Snarf

Re: What I'd like to see in 5E Revised I'd like it if the Lingering advantage from Fantasy Hero was included in the core rules. It seems like it could be useful outside of Fantasy.

Re: Elementalism I'll second the drool drool. This is as awesome as anythng I've ever read in a published book. Actually, better than most, because of all the cool customization options.

Re: My FTL drive: comments? (warning: this is kinda long) I like all the details about how T-Space works. Most stories with "hyperspace" travel just gloss over the specifics and leave out all the interesting tricks and possibilities. Could you describe this some more? It sounds like it involves a gateway and specially equipped ships.

Re: Fascination Put briefly, it lets you hold a crowd's attention with your voice. I guess if it was turned into a skill it would be superhuman levels of oratory, but there's a lot of other possiblities.

Re: Building characters of different sizes Fantasy Hero has the size packages too.

Re: Preliminary Skilled Magic System The example made it a lot clearer for me. I can see how this system could work for small spells now. As one last bit of friendly advice, now that the mechanics are getting settled, you could write more plain english, non-rules descriptions of the system into your draft. For instance, a descriptive header over each paragraph, similar to what you used in the first paragraph about magic levels in areas, would be helpful.

Re: Preliminary Skilled Magic System This doesn't seem like a particularly low priced system to me, because it can be awfully expensive to get your reliability up to something decent. For instance, it would take 30 EGO (60 points) to maintain your 11- chance to cast a mediocre 2d6 fireball. The knowledge skills and CSLs look pretty restricted in their applicability for their price, so I'm not entirely sure there's going to be enough help from there, but that depends on exactly what the final spell list will look like. If dabbling were done, it would have to be in spells around 10 AP or so. That's true, but make sure your players are into it too. As long as everyone is having fun, the system works. I should mention that I'm heavily biased towards high powered magic systems, so don't take anything I say too seriously.

Re: Power Construct & Redundant Mods? Make sure you kill them if you use the Drain Body method. It would be odd if they survived the initial hit and started recovering 5 points worth of body every turn...

Re: Cross-gender roleplaying Annoying Woman Fan: How do you write women so well? Jack: I think of a man, and take away reason and accountability. [exits] Annoying Woman Fan: [shock] I love that movie.

Re: Cross-gender roleplaying I need advice on this topic too. I get stuck creating and playing a lot of female NPCs, since I do the GMing for my group's Hero games.

Re: Telekinetic Silly Putty! It would probably work best to put everything in a multipower without ultra slots or a big VPP, so you can divide the points between an offensive and defensive power. Otherwise, you'd be useless when the armor is on and defenseless when the entangle (or other attack power) is on. Edit: Or an EC, like the other posters have suggested. What about duplication or summon? You could form putty creatures at the end of pseudopods.

Re: Preliminary Skilled Magic System Keep in mind that the unreliability of a required skill roll is also a very significant balancing factor, especially if you use AP penalties. Exactly what the spells channelers have access to are like is going to be important when making that decision. If a channeler is going to be just as capable as a fighter in combat and also have the ability to use unusual attacks like drains and general utility spells like flight, then it should cost more to be a channeler.

Re: Ant-Man's shrinking field Fantasy Hero gave a tentative thumbs up to it. It basically said that in general it's forbidden but your GM could allow it if it's the only way to accomplish the effect you want.

Re: Power Construct & Redundant Mods? Are the three shots fired in a single burst (in other words, 1 attack in Hero) or are they pretty seperate? By the way, it's unusual to build a gun with recoverable charges. Recoverable charges are more meant for the kind of weapon you release in some way and can pick up off the ground after the fight. The ability to refill/recharge a gun with ammo is generally a (+0) modifier. Here's a slow acting drain body disintegration, based on Drain Body: Drain BODY 3d6 (standard effect: 9 points), Continuous (+1), Uncontrolled (+1/2), Ranged (+1/2), 32 Charges (+1/4), (146 Active Points); OAF (-1), STR Minimum 10 (STR Min. Cannot Add/Subtract Damage; -1), Real Weapon (-1/4), Beam (-1/4), (42 Real Points). With uncontrolled, it can continue for as many turns as you have charges and you don't have to concentrate to maintain it, like you normally would have to do with a Continuous power. Here's the instant death NND disintegration: RKA 8d6, NND (defense is being an important character, +1), Does Body (+1), 32 Charges (+1/4), (390 Active Points); OAF (-1), STR Minimum 10 (STR Min. Cannot Add/Subtract Damage; -1), Real Weapon (-1/4), Beam (-1/4), (156 Real Points). You can stick Continuous and Uncontrolled on that if you think it might take a couple extra turn to do the job sometimes.

Re: VPP / Talent Magic System Sounds like you've got the VPP firmly under control to me.

Re: VPP / Talent Magic System I use a magic system similar to that in the game I'm starting. So far, it seems like working from a preapproved spell list keeps a VPP in check in terms of flexibility. Depending on exactly what your game is like and exactly what the spell tree is like, you might want to consider a VPP point cap for starting characters or something like that. Right now, it looks like there's nothing stopping people from buying a 80 point VPP and enough of the magic tree to get an attack spell, then tossing around a-bombs casually like a Champions character. I'm not following you here. Could you go into more detail about how spell books and scrolls work?

Re: Power Construct & Redundant Mods? If I'm remembering correctly, I think you don't need Cumulative for the effect you want, because drain is already cumulative. But you will have to apply Continuous (+1) to go with the continuing charges if you want the extra phase of draining to work automatically. Could you describe this weapon? I'm curious because at first I pictured as some sort of sci-fi zapper, but then I noticed it had recoverable charges. Is it some sort of cursed arrows? Edit: Oops, drain doesn't have max effect. *snip* *snip*

Re: Preliminary Skilled Magic System Although he didn't have to be so crabby about it , I totally agree with Shrike here. This system looks too heavily limited to be playable, even for a rare magic game. The -1 per 5 AP penalty seems especially harsh. You might try writing up a character with some example spells for a playtest, because I think this is going to play out more limiting than you intended.

Re: Should FH wizards use VPPs? Don't worry about that, I already did it almost exactly the way you recommend. I started out by copying a magic system I saw in a video game and added more detail about mana and magical forces. The basic ideas were that everyone could channel elemental forces through naturally occuring objects called magicites, multiple casters could combine their powers into more powerful spells, and each race has a natural magic ability which can be improved with practice. So, I checked out my copy of Fantasy Hero and decided to use a VPP, EGO-based power skill, and some other stuff that was discussed in there. Right now, I'm on that fine tuning step where I have to make investing points in magic about as useful as points spent in fighter stuff, but I don't know enough about GMing Hero, so I'm reading threads like this one carefully. Good point. Pine cones of fiery doom would be more than a wee bit too much for a power tricks freebie.

Re: DEX vs. CSLs For one thing, there's the possibility to add damage, as you've already mentioned. So the breakdown is more like this: 3 points of DEX = +1 OCV and +1 DCV 3 points of DEX costs 9 Character Points 1 Overall CSL = +1 OCV or +1 DCV or 1/2 DC 1 Overall CSL costs 8 Character Points For another, in a heroic game, NCM makes DEX cost twice as much after 20, so CSLs are cheaper by comparison. Also, you can buy cheap 2, 3, or 5 point CSLs to get an extra boost where it's really needed. In general, as a new player he should just trust that core system rules have been thorougly playtested and assigned costs that correctly reflect their effectiveness in the average game.

Re: Should FH wizards use VPPs? That's the system I ended up using. I made a spell list which was related to foci the magic users had to obtain and gave a -1/2 limited selection of powers limitation for it. The cost and flexibility ended up being pretty much the same as an MP. From the examples I've seen here, I think I might have overdone it on the limitations. There's at least -2 1/2 of limitations on all spells, and it's often closer to -3. Has anyone had problems with an overdose of limitations making spellcasters too weak? Specifically, all the spells in my game have at least OAF, Extra Time: Full Phase, Concentration: 0 DCV, and RSR. So far, it seems like someone trying to use magic is helpless on their own but playable when everyone is working together. About small VPPs for minor effects, there was a part in Fantasy Hero that mentioned allowing appropriate Power skill rolls to accomplish minor effects like that. For instance, a fire mage could roll his pyromancy or his magic skill to heat up his coffee, resist cold weather, do a light show, or stuff like that. That could work for low point games where you wanted to give magic users minor flexibility but points are too tight for people to buy it.

Re: Too many stats in Hero If you liked Coolness Hero, you may also like D02. It has 0 Stats, which you can expand to as many as you want, and can include coolness.

Re: How would you write up the following power? I had this same problem with a big instant death NND defense attack I was making which I couldn't think of a defense for. Maybe you could use NND: Defense is Appropriate Immunity and create an immunity to banishment potions which minor demons wouldn't have.

Re: Escaping HTH Combat Thanks for the help guys. That rule works nicely for people trying to pass by you, but I'm not sure it would work for someone trying to run away from a combat with you, because if you're already in a fight then you probably won't have any held actions. I might have to expand the rule to allow aborting to an attack instead of just attacking with held actions.

Does the Hero System have any rules that penalize people who try to back out of a HTH combat, like the other guy getting a free attack when you try to run away from a swordfight? Also, are there any rules for free hits when passing too close to someone? I remember stuff like that in a couple other game systems and I'm thinking of incorporating something like it into my Fantasy Hero game.