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ImperialOne

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Everything posted by ImperialOne

  1. Re: THE HERO SYSTEM EQUIPMENT GUIDE -- What Would *You* Like To See? How about a redo of the Multi-Purpose Energy Weapon from Star Hero but instead of using NND for the disintegrate setting, presenting some other alternative that would permit attrition of a forcefield and some leakage of damage through such force fields.
  2. Re: Sandard Effect: Why 3 ponts per die? Wouldn't you know, this popped up after I posted: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/39140-Standard-Effect-...-why-3
  3. Oops, its STandard Effect: My search-fu is limited. Why was a value of 3 (vs. 3.5) per die used for Standard Effect. Over the course of a few dice, that 0.5 accumulates to something significant, dosen't it?
  4. Re: 6th Edition Books on eReader? Tasha is right. iPad is best way.... using GoodReader: I have every 6E book in hardcopy and PDF. I can comfortably read on the iPad with complete preservation of the pages, one at a time (no scrolling necessarily required with a natural page turning gesture), though zooming in and our is easy. I get color of the books and artwork... and with the bulk of Hero hardbacks, it's convenient. It sucks not to be able to do Hero Designer on iPad.
  5. Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux This is all good info and ideas!
  6. Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux Blasphemy! Infidel! Seriously, your points are quite valid and like all things HERO, there are many ways to achieve a goal. It's a matter of interpretation. My final phasers will be significantly powerful devices with 8 to 16 level settings (first three are stun, next three are EB with thermal effects like heating rocks, and the next ten are increasing levels of molecular disruption). Little hand phasers have settings 1-8 while pistols and rifles are 9-16. My earlier example would fall somewhere into that setting range of 7 to 16. Yes, Star Trek Online uses force shields. The medium of an MMORPG very much argues for this, though as a RPG purist, STO is hardly the same experience as sitting down or online (try Google Wave, works well)with friends playing HERO. Not to diss STO, since I'm like 6 steps away from Rear Admiral there . As an FYI, while STO is all vetted by CBS (which manages Star Trek intellectual property after reorganization of it's subsidiary, Paramount Films), it is still not technically considered as canon ("soft" canon eligible for inclusion if needed per CBS) as only TV and movies are "hard/strict" canon per CBS. I've been watching the digitally remastered TOS series and the original DVD releases of TOS (yes, pretty sad and hardcore... fortunately, my late wife was a converted fan of all things Trek, except TOS... though she found Shatner hilarious). Even the phaser effects and speed gave been redone (generally spiffier and faster). But, that's revisionism for you and like all things HERO, subject to only the validity of your interpretation (as a GM). Cheers
  7. Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux I thank you for the thoughtfulness of your reply. I have considered your points, and it has helped me settle the matter for my purposes, though not necessariy in agreement with you. As such: I do make the interpretation that any single strike from an energy weapon that inflicts 3x BODY of a character/NPC/creature will result in vaporization by disintegration. This is fairly hefty, essentially -2xBODY. While incredibly powerful for an RPG, playing in the Trek universe requires some responsible behavior by players to avoid the abuses of such powerful devices... very much in the same manner players must act responsibly in using the toolkit rules that HERO 6E (and all previous incarnations) provides. My campaign tries to strictly adhere to whatever sense of canon (TV and movies) exists in Star Trek. The former RPG for Star Trek made by Decipher Games (which Steve Long himself had a major role since he authored the immediate forefather of those books back in the days of Last Unicorn Games) is an excellent source for canon IMHO since it all had to be vetted and approved by Paramount before a single thing was allowed to be printed. So, phasers are fairly powerful at the handheld level; they pretty much go through everything including armors, but are defended by force fields (AVAD with ED Resistant Protection defined as a force field or the like). There will be 8 to 16 settings available; setting 8 (max for the smallest hand phaser, the Phaser-I) would center around RKA 9d6 with some Standard Effect (say 21 + 2d6), OAF etc. No Penetration or other esoteric powers. In Trek, we have not seen any armor, short of a force field do anything to protect from the effects of phaser/disruptor fire. Certainly as far as starship combat is concerned, we see shields as being the only defense vs phaser/disruptor fire and even then, some damage leaks through those shields (hence my issue wih use of NND). In DS9, such as the episode Siege of AR-558, we see ground combat troops for both the Jem'hadar and the Federation.... no armor or personal force shields there. We don't see disintegration settings for ground combat, but it would be plausible that stopping the enemy doesn't necessarily require disintegrating them (more energy required too). Off the top of my head, I can recall several episodes throughout canon with disintegrations: 1- Friday's Child (TOS): Kras (Klingon agent) disintegrates the usurper-Teer, Maab, who sacrificed himself so that a lieutenant could impale Kras with a kligaat (fancy throwing dagger). 2- Wrath of Khan: Who could forget Captain Kruge disintegrating his vessel's gunner who claimed destroying the USS Grissom was "an accident." 3- Aquiel (TNG): La Forge fires at a shapeshifting alien that was morphing from Lieutenant Uhnari's dog to ?it's true form. Poor Geordi had to ramp up the levels on his and phaser as his previous hits were not slowing it down in any visible way as it continued to transform and enlarge. He did finally disintegrate it. Reality check here, after the first hit didn't faze this unknown, shapeshifting and expanding alien life form that was in one's living quarters (after masquerading as a puppy for days), wouldn't you think you'd crank-up the setting on that phaser a little faster? 4- A Private Little War (TOS): Kirk disintegrates an attacking creature called a Mugato. Ambitious seductress tribeswoman knocks out William Shatner to steal his phaser and bring it to the Village people (a faction that is in conflict with the Hill People... not the band) promising victory. 5- Vengeance Factor (TNG): Riker discovers the serving girl, Yuta, is a genetically engineered weapon of vengeance capale of killing members of a feuding family by touch alone (via a "microvirus"... not one of Trek's best technobabble moments). Her target is the leader of a faction attempting to reconcile with the Acamarian government in talks mediated by that do-gooder, Captain Picard. Riker beams into the talks; stuns an Acamarian guard, and tries to reason with Yuta as she closes in on her target. His stun setting does nothing; he increased the setting to some presumably lethal level that briefly slowed and visibly pained her, but she kept advancing on her target. Riker increased the setting, gives one last warning, and as Yuta leaps at her target to touch him, Riker fires and disintegrates her. She vaporized pretty quickly here. I think speed of disintegration is merely for dramatic effect, sometimes it seems to take 1-2 seconds, other times gone wihin a tick of the clock. I can think of another 1 or 2 episodes off the top of my head, but it is not my point to draw out a Star Trek convention here on the boards. I appreciate the input and the alternative ways. I'll post my phaser when I neaten it up, if interested. Its going to be worth quite a few points, but that is not all that surprising.
  8. Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux True enough. It may well be what I seek for effect, so be it. *************************************************************************************************** Uh-oh..... In the description for Penetrating, it explicitly states Penetrating cannot be used with AVAD. I would assume the same prohibition with NND. So, back to square one. Other ideas? I guess as a GM, I could state NND (ED Resistant Protection defined as a force field or the like) with the additional Penetration quality. While It flies against the definition of NND (all or nothing), as well as the. written intent of Penetration,it's what I'm aiming for regarding reasoning from intent and HERO 6E is fond to reiterate to do what is right even if it reverses the word/spirit of a rule. Then again, Any other ideas?
  9. Re: Help! Phaser Disintegration Redux Good thought.... Hey, is NND ( ED Resistant Protection defined as a force-field or the like) with Penetrating a legal combo?
  10. Premise: Reasoning from effect that Star Trek phasers, whether handheld personal or starship-based weapons, can essentially disintegrate matter (with Disintegration modeled in the recent Champion Powers as an RKA with NND of ED Resistant Protection defined as a force-field or the like).... how can I reconcile the Star Trek canon of damage leaking through the force field shielding as it is NOT the all-or-nothing effect that NND defines? Specifically, how would I be able to get a NND-like effect with ED protection that allows for 10% (BODY) damage breakthrough in "legal terms" per HERO 6E? Thanks in advance.
  11. Re: A Comment on 6E Presentation It must be a complementary color thing... The bright yellow on powder blue is very striking on the shelf compared to my other books. By the way, technically what is the precise shade of blue & yellow? Can I find them in a Crayola box of (64) crayons? What font and size are used? Thickness of paper? Color of stitching? Really
  12. Re: Traveller Hero printed books: Redux
  13. Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress? Have you checked AstroSynthesis? Not free, but supported by an active community.
  14. Re: Phaser Disintegration in 6E My intent was to simulate the effects seen on TV/movies instead of design for play balance. Hey, phasers can kill.. sorry, time to deign another character with HD. In the case of armor, despite the fact that it is not unprecedented to see in Star Trek (TMP, ST VI, Klingon armor in TNG), I will argue it doesn't stave off disintegration at all. Look at all those scenes dueing the Dominion War for DS9 (i.e. Siege of AR-558)... the Federation is at war and in a dedicated grond action and they still don't wear armor. I think Trek has been relatively consistent (I laugh at the irony when I say/write that) that technology of destruction remains ahead of protection/defense.
  15. Being well-aware that Steve was a designer of Star Trek role-playing games in the past, and how 5E Star Hero's Multi-Purpose Energy Weapon was modeled after a phaser, how would you simulate a phaser set for 'disintegrate' in 6E while trying to maintain the canon of degrading the strength of force (deflector) fields with repeated fire (sort of flies in the face of 6E NND). Thanks from this newbie in advance!
  16. Re: Phaser Disintegration in 6E I think the point of phasers set at the highest levels (disintegrate) were meant to overcome any armor except for force fields. And in the case of canon, such as it is in Star Trek, force fields can be degraded and brought down after a period of time... Hence the belief in NND but the need to have some sort of rule to ablate/degrade barrier/forcefield.
  17. How would modeling the disintegration effects of a Star Trek phaser be done in 6E? Yes, its a RKA with an AVLD/NND (force fields). However, in 6E, NND is all or nothing... how does one recreate the effects of ablation to the strength of a forcefield/screen (i.e. shields weaken in Star Trek and eventually drop; though they do not "leak" per se at least for Body type damage), Any creative discussion leading to consensus would be welcomed.
  18. Re: Trek Hero PDF available NO problem... I am still chugging along with my own Trek project, The more I work on it, the more I am amazed by the quality and prolificness of your work. Charles
  19. Re: Trek Hero PDF available Thanks for the acknowledgement, but it is your work... we simply are the adoring public. BTW, I do agree with AVLD for phasers (vs the NND)... it costs more, but it is more accurate. I'll sned some data over the private messenger in a week or so. Charles
  20. Errata? BTW, the damage values for Klingon AM Disruptors (24th Century) at the Med Disrupt A and the Heavy Disrupt D settings on page 34 (table) are missing.
  21. I have Adobe Acrobat 6. I actually still could not (by clicking the link), get the whole file to load before it timed me out. Keep in mind, I have a Asymmetric DSL line that is currently running at 412 kbps. My solution? I simply right-clicked on the link and select the "Save Target As..." and I got the entire file within a few seconds. As usual, great work with the ongoing tome. I was interested to see the alternative AVLD cost of phasers vs the NND. What do you prefer. Care to elaborate the thinking any further? Charles
  22. I can't seem to load the pdf properly, as my Adobe Reader 6.0.1 (latest update) seems to hang. Is there something wrong with the set-up? Charles
  23. Awesome. Thanks to Aroo for hosting these fine books. Charles
  24. Your Request I do believe the LUG material is canon to the game only because a lot of the concepts were ported over (since the designers of LUG Trek and Decipher's CODA Trek are identical). That being said, let me provide you with the key points from the Romulan write-up in the ALIENS Sourcebook by Decipher released a couple of months ago (in CODA rules): Special Abilities (Racial): 1- KEEN HEARING: The edge Skill Focus (Keen Hearing) for free. 2- The DISCIPLINE OF D'ERA: Trained from birth to serve the Romulan state, they exhibit much dedication and focus. This allows a +1 bonnus to all extended or combined tests in which they participate. Additionally, Romulans aren't easily distracted and do not suffer penalites for distraction. 3- GLORY: Romulans are preoccupied with appearing loyal to the empire. Those who place the empire over their own selves are celebrated. A Romulan with much glory is more likely to gain assistance from superiors and aid from supplicating citizens. As such, Romulan characters gain an enhance benefit from their Renown, improving their chances to persuade other Romulans. When making Influence, Intimidate, Negotiate, and Persuade tests involving other Romulans, the Romulan may add the full Renown modifier to favorably affect the dice roll. No special test is required for this bonus. 4- SURVEILLANCE: Romulnas are encouraged to watch their neighbors for signs of disloyalty. As such, they are adept at watching body language and registering voice stress to glean additional information from their observations. All Romulans therefore gain a +2 affinity bonus to Inquire tests from their Observe skill. Constant surveillance also makes them suspicious, granting Romulans a +1 species bonus to their Savvy tests. SPECIES ADJUSTMENTS: +1 Strength -1 Presence The Aliens book has data and background for 50+ alien species (from Andorians to Zaranites, including Humans, Q, Jem'Hadar, Founder...) Charles
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