cutsleeve

dex checks i think apply the henchman has a hend action and because he is trying to interupt the attack or action of another person then he would have to make the apposed dex check to figure out who outreacted who. im preatty sure thats an old rule for held actions. makes sense too.

I would have put danger sense at the end of that list as a last resort kind of ability. But id also give penalties to anyone who is concentrating on something or using a skill that can be distracting they still get a chance to be aware of the attack whether they decide to act or not.

hmmmm well for the spellbook thing you might want to set it up as RSR:Arcane Knowledge to activate the power for that day. then give pc's a spellbook (oaf -1) skill levels (only for arcane knowledge) (must be read to gain benefit +1/4). something like that. it makes it so they could try activating the multipower without the book but it might not work. but youd give the spellbook enough skill levels to make it a sure shot. thats about all i have.

characteristics as powers I think a Responcible GM should enforce one simple rule for dealing with characteristics as powers. All characteristics that are bought as powers must be bought with limitations or advantages to simulate that they are indeed powers. If there are no advantages or limitation on them they arent powers they are statistics and conform to all the rules of Purchasing them (such as in NCM and doubling after 20). This is a rule that i used back in 4th edition after seeing defender it makes a kind of sense. Magic items may give adds to strength but they are foci and can be removed from the character. Magical spells that or the ability to Berserk may adjust characteristics temporarily but they are either temporary or require certian actions that could cause them to be aborted, suck as an activation roll or gestures. Thats the simplest way to ensure the characters dont just pick the characteristic power and say im an ogre thats a power. The old characteristics ability under the powers section was so you could stick power advantages and limitations on it just like the old skills ability under the powers section. Of course i dont have my Fred yet but even in the old 4th edition under characteristics it says that they can be purchased with power limitations and advantages and put in frameworks and if this is dont they count as standard powers. I always assumed if this wasnt done then theyre just regular characteristics and should be bought at double point costs after 20 for non figures characteristics. Hope all that made sense.

hmmmmmmm How about a lil fuzzy bear creature usually with white fur and a set of wings. If you speak to him and ask him nicely then if you die later on you will be instantly ressurected anywhere on the planet but its linked to a time travel usable by others to send you back to the moment you last talked with him. Wonder how that would be statted out.

large story small parts I always try to hash out the plot of the whole story then i design the adventures around the bad guys goals. Its best to think of it in this way i know who the major badguy is and what the major badguy really wants. Then i go and figure out how he intends to get what he wants. thats where the particular adventures come in theyre just small steps to his ultimate goal. sometimes theyre not even that sometimes theyre just plots that seem dangerous but are just to distract the heros from the less obvious but potentially more dangerous part of the plot that made the heros go "huh" earlier on. Even then its really all dependant on what overall goal the major badguy had as to how each adventure goes. The major rule still applies keep it loose so its easily moldable.

no fair everyone needs a giant yellow riding chicken especially one that can run really fast and can run over mountians and water and stuff. hmmmmmmm if it doesnt have stats for the giant yellow riding chicken what about cacti with arms and legs and a perpetually suprised look on their faces. or maybe a lil green salamander type guy who carries a lantern and a kitchen knife.

i guess its fly by the seat of my pants for me Basically ive run a whole bunch of games in the past and ive had some that failed completely and some that where wildly successful. the ones that failed for me where the ones i tried to plot out and fully detail. the ones that succeded where loose. My entire GMing process now consists of a few lil rules. 1) write down the general plot for the adventure not where the characters have to go or where the shut off switch is for the thermo nuclear device, just the simple stuff like why is the villian doing villiany how does he intend to do it and all other small bits if theres going to be hostages who things like that 2) stock expendable badguys are essential theres nothing more satisfying as sending hordes of grunts off to attack the heros and its even more fun when the hero's almost die trying to beat them all. that is of course the villians whole reason for using henchmen so the hero's get a lil smacked around before they get to him and if the grunts manage to beat the heros hey order them pizza and beer. 3) Make all badguys and essential characters ahead of time and figure out why they are connected with the story. if you just created a cool baddy a week ago and cant figure out a way to reason him into the story edit him out hes redundant. 4) dont get to complicated because the players will always manage to unravel and unhinge your plot. sometimes they dont mean to but it happens. if you didnt make a specific detail in a specific sequence in the adventure then it wont break continuity when the players just happen to avoid it. and if its not solid then it can be changed and added into the story at another part. 5) your story should be as flexible as water: water can take any shape and can fill any container it can ripple gently over something or be sent crashing against it it can be soft and supple or solid as ice. your adventure should be like water. after you've done all that all you have to do is sit back and make stuff up on the fly you have badguys and can throw them in at any time you want you can make up locations on the fly and many npc's in adventures dont need stats. NPC Doctor2 helps pc regain health then promptly gets shot by villian. seeeee easy character generation.

company questions section i just asked about this same thing in another section of the dicussion boards. the one for company questions under "problem getting a fred" "recently ive been trying to get a copy of the hero system 5th edition rules. ive tried a local bookstore and several online shops. the bookstore told me their distributer was out of stock on it and the many online shops i asked said they where out of stock and one told me that they where waiting for the newt printing. im wondering if the new printing is the reason everyones out of stock of the hero system 5th edition rulesbook. if thats the case how long will it be before it will be out. " <-------- this was my question. "The latest reprint of 5th Ed (which is the 4th- hey, the 4th 5th!) is due approximately the 6th of June. Like the rest of our books, it'll take a week to ten days to filter out to most stores from there. dw" <------------ and this was Darren Watts' reply

Will Fantasy Hero include conventions for imitating console rpg's like maybe genre descriptions or something like that. Maybe the stats for a giant yellow riding chicken. Or is the book just going to center around classical fantasy backgrounds. just curious is all

the description says I dont own either book but the description for Ultimate Martial arts is "the Big Book Of Crunchy Martial arts to Hurt People Very Badly With" all martial arts and how to make martial arts and things like that. the descrption of Ninja Hero basically says "sudjestions on how to run various martial arts based settings" kung fu fight films, wire fu games, samurai epics, and other stuff involving settings. at least thats what i got from the descriptions.

: P ok you say that an ogre should get a break on str con and pd and ed because he is an ogre. well what if i wanna make a character who is an amberite he should get breaks on pretty much all the stats and one of them should be half cost. by your reconing. now the ogre who you said should buy stregth as obvious because he's obviously big theres a power for that its called growth. ogre get big ogre get strong makes sense to me pixie get small pixie get a hell of alot harder to hit. and those are powers. no racial or species driven character concept should give people a break on ncm. all characters pay the same amount for those higher the ncm points thats what balances a game that includes ncm as a global constant. if your character is being created as a half klingon half ogre from Haxor 1347 that doesnt mean he should just up and get an arbitrary benny on his stats or a higher maxima he is being built on a character concept and has to abide by the same rules that other races abide by. thats all it is a charcter concept and you should be thinking how can i do this best within the rules. Hero system lets you play any character in any place, time, universe, ect. some people just have a habit of trying to get those few extra points for something (-1/4 cannot be used while asleep) As far as ncm not making sense for seperate races/species it does because all races are build from the same point base and the same amount of points are spent by each on the same thing that doesnt mean a Dorkian cant have a strength 30 he just has to pay for it like all the other races pay for their high stuff thats how you balance it by making it all equal. going out and raising maxima does not equalize the races more it causes problems in balancing.

Im waiting for the 5th edition to get to my bookstore. so right now im getting back into my hero system groove by using a dilapidated heros 4th ed. thats being held together with tape and prayers in a 3 ring binder. Iv'e been making ordinary items with the hero system just to see if i can do a good impression of them. A Pencil - Images 1 hex: OIF -1/2 continuous +1 half endurance +1/4 Independant -2 only to create writing on rough solid surfaces -1/4 A Permanent Marker - Images 1 Hex: OIF -1/2 continuous +1 Half Endurance +1/4 Independant -2 Hard To Dispel +1/4 A Fire Extinguisher - Supress 2d6: OAF -1 Activation Roll 14- -1/2 Independant -2 0Endurance +1/2 Versus fire based special effects +1/2 Television - Mind Control 10d6: OAF -1 Independant -2 0Endurance +1/2 Extra Time 5 Minutes -2 Reduced Range -1/4 Area Effect Cone +1 i think i did pretty good so far anyone who wants to critique these lil things go right ahead. but add a few of your own while your at it

i might have a few links okies awhile ago i was trying to flesh out a japanese setting for D&D and found a few links to some stuff. http://www.mangajin.com/mangajin/samplemj/ghosts/ghosts.htm this is a fairly good site with some general information. http://www.asianart.com/articles/rubin/ some more stuff. http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/asia/japanese/articles.html not sure how useful this is but it gives short descriptions of some creatures gods demons ect. the oriental adventures either old new edition have many appropriate monsters for a japanese setting id just eliminate the stuff from the featured world setting and go with the normal stuff. what to watch InuYasha Hakkenden: legend of the dog warriors Ninja Scroll I must now go on a tagent. japanese mythology have many thousands of indevidual ghosts, goblins, demons, and other mean nasty things that would be extremely happy to evicerate innocent peasants, samurai, and the occassional budhist monk or shinto priest. And even then the intepretations of how those creatures look act and generally go about their business. So basically if you come up with a cool oogly googly monster then its ok. just make sure it all conforms to the basic mythology of japan and the social structure of it to. hope this is half way usefull:D

what happened to character concept i have always believed that ncm was a good means of simulating the more normal range of humans. but if someone wants to create a character with a higher strength because the concept for his character fine but that strength is gonna cost something. Even in the conventions of sword and sorcery, high fantasy, and many other genre's of fantasy there are a few characters that have higher then normal abilities. Its all character concept thats all sometimes a 25 strength more defines a strong character then just a 20. but that character pays for having that statistic. Now as far as the arguement about elves with 30 strength and ogres with 30 dexs well those characters pay for those statistics and because theyre paying a higher then normal amount for a higher then normal amount they cant use those points in other areas that might be vital to their survival. this is also character concept who says that a person cant have a character who is a unnaturally strong elf who might have been cursed by a vain and jealous ancient god who made them exceptionally strong but nearly inhumanly violent and destructive with animalistic rage and the glee of a child. but this elf has tried to break away from that and has tried to make himself civilised so he can once again regain his immortality in the kingdom of the elves. i can also extrapolate on how the ogre managed to get a 30 dex. which is why its all character concept driven and ncm is the tool for balancing the characters out. on another not of using powers and items to gain strength that higher then ncm. this seems logical to me even in classic fantasy (barring those unique and unnusually abilitied characters) most characters cannot gain statistics higher then normal levels without spells or magic items or some other more obscure way. hence a lil rule tat says a character cant have stats higher then ncm if they suffer under that restriction except through powers and items. hope all that made sense. Basically its all character concept and what the GM (aka: the guy you have to suck up to) will allow.

Ive been wondering recently about magic systems and i know that theres plenty of ways fo creating magic systems. But what would be the best way of creating conflicting magic systems which dispell each other differantly. I want to create a fantasy campaign where elves and humans use differing forms of magic one arcadian and the other arcane. However arcadian magic dispells arcane easier then arcane dispels arcadian magic and in the elves home realm arcadian magic does it even better. what i was thinking is for characters who where not using "divine" magic would have to choose which magic theyre using and then adding a 1d6 bonus to dispell/supress rolls vrs. arcane magic for those who use arcadian. this would basically be a "world constant" and then characters with arcane magic would maybe get a -1/2 limitation on there spells to balance it out a little. I'd like to hear what ideas anyone else has on the subject.