plot item is fine. As a key long term story element, no.