drsid

Re: Heroic v. superheroic genres and the use of powers I think this is the approach I will take. It seems to blend the best of both worlds.

Now that I've finished with the VERY long powers chapter, I have a question for the experienced forum members. In a heroic setting, would the characters ever use the powers chapters? Or, does the GM use that chapter to primarily create the various tools and gear for the setting. In a heroic setting, it would seem that most powers are used to represent equipment, gear, and the setting's technology versus any inherent powers in a character?

Re: campaign website 2247AD cool. thanks for the link. @ Nolgroth ... yeah. I am using Joomla with a prebuilt template. It is an excellent way to put up a site. It took me all of 2 hours or so to get the template set up and the rest is just writing up "articles" for any given topic and creating a link to connect it. The system works really well for RPG campaign sites.

Re: damage negation v. damage reduction I agree and I am trying to make a concerted effort to avoid looking at powers in terms of SFX. Some things, though, can be hard to conceptualize without some touchstones as it were. The examples in the book and DaltWisney's comparisons give some idea of how to think about things.

Re: damage negation v. damage reduction I have to say, given the density of the books, one thing that would help in the power section, particularly with regard to the issue of damage reduction v. negation, would have been to include a sidebar of how damage works. In fact, I have printed out Lemming's quick description and stuck it in that section of the powers for a later reminder. It is such a succinct and clear description of the damage progression and the place of powers in the scheme of things.

Re: Firearms template Thanks for the feedback. I am slowly working my way through the books, (they are sooo thick), so I have only glanced at the second volume. I apologize if I my questions are answered in the latter volume or later in the books; I tend to ask questions as I read through the book and as they come to me, oitherwise I forget. Heck, I still find myself going back to the characteristics just recall what each one does as its referenced in the powers section. Seriously, after this, I expect Steve Long to send me a certificate of completion or something. The campaign will be heroic, not superheroic. @Tasha - nice signature by the way. *grin*

Re: Firearms template Excellent. Thanks for the clarification and the sample weapons. So, am EMP gun or a taser would be blast as they don't necessarily kill, but can certainly screw up your day.

Re: damage negation v. damage reduction thanks for the detailed explanation. This helps me understand things much better!

If I am understanding things correctly, firearms would be built using the blast power or the RKA power with an obvious accessible focus limitation (-1). So, these would be the base for all firearms and the only variance would be the amount of damage of the firearms, measured by the number of points of its blast or RKA. Now, is there any particular advantage to using RKA or Blast for firearms? It seems, to me, that RKA is a better option for firearms, but wanted to clarify. I plan on making the following firearms categories, each of which will have 2-3 specific weapon choices in each category. The only real difference between the categories will be the amount of damage done; then, the number of charges (capacity), concealability, etc. will differentiate each specific weapon from the other. Light Pistols Heavy Pistols SMG's Assault Rifles Hunting Rifles Sniper Rifles Light Machine Guns Heavy Machine Guns Light Assault Cannons Heavy Assault Cannons

I am having a bit of difficulty grasping the difference between these two powers. Are they essentially different ways of achieving a similar effect, or am I missing something? When would you use one versus the other? For example, lets say I want to build a kevlar vest for a police detective. Would I use damage negation or damage reduction?

Re: campaign website 2247AD great! Thanks for the information I appreciate it.

Re: Iron Sky: Nazis on the Moon The trailer is pretty neat. Looks amusing.

Re: technology in the campaign setting cool. thanks!

Some more brainstorming. So, with regard to technology levels, I am thinking that the setting will have a matrix along the lines of Shadowrun, though perhaps a little more advanced to actually allow the existence of AI's; perhaps also some androids/robots that exist. I debate whether I should allow AI/androids as playable "races" in the campaign setting. Although prosthetic cyberware is pervasive, the use of bioware and more cosmetic/military grade cyberware is expensive and a luxury. There won't be mechs and such, but I like the idea of power armor being available, but expensive for non-military individuals to use. Comments/thoughts/suggestions?

So, I created a website for the campaign setting that I'm working on. Its very much in draft form at this stage, but I wanted to start getting my ideas down somewhere. http://www.2247ad.info/ Also, since its just a hobby/fan-site do I need to put up any disclaimers and such with regard to the Hero System? I do eventually plan to put up game mechanics information for various aspects of the setting. Thanks!

One of the best things about the shadowrun setting, imho, is the blending of science fiction and fantasy. I am hoping to achieve that with my own 2247AD campaign setting. The notion is that humanity has awakened due to a ripple effect of an arriving alien species. On the one hand, I could simply state that it has simply opened up psionics. Unfortunately, I don't like the concept of psionics. This is a person and, quite frankly odd bias , but as a professional psychologist, psionics always raises my anti-parapsychology hackles. Yes, weird and silly given that I'm talking about magic and faeries and monsters, but we are what we are. Anyway, the idea is that magicians use their mind to connect to an astral plane and weave threads of mana from there, all mentally, to create an impact on the real world. One of the aspects of this is that it requires concentration that must be maintained for the duration of the weaving. While maintaining this concentration, especially for any extended period of time, the magicians perception is shifted out of the real world, making them vulnerable to any attacks and such that might occur in the real world. The idea is not that they literally leave the real world and enter astral space, but the depth of concentration required reduces their ability to perceive and interact with the real world. The second consequence of using magic is that there is a chance, linked to the strength of the spellcasting, that can cause a real rift to astral space to open up. These rifts are gateways from which "monsters" may emerge. Any spell casting doesn't fail unless concentration is not maintained; but even if a spell goes of successfully, the chance of a rift opening exists. The "monsters" are often conjurations of the magician's mind ... their own nightmares, dreams, etc. In fact, to account for summoning, I was thinking that perhaps some very talented mages have learned to use this "consequence" to intentionally open gates and bring forth spirits under their command. Failing to successfully summon a spirit from their dreams/psyche results in something uncontrolled from their nightmares coming in. I do not want any form of astral travel or being able to enter the rift space. In effect, you go in, you never come out and are essentially dead. Something akin to the warp in Warhammer 40K. As governments and companies are prone to do, there are some who are researching ways to use rift space as a means of travel or some such, but that will be for plot elements rather than actual game play. Thoughts? Suggestions? Comments? I assume that this is very possible with the Hero System, but at this stage I am just brainstorming the conceptual nature of the setting's magic system. Also, I realize this may be more appropriate for the Fantasy Hero section, but my setting is primarily sci fi, so I posted it in the Star Hero Section.

Re: What do you really think of Champions Online? Quite clearly, one of the biggest strengths of the game is the character creation system. In fact, I came to Hero System after playing Champions Online as I had never really even heard of the Hero System before. Overall, I find the game to be a fun, amusing diversion. I tend to play solo and the game, so far, seems to be fine for that. Aside from the creation system, there really is nothing particularly special or gripping about the game. I rarely have a strong desire to really play the game unless I'm just bored. I avoid the MMO forums, generally, however, as there tends to be excessive negative and complaining. Sure, the game could be improved but some of it just gets silly.

Re: Free Character Defining Skills It would seem that everyman skills should be used for skills that every person in a setting/culture has that can have some potential use in the game. Some, however, are not necessarily skills but character traits and could be better represented in the description of the character's personality and background. For example, Drive would be an everyman skill that does not need to be rolled except when driving under stress and in special circumstances. So everyone gets it. But, I'm not sure what the purpose would be of writing down"perform basic chores and menial tasks" or "KS: general knowledge" on a character sheet. Would those not be a given? I mean, would you write down "Walk" as a skill? Of course not. Similarly, if a player needs to see if their character knows something about their own culture and life circumstances (i.e., general knowledge) why not just make a INT roll? Too many skills that are not used clutter a character sheet and add needless complexity. If the skills are just being used to reflect the character's personality, profound ones can be reflected in complications and perks, while less profound ones can just be part of the description and roleplayed. Now, this is not to say that one should not write down knowledge skills, even free ones. For example, lets say you have someone who lived in a foreign culture for a brief period of time. Depending on how much influence this has on the game it could be purchased as a KS or simply be given for free.

Re: adding floor and ceiling to characteristics & removing characteristics Lots of ideas to think about! Thanks for the detailed and informative responses.

I have a couple of questions about characteristics. First, lets say I want to differentiate species in my campaign setting through having lower and upper limits on their characteristics. I assume this is probably not a rare occurrence, so wanted to see how others with experience have handled it. For example, the Gul in my campaign setting are large, densely muscled humanoids with a great deal of strength and body, but limited presence. In addition, they have a history of being slaves for generations and been "bred" by the dominant species to have limited psychological presence and confidence, i.e. reduced Ego. So, as an example, my thought was to simply create a Gul template in which they start with 15 body and 15 strength, and 8 Ego, with the appropriate costs in the template. So, the floor is relatively easy to establish; however, how would I go about establishing a hard ceiling? The maxima rule seems to allow players to still go as high as they can as long as they are willing to spend the points. Do campaign builders simply state an upper limit for each stat or is their a particular game mechanic used? My second question has to do with the removal of stats. I am not necessarily considering doing this, but I wanted to ask in order to further my conceptual understanding. So, lets say that I decide there is no psychic or magic warfare in my game, so I am going to remove mental offensive and defensive stats. In addition, I decide I don't want to use END in my heroic campaign, so I get rid of that as well. And, because I'm lazy and don't really think there is a difference between EGO and WILL, I get rid of EGO. Now, if one gets rid of so many characteristics, would one change the number of character points used for building characters? And, if so, is there a formula for how many character points to reduce the amount by? Alternatively, lets say I want to add additional characteristics, is there a formula for how many build points to add to character creation? I understand the notion of dormant characteristics. Essentially, the players just don't spend points on absent characteristics; however, it would seem that the number of points one gets to build a character with should change based on how many characteristics one has to distribute those points across.

I found this interesting article, that I thought might be of interest/use to those creating hard sci campaigns: http://gizmodo.com/5426453/the-physics-of-space-battles

Re: brainstorming a urban cyber-fantasy setting good point, Ian. Thanks! That also gives me thinks to think about with regard to the implications on religion and such with the arrival of aliens.

Re: Forwarding summon commands ah. I was thinking much more concretely in terms of summoning in the sense of demons, elementals, and such. In your case, I can very easily see the original summoner being able to give orders to the infantry. Its sort of like a captain using his radio-man to call for additional support. He is still in command.

Re: brainstorming a urban cyber-fantasy setting damn, I love these forums. Thanks, Lord Liaden. That's perfect!

Re: Forwarding summon commands Someone with more experience would have to address the mechanics of such a thing, but from a setting perspective, I would be curious why the underling would obey the original summoner? Usually, summoning is not a positive experience for the summoned and they are generally resistant to being slaves of another as it is. What would compel them to follow the original summoner? And, was the summoning creature ordered by the original summoner to summon the underling? If so, why would the summoning creature not rebel and use the underlings to boost his resistance. I can see an original summoner summoning a creature that then summons underlings to aid it in fulfilling whatever original order it had. Personally, I would not even have the original summoner have any authority over the underlings, directly or indirectly. They are essentially something the summoning creature brought forth to help it fulfill whatever objective the original summoner tasked it with. If the original summoner is powerful enough to summon something that can itself bring forth underlings, why wouldn't the original summoner just summon those underlings himself?