Alcamtar

The TA setting is intended to be set in earth's past, and the impending conquest of Kal Turak is an important point of continuity leading to the Valdorian age and others. (One reviewer noted that in only ten years Kal Turak conquers the world, putting a finite time limit on any campaign. But it is a slow conquest taking hundreds of years, so there is time enough for multiple campaigns.) The biggest aspect of this metaplot is that if the heroes oppose Kal Turak, they cannot succeed. There are lots of adventures to be had amid various wars, many victories and defeats, but any victory is hollow and temporary; you may save a country for this generation, but their children are still doomed. This unavoidable doomsday scenario may be heroic and tragic, but it is extremely pessimistic and directly contradicts the two core tenets of epic high fantasy: 1. that with courage and determination, You Can Make A Difference 2. the good guys always win in the end I'll grant that good may still win... but not within the timespan of any normal campaign, even one spanning multiple generations of heroes. Even if the campaign endures to see the "end" of Kal Turak, Ambrethil is essentially destroyed. Ultimately, I think this makes the Turakian Age a Swords & Sorcery setting in disguise. It has an undercurrent of [future] science fiction, an ambivalent universe (neither good nor evil seem to win, though evil usually has the upper hand), and ultimately the heroes are insignificant. These are all hallmarks of S&S. Anyway, all this got me thinking about changing it: what if the heroes defeat Kal Turak? There would be no Takofanes, no Valdorian age, maybe the gods would not go away, and ultimately no "modern world." What if Kal Turak is an "eternal villain" like Morgoth/Sauron, never succeeding in conquering the world, but never being finally defeated either? I like the idea that the war with Kal Turak goes on for hundreds of years and maybe even leads to a "dark age", but maybe he is thrown back, the world continues on and eventually rebuilds, etc. That is the classic cycle of epic fantasy. Or, what if Kal Turak is temporarily defeated, and in the power vacuum another dark lord arises? Then when Kal Turak returns to power, he finds he is opposed by an equally powerful rival, and the rest of the world is caught in the crossfire as the two duel for supremacy. Or, what if Kal Turak goes up against the priests of Thun... and loses? Perhaps the Thunnites awaken their dark gods, who are even worse, and Kal Turak goes on the defensive? Has anyone played around with ideas along these lines, or based a campaign on it? I'm having a hard time with the idea that the heroes are destined to lose. Losing fair and square is fine, but having no chance of success because of the meta-story feels wrong. Or maybe Kal Turak is just a local villain; he conquers the northern parts of the map before running out of steam, but the Westerlands are never taken and more distant regions are unaffected. I kind of like this idea: he will conquer the world if nobody stops him, he can be defeated but more likely will only be contained. This leaves room for multiple supervillains: Kal Turak in the north, Thun in the south, etc. The whole "stalemate" concept seems to be a classic trope in epic fantasy as well -- we cannot defeat the bad buy so we contain/imprison him and then watch carefully for any disruption in the status quo. In time people forget, wards fail, etc and a crisis breaks out, until some hero steps forth to deal with it. And so the cycle repeats.

1. Are elven and dwarven naming elements translated anywhere? 2. Are there any large deserts or arid regions in Ambrethel? At a glance it seems the whole world is fertile, except the polar regions. There is of course the Harge****e devastation, but I'm talking about natural climate areas.

Re: Recommend a fantasy world map? Here's one I did, but no place names http://members.dsl-only.net/~bing/frp/fudge/arf/world.html Here's another I did for a PBEM http://users.tkk.fi/~vesanto/link.elyria/maps.html Oh, and if you need names, try this (select one of the "Place" templates) http://www.squid.org/tools/names/index.html

Re: Champions of Faerûn

I'm prepping for a new FH campaign and trying to decide between a homebrew or published setting. This isn't really a "sell me" thread, I'm just trying to sort through my thoughts. (Also, it's nice to trade ideas and stuff with an online community and I'm wondering how many folks are using the Turakian Age. But I'd love to hear from everyone.) Personally I enjoy homebrewing and that way you know it inside and out, but it can be a lot of work writing everything up from scratch. Also, a homebrew is limited to only my ideas and can feel stale and/or sketchy. A published setting does things differently than I would and as a result it seems large and mysterious, more real. It also stretches me as a GM far more than I'd ever push myself. Anyone else find this to be true? So... What campaign setting are you using? Why did you choose it? How is it working out? If you've run or played in other FH campaigns in the past, what setting did you find most successful? Least successful? Why? Mike

Re: NOBLES, KNIGHTS, AND NECROMANCERS -- What Do *You* Want To See? The TA is fine as a context, but I really want to see "generic" villains... fully fleshed out NPCs with backgrounds and motives and organizations, but who are written in such a way that the serial numbers can be easily filed off and they can be dropped into any campaign. Scalable villains are especially desirable so they can be adjusted to match a party, or grow with them. I like villains that can suffer setbacks without being finally defeated, so they can come back again. I'd rather see traditional cliches than gimmicks, and it would be great if the villains are multifaceted enough that we could choose between 3-5 possible plot seeds. That allows for re-use, as well as customization to a specific campaign/party. MASTER VILLAINS -- Half-demon ruler -- Evil High Priest of a dark god -- Imprisoned demon or godling trying to escape, half asleep but communicates to his servants through dreams. Maybe encountered in the form of sinister idols or artifacts that serve as communication nodes. -- Black hearted baron who trades in slaves, imprisons and tortures his peasants, employs orcish mercenaries, rules with an iron fist -- and enjoys diplomatic immunity because of his noble status -- A really powerful wizard who cares about nothing but his research. He has all sorts of stuff you need, but requires insane bargains to get it. If you have something he wants, he'll stop at nothing to acquire it. His sheer power makes him arrogant and virtually untouchable. GROUPS -- The shadowy oligarchs of a corrupt city state, who constantly scheme and plot against each other and are not above assassination. -- Necromancer LICH with assorted servants, both living and dead, and vast shadowy network -- Typical enclave of evil cultists: a charismatic leader plus his lackeys and spies. -- Rival adventuring party, who present themselves as heroes but use sneaky and amoral methods to accomplish their goals. They steal the spotlight and all the best contracts, and deliver results too. -- Ruthless band of highly effective bandits (or pirates?) -- Cabal of masked hierarchs, each one a potential master villain in his (her?) own right SOLO ENEMIES -- The corrupt sherriff -- The wandering duellist with a chip on his shoulder (potential rival) -- The good-hearted yet cynical outlaw who steals from the PCs and gives to the poor -- Annoying talentless Foxbat-like character who keeps showing up and causing mischief, but you can't kill him cause he's the King's nephew (or something) -- Corrupt merchant who has is the ONLY source of something you really need, but who also despises you -- Dishonorable knight, the kind who is always challenging Sir Gawain and then cheating to win and then imprisoning him in his castle -- A mad wizard who creates "jokes" -- cursed magic items, weird hybrid races, and insane pointless dungeons -- Noble who reluctantly commits atrocities because he's being blackmailed/forced by an unknown villain -- Ambitious royal cousin scheming for the throne -- Scheming queen who controls the weak-willed King, has affairs with generals and nobles, has enemies executed, and hatches all sorts of petty plots -- A fanatical "good guy" who feels the ends justify the means, and who will sacrifice allies without thinking twice. Bonus points if he has critical abilities or resources so they party cannot afford to just take him out. -- A weird old hermit who is not himself evil, but is constantly making horrible predictions... and they always come true. A harbinger of doom that you really hope to never see again. -- The baron's favorite dog, who always whizzes on your shoe and nips at your horse and steals your rations.

The 5E book explicitly says that if you prepare a delayed power in a VPP you can then shift the points to another power, without losing the prepared delayed power. (It also says this is true for a triggered power). However a FAQ question seems to imply the opposite, and your answer to the previous Delayed/VPP question explicitly says the opposite. Was this rule changed? Thanks, Mike

Re: Magic VPP variant The major limitation is that with a small RP Pool you can only use one spell at a time... you have to drop your defenses to make a major attack. And if the RP drops to 1/8 or 1/10 of the AP, you are pretty much forced to use ritual magic in order to get enough limitations on the spell. So it seems self balancing. The biggest "unbalancing" change is that a highly specialized 75+75 wizard could conceivably have a 360 AP pool, four times what he could manage with a standard VPP. On the other hand, using the Grimoire rules at 1/3 cost he could easily have 330 points of spells, up to around 3000 active points total! Or he could have 330 active points in spells with NO LIMITATIONS. And either way, he could have them all active at the same time. When you look at it that way, the VPP doesn't seem unbalanced at all, in fact it seems kind of limiting. Mike

Re: Magic VPP variant

I have an idea for a modified VPP, and wanted to see what you think here on the boards. I prefer the VPP for simulating the wizard who can use any spell from a spellbook, in the style of D&D. But I have two problems with VPPs: (1) the Active Pt cap on the VPP limits how "epic" magic can be (2) since RP = AP, there is reduced incentive to put lots of limitations on a spell. IMO the limitations are the coolest part of FH magic. Ideally a VPP would allow a large AP ceiling for epic spells, but have restricted real points so spells don't resemble superpowers. My idea is this: the Pool size cost for the VPP is the real points available, but the Control cost may be different and determines the AP limit. (Of course this is a magic pool with significant limitations on how spells can be used... no cosmic VPPs!) EXAMPLE: Alcamtar the Cleaver wants a pool with a 120 AP ceiling, but only 20 real points available for use. The limitations on the pool are RSR (-1/2), requires spellbooks and time to change (-1/2), only for magic (-1/4) for a total limitation of -1.25. The Pool cost is 20 real points, and the control cost is 120 / 2.25 or 53. The total cost for the VPP is 73. Alcamtar will be able to cast a spell up to 120 AP, but he'll need at least -5 in limitations and will probably have to unload all other spells to make room for it. What do you think? Reasonable or unbalanced? Mike

Do these settings contain Fantasy Hero mechanics, or are they just setting fluff? That is, do they offer anything more to the Fantasy Hero gamer than, say, Forgotten Realms or even a good novel? Assuming they do contain mechanical stuff, how well integrated is it? I mean is it just an appendix or chapter on how magic works, or are mechanics pervasive throughout the books? (For example, "finding your way in the great dismal swamp requires a Survival check at -3") Do these books contain mechanical ideas that could be ripped off and used in a homebrew setting, or maybe to convert another published setting? (I have nothing in mind here, just trying to guage how useful these books may be) Thanks, Mike

Re: Area of a hexagon Your math intuition is superior to mine! It never occurred to me that this might apply to anything other than a square.

Re: Magic Missiles In HERO, combat is a physical simulation. How long you stay standing is determined by physical parameters, whether or not that fits the needs of the story. In D&D, combat is story-based. Hits and damage are abstract story elements that define the minimum and maximum rounds you can stay standing in combat. (Monsters always hit on a 20, and a hit always does at least 1 pt, so there is a finite cap on how long you can stay standing in combat.) Therefore it is undefined in D&D whether or not a magic missile hits, or how much physical damage it does. Rather it is a plot device that hinders or kills low level goons easily, but can be mostly ignored by powerful heroes. Magic Missile also disrupts spell casting, but that is a general feature of D&D combat and is probably best modeled by requiring Concentation: 0 DCV on all spells. Either you're a sitting duck, or you abort the spell and defend yourself. VERSION 1: A major attack with a low OCV would take out goons but not affect powerful characters. RKA 3d6 Energy, cannot penetrate magical force fields (-1/4). VERSION 2: In original D&D, magic missile was simply a conjured arrow that automatically hit. RKA 1d6+1 (Light Longbow), +5 OCV, Autofire

Re: Area of a hexagon Vertex-to-vertex distance makes the hex grid pretty much useless from my POV. If a hex is 100 miles point to point, then cities in adjacent hexes are 86.60 miles apart...! And cities 11 hexes distant are 476.31 miles apart.

Re: Area of a hexagon Chiming in a little late here, but there is a very easy formula to calculate the size of a hexagon: area = (size ^ 2) * (sin 60) The giant red and green hexagon image posted by Fitz illustrates this. (The rectangular region can be broken in to a pair of 30-60-90 triangles.) So, 100^2 x 0.866 = 8660 This formula is simple and works for any sized hex. You can also work it in reverse: size = SQRT(area / sin 60)

Re: Original Fantasy Hero I just pulled out my copy of Magic Items and realized it contains 1st Ed Fantasy Hero errata: changes to the magic system clarifications to the FH rules I no longer have a copy of the Spell Book and I don't remember if it has errata. I'd be happy to post the errata if that's desired/permitted here, it's less than a page.

Re: Original Fantasy Hero The original Fantasy Hero is my all-time favorite Hero product (closely followed by Lands of Mystery), and my favorite fantasy game as well. You may also want to try to find "Magic Items" and the "Spell Book" which were published for original FH. There was also a campaign setting "Mythic Greece" which used the original FH rules. There used to be a Hero magazine called "Adventurer's Club" that often had FH articles -- adventures, magic items, character etc. I don't know of any errata. Yes but it is different. The previous and current version of FH are generic fantasy genre books, whereas the original FH had a distinct Tolkienesque flavor that I really liked. However as a general fantasy sourcebook the current FH is excellent. The newer version is also much more complex and IMO trickier to keep balanced; the older game was simple and elegant. I also really liked the artistic theme of the three iconic characters (Rolland, Teanik, Jorge). While the spell creation rules work pretty much the same in all editions, many of the powers have been renamed in more recent versions, which can be confusing. A "round" is 12 segments, and the speed rules simply distribute actions within the course of one round. To be far to all characters you need to start at the beginning of the round. By starting on segment 12 it guarantees that everyone gets to "do something" right away, otherwise the speedy characters may finish the fight before the slower characters even get to act. Mike

Sure

Unfortunately that is precisely what drives me away from a game system. To me it is no work to make stuff up and remember my own rulings, but it is a ton of work digesting and applying a set of external rules. Almost every game I have dropped, I dropped because it had become too unwieldy and tried to do too much. I'm glad Hero is back and that DOJ is successful, but I'm starting to fear our paths have diverged and I'm just slow on the uptake. I've gotten some good feedback, so I'm going to consider stepping back and ruthlessly stripping Hero5 down to its core, try and cram it into 50 pages or so, and just ignore FRED. Maybe I should sell off my genre books and bestiary and stuff... If I wanted it done for me, I wouldn't be playing Hero! Mike

That was me. Hero has been "my game" on an off for about 17 years now so it's not like I have a problem with the system. Lately I'm feeling a little weird about 5E (with respect to earlier editions) and wondering if anyone else felt the same way, or if it was just me. I don't normally hang out on RPGnet but don't like to ask critical questions where the game designer hangs out, and felt that the opinions around here would tend to be pretty positive anyway. Mike

If you have a coordinated attack that combines a killing attack with a normal attack, how do they combine? For example, a sword coordinated with a punch, or an arrow that has a +2d6 EB charge attached. First problem is that normal defenses apply to killing damage from normal attacks, but not killing attacks. If the killing damage is combined on a coordinated attack, do normal defenses apply or partially apply? Second problem, we use hit locations to determine multipliers for STUN and BODY. In a combined attack with both normal and killing damage, does the attack count as killing or normal for purposes of location multipliers? Thanks, Mike

Some other possible reasons for gold: It was one of the earliest known metals, found in pure form in nature. It is easily obtainable, and melts at a relatively low temperature. Thus it undoubtedly had a head start on practically everything else as a symbol of wealth and beauty... sort of like establishing a brand identity or monopoly. And once the wealthy had amassed a large fortune in gold, they had a vested interest in *protecting* the value of gold. It's not really useful for anything else. Think about it: you have a rare metal that is beautiful, found in a pure form, yet rare so only the wealthy can afford it, and it's only use is as a luxury item. Much the same as with jewels -- rare, beautiful, useless.... and very valuable. You wouldn't want to make money out of something that you use in your garden, or something that you eat! If you had tools made of gold, you wouldn't want to use them for fear of damaging their value. It's portable. You can wear your money in the form of jewelry. And while it's portable, it's also heavy enough to easily measure by weight, an important consideration in an age when coins are not of uniform size. You could measure aluminum by weight, but you'd need either a fairly sensitive scale, or a lot of aluminum. Heavy money also feels satisfyingly substantial. It doesn't rust away. Very important! Mike

Okay, a question for you all. What is the power level in your game, and how do you keep maintain it (if you do at all)? For my current campaign I had planned to have "normal" attacks around 4-5 DC, and attacks by a combat specialist up to about 6-7 DC. Defenses were similarly targeted at 3-5 DEF average, and about 8 DEF maximum. I set CV at 8/8 for a dedicated warrior, less for others. The PCs stuck to these guidelines nonimally -- their base attacks and skill were within parameters, but after adding in the effects of PSLs, martial arts, and other things, I had characters with +10 to +15 effective OCV and 4d6K attacks. The dwarf could fight at SPD 4, 11 OCV, 11 DCV, two attacks per round, 4d6K damage, at pull off a called shot to the Thigh (2x damage), all reliably with no penalties except for the 1/2 DCV for Sweep -- this was his "standard" configuration. He also had a detailed development plan to go even further. We toned this down a bit, but I realized my guidelines had been completely circumvented by PSLs and maneuvers and things, because I had failed to account for them. How do you define your campaign limits? Do they include only regular skill levels, or DEX and PSLs and everything else? If a character is at the limit from raw skill, do you allow them to stack a manuever on top of that, or do you disallow further bonuses? Do damage limits apply to the base HKA, or to the final total damage? Many creatures in the bestiary have CV 3-5 from Dex, with no skill levels; a lot of "tough" monsters have CV in the 6-7 range. These seem really low and not very threatening when compared to my party; is a SPD 2 zombie at CV 3/3 even worth fighting for a warrior at CV 8/8? Also, what is normal? How many skill levels do you give to "normal people" like town guards? Any at all? I'm tempted to give them 3-4 skill levels just so the players will have a little respect for them, but that seems excessively skilled. Mike

I just want to point out that social and political change is quite common in fantasy. Races are created or evolve or devolve, empires rise and fall, peoples migrate around, whole societies are enslaved and then freed and then enslaved again, religions rise and fall, languages mutate and evolve, even magic often evolves or devolves. About the only thing that tends to be static is "physical" technology, like swords and castles and ships, and even that varies considerably between barbarism and high medieval and classical. So sure, societies on earth progressed to nation-states, or got new religions, or abolished/formed caste systems, and so forth. But fantasy worlds do that too. Also I question whether moving from semi-barbaric feudalism to a nation-state, or from monarchy to democracy is "progress." Mike

In the Pacific Northwest, they used to store logs in large ponds before cutting. The logs got so soaked they'd sometimes sink to the bottom. Nowadays, they stack them in large piles, but run sprinklers continuously over the stacks to keep them from drying out. The water is supposed to be cold, all surfaces of the wood are supposed to be soaked continuously. I don't remember why -- I think it's to keep the logs from splitting as they dry, or maybe to keep them from fermenting/spoiling. Let's see, reasons for soaking, from various online sources: - help remove dirt and bark that could dull a saw blade - enabled the bark to be peeled off easily before cutting - keeps the dust down - prevent logs from splitting as they dry - at 80% water content, insect do not lay eggs and fungi cannot develop. existing parasites are eliminated in a matter of days. - soften the wood for cutting In recent times, there have been efforts to recover logs sunken in rivers and lakes from old logging operations; 200-year old logs are well preserved! Mike