Thrakazog

Yeah, one: I'll be using it in my Traveller-based Star Hero PBeM campaign.

What advice did Barney get during his Queer Eye For The Straight Guy makeover? A rabbi, a wedge of cheese, and the Boston Bruins.

From the book: Deductive Observation: Telepathy 8d6, Zero END (+½), Requires Deduction Roll (-½), Extra Time: 5 Minutes (-2), ½ DCV Concentration (-¼), Must Closely Observe Subject (Including Facial Expressions) During the Five Minutes (-½), Can Only Read Surface Thoughts (-½), Receive Only (-½) The observer is the visible aspect, I assume. What's visible if the target doesn't know he's being observed, say from behind a one-way mirror? Based on special effect, I'd say that it's an invisible power, but if I use that limitation it doesn't mask the attack itself, only the source, correct? Argh.

Q: Will you do that thing you do with the mustard jar again? A: I've only got five!

Q: Welcome to Earth. What's your name? A: Red mesh underwear and a forked stick.

Q: Mom's making her spicy tuna and tripe casserole! Aren't you psyched!? A: No, you dummy! I said the red one!

Q: What are the qualifications for Tex-Mex Speedster Of The Year again? A: Fidel Castro eating a London broil.

Q: Why did you fire your intern? A: Buried under fifty tons of jellybeans.

I do! I do! I'm running a nine-player Star Hero campaign set in the Classic Traveller universe. My problem was always that I loved Traveller but I thought the system was horrible. Once I discovered the joys of FRED, it was easy to convert the Traveller universe. Simple premise: the players are the crew of a far trader. Shit happens. Game play ensues. Not a single problem yet.

No I didn't. I know who Electro is, but I didn't know his origin. Rats - I hate being unoriginal. Although, in hindsight, it's such an obvious origin for someone with electrical powers I should've seen this coming...

Fantasy football I need a good first round pick Quarterback Brett Favre?

Re: Limitation doesn't limit character He can't use it on himself. It's only for machines and electronics - not people. I should make that more clear, I guess. Oh, don't be, really. I like constructive criticism, and when dealing with a system as math-heavy as this, an extra set of eyes is worthwhile.

Re: Living Battery Has it already: 4 u Recharging Batteries: Succor Electrical Powers 5d6 - Any Electrical Power One at a Time (+¼) This lets him run electrical devices by giving it power from his own energy supply. Nice idea, though.

I've got an electricity-based EB character with XP to spend, and I'm trying to come up with some neat and interesting new powers. His handle is Juice, and his special effect is that, after having been struck by lightning, his body's natural electric energy field is multiplied dramatically. He's already got: 16 Electromagnetic Powers: Elemental Control - Will Not Work Underwater (-¼) N/A 16 1 Riding the Magnetic Field: Flight 20" 4 16 2 The Van Allen Slide: Flight 10" - Megascale (1" = 1000 kilometers; +1) 4 16 3 Magnetic Bubble: Force Field (+20 PD/+20 ED) 4 44 Electrical Powers: Multipower (55) - Will Not Work Underwater (-¼) N/A 4 u Shockburst: Energy Blast 11d6 - Stun Only (-½) 4 4 u Stroke of Lightning: Ranged Killing Attack 3d6 4 2 u Lightning Web: Entangle 4d6, DEF 4 - Entangle and Character Both Take Damage (+¼); Cannot Form Barriers (-¼), Susceptible to Water (-½) 5 4 u Lightning Field: Ranged Killing Attack 2d6 - Damage Shield (+½), Affects All HTH Attacks (+¼) 5 4 u Recharging Batteries: Succor Electrical Powers 5d6 - Any Electrical Power One at a Time (+¼) I've brainstormed and come up with: Multipower Slot: 3d6 Transfer vs. Electricity, feeds END With this power, he could touch an electrical device (including people?) and gain END by drawing electrical energy (END) away from the device. Basically, he recharges himself. Bump of direction: he can sense magnetic north. Clinging, only vs. metal: he magnetizes his body and can maintain a hold of metal objects, or keep himself from being knocked back from an attack. Multipower Slot: 3d6 Transform, neutral objects into magnetized objects, only vs. metallic targets: he can make a flagpole magnetic, with the usual effects. What practical use this would have I had no idea, but it sounded neat. I'm looking for comments, suggestions, and/or ideas. Anyone?

Same D&D group and party, different adventure: In the climactic battle, the group ambushes a convoy led by evil warlord who they've been hired to eliminate. They fight his unit and decide not to kill him in a fit of heroism. Instead they tie him up. So, as the DM, I role play the NPC. "Now what, you going to kill me?" The party confers. And confers. "Well?" The party looks about with 'what now' looks. "You don't have a plan, do you?" More intra-party looks. "You really don't have a plan! Morons! I've been captured by morons!" PC: "Um, we're taking you back to town and putting you in prison." Note: the NPC runs the town, has standing troops in town, and the prison is inside the small fort adjacent to town where his forces are stationed. NPC: "Fine. Take me back to town. Let's go." Party realizes this won't work. More 'what now' looks. NPC: "Idiots! What kind of mercenaries are you?" More looks.

D&D party is following a lead in an big city investigation. The lead takes them to an underground tavern/fight club. There is a very large half-ogre bouncer at the door. After discussing for several minutes how to gain entry, the dwarven prince (13th in line to the throne of Drozac, or Prozac as we would taunt him) walks right up to the bouncer and declares himself. "Dwarven health inspector. I need to see your kitchen." After watching the dwarf get thrown a beating in the alley, the rest of the party pays the cover and walks right in. Same party, later that very early morning: Everyone had a good time following that lead, and the party is mostly drunk. The same dwarf, having found the garbage chute and used it to gain entrance, is totally intoxicated. He passes out on the steps of the city foudner's building in the main square. Party kenku samurai decides now is great time for practical joke. Dwarf wakes up in the morning with a small human child on his back, kicking his flanks. He's on all fours. A large sign next to him on the steps reads "Free dwarf rides".

Re: Slowly converting CT to FREd I just didn't deal with it in my conversion. I created a package deal for each service, with the last item being "select three from the following list, plus one for every term of service". It made it nice and easy. So, most players have both a racial package and a service package. The rest is description. Simple. Survivability never meant much to me. What's the point of creating a dead character?

Hmmm... Perhaps I should clarify that the Imperial Marines use the big guns. The players are mostly ex-Navy, with one ex-Marine, one noble on the run, one street thief, and one ex-corporate agent. The biggest weapon they have is the shotgun carried by the ex-marine. The ex-agent has a body pistol, and someone else has a rapier. That's pretty much it. Oh, and there's a couple of flare guns in the emergency kits kept in the ship's locker. It's a fairly new campaign, with only one combat so far against a few goons with collapsable batons. The agent knows martial arts, so it ended up being a fair fight. The ex-marine was pissed that she missed it.

I haven't had to deal with starship combat yet, but we're getting there. Since it's a PBeM, I plan on using a liberal dose of "winging it", no pun intended. The starship weapons are the same as Traveller: beam lasers, pulse lasers, missiles, sandcasters, etc. The Impie Marines use a caseless HEAP round in the assult rifles they use, not lasers, but by comparison the ship's weapons would be a large number of d6 KA.

It's not shyness. I'm concerned about two things. I use a lot of pics and link to a lot of sites I found on the internet. I'm not sure what the ethics of all that are, but if the resources are out there why not use them? Nobody except my players view my site, since I never published the URL anywhere. The interactive map someone posted the URL for is something I might link to, for example. Second, there's a lot of holes. All I have are a campaign background and some house rules and character construction guidelines. I've also got a link to the group list. I'm mosly concerned about the first issue. When I started the campain I remembered that my ISP gave me some free web space, and so I threw together a quick campaign site with stuff I found on the web. I'd hate to get threatening letters becuase I took a pic I thought was cool off someone else's site. I have a front page disclaimer that reads: This web site and the campaign itself draw upon the excellent art and campaign works of many others, including Game Designer's Workshop, Steve Jackson Games, and others. They appear here for no other reason than I simply thought they were cool. No claim of originality or ownership is stated or implied. Is that enough? I wasn't sure I wanted to find out.

I run a PBeM game in the Classic Traveller universe, but using the Hero system. I love CT but didn't like the system at all. It's working really well. I created racial and background package deals as needed. I use the starship deckplans from CT and just wing what I need to in order to make it work. So far, all eleven players are having jolly good fun. I'm free to compare notes anytime.

A new campaign starts. Villains and Vigilantes? No, use Champions!

Just thought I'd throw this one in: I've never used the HERO system for anything other than supers. As I became more familiar with the system over the years I've occasionally thought about running a FH game, but I always found myself returning to D&D becuase it was comfortable like an old shoe. Well, having read the FH playtest manuscript - my first reading of any FH material - I'll say this: the more I read the FH manuscript, the more I want to run a FH campaign instead of a D&D one. And I guess that's the point, and probably the best compliment I can make. I know it's not a technical post about spelling or the proper origin of a word, but I thought I'd share that all the same. Carry on.

Well, simpler anyway. OK, being someone who always tells others to keep an open mind and also being one who likes to practice what he preaches, I'm going to playtest it. I'm going to write up a few PC's, hand them out to PBeM players I know and who's opinions I value, and run a very short scenario with no more than one combat and some problem-solving skill stuff. I've read through the FH playtest manuscript and the more I read it, the more I want to try it. Hey! I should post that to the playtest list, shouldn't I?

Yikes. This being the biggest reason why I have been so reluctant to convert my current FtF D&D game to Hero. I use a hybrid system, mostly 2nd edition AD&D, with some 1st edition rules we kept around because we liked them better, and some house rules to account for things not covered like a "Luck" stat. It's ungainly and not pretty, and not as flexible or cinematically realistic as Hero, but we all know the rules forwards and backwards. Plus, being a spellcaster means you pick once per day from a list based off a simple chart. I'm going to start a dungeoun crawl style PBeM game soon, and I haven't settled on a system yet. I'm itching to try FH, but the convoluted magic systems keep driving me back like Dracula from a boldly held cross.