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Re: Skills in Science Fiction I think that this was the original intent of the PS. It represents a small group of skills and familiarities that go along with a single, fairly narrowly focused, job. PS:Auto Mechanic is not just Mechanics limited to Automobiles, it includes (as was pointed out earlier) a little torchwork, some electrician skills, some KS knowledge, etc. Breaking it out into more skill categories simply adds flavor and possibilities to more broadly based characters. NPCs are usually either there to further the plot or to fulfill a necessary function for the PCs. If all they have to do is fix the car, give them the PS and move on. And don't feel bound by the scale for such NPCs. If they need to have a 9- in that skill, write them that way. I've tried more detailed skill packages for both PCs and NPCs, and it gets to be brutal. Someone with a Bachelor's in Physics needs to have about a dozen skills just to represent that. There's no reason to slave yourself to the system if it prevents you from writing the game you want to run.

Re: What's in YOUR future history? I would remove the 'First' from 'Contact with Aliens'. Unless you've got humanity entering into a galaxy that has an overall political structure, each meeting with a new alien race could be unique. Each one would be a landmark in history, with different features. The other (practical) problem I have with future histories is a cliche. "Technology is advancing so quickly..." But it is. While we can predict (to a surprising degree) what those technologies will be, predicting the social effects is nearly impossible. Sci-fi in the fifties did predict computers as being (at least somewhat) common devices, but not even Tim Berners-Lee could have predicted to social implications of HTML. We cast the future in terms of the present, which is like trying to predict birds by observing dinosaurs. It's actually something I'm putting into this campaign I'm building, which is why I'm talking about it so much. I think that's the real question of SF, 'what wil society look like, given X?" I only hope that my players think to ask a few of those questions. It seems to me that looking at some of the more social aspects of history might prove fruitful.

Re: technology in the campaign setting Cyberpunk:2020 had a couple of supplements called Chromebooks. At least one of them had a variety of rather innovative "full-body replacements", which could easily be turned into powered armor. My favorite was the Firefighter unit. Not a military term, a real firefighter cyborg, complete with nozzles in the arms that could connect to hoses hitched up in back. Easy enough to convert, and the books weren't expensive when they were new. Check www.powells.com (a truly mighty used-book store in Portland, OR), they have a lot of gently used gaming material at good prices.

Re: Your Top Ten Science Fiction Writers, and then some. Well, I don't know exactly what 'Transhumanist' means (and I've looked it up several times in the past), how about these suggestions (chosen in terms of possible source material, not just whether I like them or not): Harry Harrison - more the humor than the bleak. A Stainless Steel Rat game would rock, or one based on "Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers". "Make Room" might be interesting, though. Alfred Bester - one of my favorites, who really explored some of the society-changing possibilities inherent in sci-fi (what if Teleport was an Everyman skill?). His novel "Psychoshop" (finished after his death by Roger Zelazny) would make a great setting for an adventure or recurring location. Roger Zelazny - Amber is some of my favorite material ever, whether you consider it SF or Fantasy (it could be either) Philip K. Dick - who was always asking 'What is it to be human?' Anyone who wants a philosophical campaign should read one or two of his novels Frank Herbert - 'Dune' is one of the great political/religious intrigue books of all time, regardless of genre. With the right group, a campaign in that universe could be really good. Or REALLY bad. Glen Cook - granted, some of the most mean-hearted sci-fi I've ever read (can't remember the title, it involved two major mercenary families at war), but a very strong setting, with some real possibilities. The Garrett Files, as well, though that's fantasy. Gene Wolfe - I think the 'New Sun' world would make a great HERO campaign. Elements of fantasy and sci-fi both, set in a world so far in the future that almost anything could turn up. Fritz Leiber - "The Big Time" would make the setting for a fantastic campaign. I won't spoiler, but I highly recommend reading it. Robert Anton Wilson/Robert Shea - The Illuminatus trilogy, The Schroedinger's Cat trilogy, and all the others. Conspiracy theories, universe hopping, completely bizarre political systems, they did a little of everything. I don't know if I'd want to run a full Illuminatus campaign, but there are ideas and plot hooks galore. Anthologies - there are hundreds of gems buried in anthologies and collections out there. And, if we're talking about source material, one good idea is worth a thousand pages of crap. Used book stores tend to have a lot of them lying around, and they're starting to appear in large numbers for the Kindle and similar devices.

Re: Martial Arts iiinnn ssspppaaaccceee!!! Which style is flexible enough? It seems to me that a large part of HTH inside a structure in ZG would be making use of the available surfaces and protrusions. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of reason to have large empty spaces in a ship or other environment. Empty space is expensive, fill it with something useful. Likely, the dimensions of any given space would be similar to those in current buildings on Earth. Okay, cargo bays and the like, yes, but they won't represent much of the structure. Look at a modern aircraft carrier or submarine, and you don't see big emtpy rooms. So, weird as it sounds, parkour might be a good model. Lots of changes in direction that have a specific purpose. Using the physical environment to control your movement. Creating leverage where none exists naturally.

Re: Skill Levels--limits?

Re: Scion Hero of sorts Some suggested reading. "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman and the first three books of the Alvin Maker stories by Orson Scott Card (Seventh Son, Red Prophet and Prentice Alvin). "American Gods" sounds quite similar to what you're talking about, in terms of tone, and is a very different take on the concept of gods and god-like power. The Alvin Maker series are a different kind of take on magic and powers in society in general, and are very good reading, if nothing else. Folded

Re: Welcome to McGuffins. May I take your order? How about this? Call it whatever you like. An object whose only power is to make people desire to possess it. The more susceptible to greed the character is, the less knowledge of the artifact is necessary to trigger it's power. For the average person, seeing it would be required. For someone truly acquisitive (say, your average billionaire), just knowing that it exists is enough. The greed intensifies over time, until the victim is willing to trade ANYTHING to get it. Once you do possess it, the artifact's power reverses itself, and you will do anything to get rid of it. If your will is strong enough, you could hold onto it long enough to get anything you wanted from a single individual. Once it has passed from your hands, the desire not to have it increases, possibly to the point of madness. Half the universe wants the thing, the other half is trying desperately to make sure that they can't possibly come into its presence ever again. Folded

Re: A merry band of thieves, help? Your formshifter character sounds like one of my favorite-to-play characters of all time. I always perceived him as a he, but that was never certain. Nemo (latin for nobody) is an experiment. Who created him/her/it is unknown, as is why. Nemo consists of a human central/peripheral nervous system surrounded by a mass of nano-molecular polymer (NMP), and a humanoid skeleton of unknown material. This allows him/her/it to change its shape in nearly any way imaginable, within the limits of mass and an inability to eliminate the skeleton. The original Nemo was a truly amoral character, concerned only with survival and obtaining the power to continue his/her/its existence. In terms of build, I bought him Shapeshifting, any humanoid shape, and most of the optional tweaks (cellular, imitation, instant change, etc.). Also, Nemo had no 'base form' to which he/she/it reverted if knocked unconscious (0END Persistent). Hence the name. Imagine living with no face to call one's own. He also had a 14- Accidental Change (into a different form) associated with natural sleep. Made it dangerous to fall asleep in anyone else's vicinity. On top of that was a VPP, with a carefully specified group of powers available through it, to represent the non-humanoid aspects of the power (attacks, defenses, environmental Life Supports, special movement, enhanced characteristics, etc..). I didn't include flight in the original build, but there's no reason it couldn't be there. All in all a very challenging character to play, since his combat stats depended entirely on what he did with the VPP (which only had 50 AP). I'm interested to see what you decide to do with these ladies. Could be fun. Folded

Re: STAR HERO Reading List If there's to be any discussion of psi in Star Hero, I must recommend The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester. Perhaps the best book on telepathy and society ever written. Folded

Re: Hero System Good Idea/Bad Idea...

Re: Hero System Good Idea/Bad Idea... This one may take you a while... (less the older you are)... Good Idea: Berserker Hero Bad Idea: Berzerker Hero Folded

OK, this started with a fairly simple idea, but I'm having real problems putting it together. I've got a Big Bad Boss who summons these little 'Pet Slimes' (32 at a time). The idea is, they leap on people, stick (to torsos) or wrap (around a single limb or the head). The main effect I'm trying to simulate, though, is that they're heavy (10kg each). They're also intended primarily as nuisance monsters, and should be easy to take out with a single attack, so I'm keeping the point value under 25 each. I've got them set up with a 5 BODY/3 DEF Entangle with 0DCV Concentration to simulate them jumping up and grabbing someone. I don't want to use a Grab because they're specifically quite weak, and a single wrist or ankle can't exert STR against something wrapped around it. The Entangle doesn't actually prevent movement by itself, it's just a way to represent the character having to remove the heavy slime. That part I'm happy with (though I know there are other ways to simulate it). The problem is representing an incremental weight as a way of impairing movement, rather than the all-or-nothing Entangle effect. Five of these things stuck to an agent-level character are a real problem, since 50 kilos is a lot to a 10-15 STR person. But a Brick with 100 STR shouldn't even notice the weight. So I'm trying to come up with a way that higher STR characters are less affected than lower STR characters. A straight Drain/Suppress STR (or DEX) doesn't work, since five slimes with a 1 pip D/S would halve the lifting power of said 100 STR Brick, which doesn't make any sense. I thought of D/S'ing Running/Leaping, but that runs into the same problem. A character with a 50 STR can run full speed with a car on his back, but even at 1 pip of effect, 12 slimes could stop him in his tracks, with average running speed, and a Speedster with 20" of running and a 10 STR could still move with twice that many stuck to him. Since the primary attack value is their individual mass, none of this really works. Sorry for the level of detail, but I'm really hooked on this idea, and I'd love to hear some thoughts from some of you. Thank you in advance, Folded