Spence

Re: The Ultimate Trap Contest I've always found that simple is more deadly. Start the campaign with one or two really complicated fiendish designs that are triggered (in part) by a simple door knob or something. Then revert to the simple stuff. The PC's will ususally be so paranoid they will make the traps more dangerous. Plus they can't say that you are being too mean or deadly

Re: Neon Genesis Evangelion I think of "design" being pure game-mechanics and number crunching, while the roleplay and plot being more art and instinct. So based on that I think the design of the Eva's and Angels wouldn't actually really be that bad. After the first one that is. The hard part would be getting the players to actually fit into the world sense. If they saw the series you are done before you even get started because they would already know what was happening. If I was running it as a GM I would have all the PC's be new "pilots" and make all the other personalities NPC's. The game would be a bit two dimensional but the other alternative is breaking up into different sessions depending on what each PC "knew". I'd just never mention the series name and let them discover the "world" as it unfolds.

Re: Miniatures and mapping I use a large battlemat (hex) and a visavis marker to mark terrain. For figures, I am a throwback to the early years. When I first played RPG's the pickings were extremely sparse. And if you couldn't use historicals, there were only a few lines, mostly fantasy. We used dice. Small sixes were extras, green civilian, blue police, black evil henchmen and so on. Polys were were the Heros or major villians. Since most of the game is roleplayed and we use the maps only for combat accuracy we actually never needed mini's except as a place marker. Besides the best mini never could hold a candle to the minds eye. I still use mini's for wargaming, but for RPG the only time I do is if I am playing with an established group that does, but the games always seem washed out and less colorful than what I see in my mind eye.

Re: Favorite Pulp Character

Re: Favorite Pulp Character For me it's Shadow, Spider and Doc Savage. When I was young my neighbor had all the Bantom Doc books from #1 to whatever was current. I can't remember how many for sure, but she let me read them all. I agree with Publius about the "perfection" bit in the old pulps, but since I expect it when I read them I just ignore it. I would like to see more "modern pulps" though. And not just in movies. Books are the prefered media for me. It's is hard to find any good ones though. Many of the writers that "try" to write pulp have this idea that it must include "camp" or "be humorous". I really hate books that intentionally try to be funny, they rarely are.

Re: Something Star Hero needs, but hasn't-PT2

Re: Something Star Hero needs, but hasn't-PT2 Back to my earlier post. "One or two deckplans". What indepth detail? Where was the need for "all their ships"? If they can put a 4"x7" map of a mall, it is technically possible to put a 4"x7" map of a ship for approx the same cost. There is really no difference, they are both scaled maps. asking that one of the future campiagn specific supplements have ONE or TWO example deckplans isn't going to increase any costs above what any other map requires. So while the next SH supp is still in the early planning stages (really really early) there isn't anything wrong with asking. But the request keeps being buried among the noise about "huge deckplan onely supplements" or "no one else did a deckplan only supp". The problem is no one asked for that. And we're back to "one or two examples". One. Or two. 1. 2.

Re: Something Star Hero needs, but hasn't-PT2 And no one is disagreeing with you on using other sources and making your own. Demanding? Complaining? [flipps through dictionary] You must be using another language. "Suggesting" and "asking to be considered" is what I have been doing. Did you read my posts?

Re: Something Star Hero needs, but hasn't-PT2 Your right. It very well could have been that way. Right now I like to mention it with a slant towards the future. When I am doing a project and everyone has let me know they would like something if possible, I keep an eye out, and if things come together right I will put it in. On the other hand if someone comes up with an idea and everyone agree's it's cool but "too expensive/hard/whatever", then even if I discover I could do it cheaply and still have quality, I don't because everyone says it's "not good". My stance is that the products are good ones as they are, but some of them could be better with one or two deck plans and if possible please add them. When I read the posts and replies concerning deckplans the feeling you get is a lot of posters are saying they think any mention of deckplans is EVIL and you must be stopped, even if they can be added they should not because someone might think a product without them is somehow not as good. I never could understand why there is so much "anti-" whenever someone mentions something they would like to see.

Re: Something Star Hero needs, but hasn't-PT2 Actually I really can't understand this one. Many Hero posters keep saying that all kinds of things about cost for a deck plan being too high. If I pull out my copy of V(CotS) and go to page 87 I see two of a total of four maps in the book. They are the maps of the two sample Viper Nests. The only difference between them and a deck plan of a small ship, is the deckplan would cover less area. In CB there are several maps. The Gods won't decend from Mt Olympus and add $100 dollars per copy just because someone calls a map a deckplan. I'm not asking for a full blown book with hundreds of deckplans. I just think that exchanging one or two decrative art pics for one or two small deck plans would be nice. It isn't something that is going to kill me or prevent me from contiuing to buy more products. But I think it would really enhanse the future products. I know a couple of people who have bought CB. They don't play Hero and have the same opinion of it that I do of Werewolf/Vampire. Which isn't good. But they saw the maps of the mall and the construction site and had to have it. Do I think that is enough justification to make a all out multi-deckplan and ship construction book? Not at all. In fact I agree that it probably wouldn't be a good gamble with limited resources. But one or two deckplans to represent cannon for "specific" established campaign products would be far more positive than one or two art pics. No appologies needed mainly because I don't think I've ever read you ranting. We all get on the soapbox once in a while and that is the nearest to ranting I have ever read you. Me on the other hand. I seam to have the knack of pissing people off by just saying hello. Hmm.....

Re: Something Star Hero needs, but hasn't-PT2 You are correct and we already do. I'm tinkering with Profantasy's Cosmographer right now because I want my deckplans to not just be functional but look nice. But I think everyone is missing my point which is not exactly DrTemp's. I don't want or need a complete "how to build starships" book. I don't want or need a big book of deckplans. What I do want is one or two representative deckplans for the existing and established campaigns. That way when I build my own they can "fit in" with the world sense. When I ran LUGtrek I made several deckplans for different ships and they all had a nice Trek feel, because I had a few examples to refer to.

Re: Something Star Hero needs, but hasn't-PT2 Exactly. But we do differ slightly in one of our definitions. To me a character based game is one where you have the most need of a layout or floorplan. If the game is character based and the PC's are a ships crew, they have a critical need of the deck plan of their own ship. After all no self respecting ships engineer can exist without knowing what kind of engines and more imoprtantly where the engines are located. That doesn't "rigidly define" the game, just one piece. Having knowledge of your own house does not mean you know what the arrangement of someones apartment in the other town is either. And I'm not implying that is what you meant. Now it the party is a group that routinely travels from world to world via passenger liner or tramp merchant, then having a number of deckplans isn't required (though they would be helpful) and a complete GM adlib of the locations works. Some of the best games I have played were like that. In a fantasy game a roving band doesn't always need maps, but if the PC is the commander of a border fort they are a must. If you don't even know where the jakes are it's kinda hard to plan anything. SH type games usualy involve traveling between starsystems and the PC's usually control/own their ship. Having a good deckplan can be important. If I was planning to GM a game based in the TE, having a few DP's to use as a rough yardstick would be really nice. Not absolutely critical, but very very helpful. Anyway I am way overstressing my soapbox.

Re: Something Star Hero needs, but hasn't-PT2 You are absolutely correct. I'm not meaning anything bad against Hero or the products. I just feel that it isn't that much to ask for a few deckplans of the specific ships in AW or TE. In Battleground Champions the mall and construction site were awsome maps. In Viper they only had 4 maps, 3 of the Aerie and 1 of the Ninr Dragon Palace. They serve as fantastic examples of how to layout a "secret base" with only two pages worth of space in the book. The maps have uncountable value for the newer GM in planning and mapping of a secret base. While I acknowledge I can go to GURPS or many other scifi games for deck plans, I would love to be able to say, "Pick up a coopy of Battleground Terran Empire, it has a fantastic deckplan of an Imperial outpost, a Garagin Scoutship and a Free Trader. Use them for comparison as you draw the deckplans of that Frigate." I understand that H may not want to put out a book of deckplans that could not possibly cover a fraction of the possibilities, but I also don't think it is too far out of line to ask for one or two one page deckplans from the established campaign settings. After all I'm just asking. The only scifi RPG I know that didn't suffer when it didn't have deck plans was/is the StarTrek games. And that was because there are loads of ST deckplans already published. Just another slow moving thought

Re: hit location I always use hit location for everything except supers. It adds that extra bit of grit that does well in a RPG. Supers on the other hand, feeds on a more general wham bam type of battle. Besides its kinda hard to say a building falling on a hero only hit him on the head

DrTemp brought up something I thought I'd comment on. I would have mentioned this on the original thread, but they are all throwing formulas at each other and I didn't want to get hit Anyway, here goes. While I don't think StarHero itself needs a "plug and play" starship contruction system. I feel the lack of one in AlienWars and Terran Empire is decidedly weak. Yes they have several charts containing "drives" and such, but no coherant discussion of "space" or "volume" needed. I also think that the lack of any deckplans of common ships is one of the things driving the proverbial nail in the coffin. A starship battle game doesn't need deck plans but RPG's need them in a very bad way. If a group of PC's are just traveling then having maps and deck plans are not that critical and can be adlib'd as required. But if the PC's are playing "crew" they need to really know where everything is. For example: The scene - the PC's are on a merchantman that has been overtaken by pirates. They were outgunned and not able to outfight or outrun the enemy ship. So the plan is to let them dock and turn the tables by taking out the pirates during the boarding action. With no deck plan. PC#1: We'll set up ambush points in the ship. When they come aboard we'll let them move into the ship proper and then hit them. GM are there good ambush area's? GM: Lets see (rolls dice) yep. PC#2: Good we do that. Let us know when we are fighting. With a deck plan. PC#1: We'll set up ambush points in the ship. When they come aboard we'll let them move into the ship proper and then hit them. The main airlock is here (points on plan). Upon entering they can go straight or imediately to their left. PC#2: We need to draw them left. That leads to crew quarters and commons. If they go straight they hit main life support, the computer core and medical. I really wish these merchant ships were laid out with a little more thought about defense. PC#3: Do you think we could get them to use the ventral maintenance access somehow? PC#1: I wish, but pirate doesn't mean stupid. With a deck plan the players have the "common knowledge" they would have. If they are crew they know the ship, like you know your house. Remember in StarWars when they hid under the deck plates in the smuggling storage to avoid the Deathstars troopers? That would never have happened in a normal game because no one would have come up with it on the fly unless they had seen it before. But a group of PC's who have plans of their ship, and who engage in smuggling would probably have hidden compartments drawn in where ever they could get away with it. That level of detail simply does not exist without deckplans. and without some kind of starter examples the large majority of people simply don't know where to start in transferring a ships "stats" to a paper "map". I know that there are just too many different ways with hero that a starship can be done to be able to make deck plans of them all. But a few deckplans of the "standard" small ships. Say a small scout and a small merchantman. say the IES Gagarin (TE pg176 ) for one and a merchant. Especially a merchant. I know of many more games that revolve around adventurers that own/use a converted merchant vessal than any games where the PC's are military. I am really confused by the predomenance in TE of massive warships while the small ships that can be crewed by a player group are virtually nonexistant and trying to find the mainstay, merchantmen, is almost nonexistant. I would love to see a supplement along the line of "Merchanter" or "FreeTrader". with a few basic deckplans and suggestions of how to go from "stats" to "deckplans". just a thought.

Re: What now? I ran a successful game along the following premise. The PC's are members of the governments exploration corps operating at the fringe of the empire/republic/whatever. At this time humanity has not found any other intellegent life, though other life abounds and there are "signs" of "others". War breaks out on the "other side" of known space and the PC's discover that in states of emergency the explorer corps takes on all duties to include anti-piracy and none planetary law-enforcement when the military and naval units are "re-allocated". You can do all kinds of things with the PC's. Spence

Re: Starbase Floorplans Try going to this link: http://anomaly.mushpark.com/index2.html It's Starbase 419 floorplan is great.

Re: Starbase Floorplans

Re: Starbase Floorplans ICE's old Spacemaster line had several station in their adventure modules. Most game stores I have been to usually have a few left over in the corners.

Re: Cosmographer Pro released Well, I'll be getting a copy next month. I already spent my gaming allowance on DC and FHG. I have Most of the CC line and am in the middle of re-making all my ship symbols, Cosmo will more than likely cut my symbol time at least in half. Spence

Re: Firefly

Re: AWESOME Cover! Crime, what crime? I thought you knew we were all pure as wind driven snow Very nice cover though I've been waiting for the new DC for a while and I do not think I will be disappointed.

Re: Star Trek-type shields? Interesting but how would you model the "leaky shield" part. You know "Sheilds at 62% Captain, minor damage to deck 3 and 5 with a hull breach on 7".......

Re: Cybernetics in HERO Have you tried a copy of "Cyber Hero" hero games #505. It's 4th edition but that's not really a problem. I did a quick search and there is one on sale on e-bay (item #5908336988) going for .99 cents as of this post.

Re: Need small starship deck plans Yes. CC has a fairly high learning curve and you will have to build up your symbol cateloges before you can quickly map things out. I used it to build deck plans for my LUGtrek game a few years ago. I lost everything when my hard drive crashed (can we say back up? ) and I just haven't gotten around to starting again. There are other programs out there, but I tend to think of CC as the FRED of mappers. A bit steep for the beginner, but able to map out anything. Spence