tancred

Re: Questions about Hero from a DnD GM Hi, Hutch! Welcome to HERO! You'll probably get this answer from a bunch of the old-timers here, too; if you don't want to wait for the 5th Edition Revised (now being referred to as 5ER), go ahead and get Sidekick. It's available now, it's only $10.00, and it is designed for newcomers to HERO. As for the other books, what they mostly do is save you time. You can build anything you want, if you want to take the time. Books like the HERO System Vehicle Sourcebook, the Bestiary, and others provide you with things already written up, that you don't have to put any of your own time into. In particular, I have to recommend Fantasy Hero, the Bestiary, and Monsters, Minions, and Marauders. All three books are CRAMMED full of good information. Fantasy HERO in particular has lots of good information on running any sort of fantasy game you want to. Both the Bestiary and MMM will save you lots of time creating monsters/creatures. If you can afford it, you should look into HERO Designer. The best character generation software on the planet makes it VERY easy to create any type of character you want, and it enforces all the 5th Edition rules, making it really hard to make mistakes. At $40.00, it's expensive, but in my opinion vastly worth it. Also, check out the Fantasy Hero forum here, and the Links page. In particular, Killer Shrike's web page (sorry, don't have the link handy) has a VERY well done and detailed conversion system for 3rd edition to HERO. Hope that helps.

Many of the creatures in Monsters, Minions, and Marauders have a notation that says something like "(+67 with NCM)". I understand that this indicates the additional Characteristics Cost that the creature would incur if it were subject to Normal Characteristic Maxima. However, in the case of (for example), the Frost Giant (page 45), which has the specific (+67) cost shown above, HERO Designer calculates the difference at 63 points. (I'm working up the MMM creatures myself because the $30 cost of the Character pack can be better spent on another book.) I finally figured out that this is because I am adding the Giant's additional Running as a Power, based on the way I read it in the book. And I seem to remember a rule (book or FAQ I can't remember) that Characteristics bought as Powers don't cost extra because of NCM. HERO Designer's calculations seem to bear this out. Questions: 1.) To write up the MMM creatures correctly, should the Running be bought as a Power, or directly as a Characteristic? 2.) If buying the Running as a Characteristic, that throws off the numbers shown in the book for Total Characteristics Cost. Does that mean these numbers are incorrect? Thanks, Steve!

Re: Point Cost For Duplicate Foci Misery, I've never done a character like this, but it seems that it's a fairly popular character type. The way such a character is usually described (at least on this board) is that you write him up as a Multiform. Because each suit has different powers (re-distributed points), you can't use the "5 points for a second focus" rule. The character isn't buying a second focus; he's buying a whole new suit. The Multiform makes you pay for the flexibility, but allows you to build as many forms as you care to pay for. Alternately, I've seen some posters suggest doing a Variable Power Pool. Seems to me that would be even more work, and might not simulate the concept you're describing as well as the Multiform. Hope all that helps.

Looking at the FAQ in 2 different places, I've found something I don't understand. Under Adjustment Powers, the last entry reads: *NEW*Q: 5E 89 notes that STUN or END received from an Aid is used first, rather than the character’s normal STUN and END, and if the Aid fades before all the STUN or END is used, what was used does not come out of the character’s normal STUN or END. But if a character receives STUN or END from an Adjustment Power with a long fade rate, can he use his Recovery to regain STUN or END from the Adjustment Power after he’s used it? For example, suppose that a character with 30 STUN receives an Aid STUN 3d6, Delayed Return Rate (points fade at the rate of 5 per 6 Hours). He gets 10 STUN from the power, giving him 40 STUN. He then suffers 20 STUN damage from an attack. When he gets to take Recoveries, does he Recover only up to 30 STUN (losing the +10 from the Aid even though the 6 Hour fade rate period hasn’t yet passed), or can he Recover up to 40 STUN? A: He can Recover up to 40 STUN. For these purposes, the GM determines what qualifies as a “long fade rate.†That makes perfect sense. But then, in the Aid section, a question (the 8th entry) reads: Q: If a character is the recipient of an Aid STUN (or END) with a long fade rate, when he loses STUN (or END), do his Recoveries taking him back up to the full amount of the Aided STUN (or END), or just his normal amount? A: Just his normal amount. It sure seems to me that those are contradictory. Am I reading one of those wrong, or is there actually a contradiction? Thanks for your time, Steve.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Last night, playing Post-Apocalypse Hero, our group was musing about the idea of replacing my 20-year old Battlemat. Looking at the ancient ink stains, accidental indelible ink marks, ground-in grease pencil, etc., the same player I mentioned previously goes, "I've died all over this mat!" Guess we'll keep it awhile longer.

Re: SF Novels for Star Hero? I second the Honor Harrington books by David Weber. Some of the best science fiction I've ever read. The prequel books to Mote in God's Eye by Jerry Pournelle (Mercenary, West of Honor, Go Tell The Spartans, and Prince of Sparta) are also very good, if you want military fiction. The War World series, set in the same universe, is a collection of short stories and novels by various authors (including Harry Turtledove). Also a seriously good read. The David Drake series mentioned above now has a third book out (The Far Side of the Stars, IIRC). This series just keeps getting better. E.E. Doc Smith's Subspace Explorers series (2 books) is also good, though hard to find. The Voices series by David Feintuch is quite good. An interesting universe, with a lot of homage to C.S. Forrester and the Napoleonic era.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Awhile back, our group was playing our bi-monthly (that other system) game. The party comes upon a deceased dark elf, who was obviously mortally wounded elsewhere then crawled to where we found him before expiring. After the DM describes all this, one of the other players looks at me and says, "So he was still alive when he died?"

Re: Alien Wars? Alien Wars is the Champions Universe (i.e., official) setting for the century prior to the Terran Empire setting. Alien Wars chronicles the war against the Xenovores. It is primarily a military adventure setting, although there are plenty of options for other types of adventure, too.

Re: Modern-Day Fantasy A good source of ideas for this type of campaign would be the Lord Darcy books by Randall Garrett (Lord Darcy Investigates and Too Many Magicians are the only titles I can recall right now). No elves or dwarves, but a GOOD look at the modern world where magic exists side-by-side with technology. A main character in the books is a forensic sorceror. But technology also exists, though at a mid-19th century level.

Re: Should this be called Dark Champions? I agree with the consensus here. Dark Champions is a confusing name at best; I had completely the wrong idea about what this book was about. Modern Hero or Action Hero would certainly be more informative, and would be likely to draw in buyers who otherwise wouldn't give it a second glance. I would have been one who wouldn't even consider it, if not for the "We're gonna need guns" thread. That got my attention sufficiently to read the full description, which finally made me realize that this is exactly the sourcebook I need for the Post-Apocalypse game I'm currently running.

Re: DARK CHAMPIONS: What Do *You* Want To See? I was also thrown by the title; I didn't think I wanted this product until I read your description, Steve. Now I can hardly wait until it comes out. Two suggestions for things I'd like to see in it: 1.) Espionage and Danger: International had Size rules for weapons/gadgets/devices, along with the modifiers to Perception to spot concealed gear. I'l love to see a section on how to handle this; it just seems so appropriate for this genre. I don't necessarily suggest bringing back the Size rules; just include some way to figure out what a particular weapon or gadget's modifier to Concealment/Perception is. 2.) For the weapons, gadgets, and devices that you do write up and include, please include both cost and weight. As mentioned previously, cost is an important factor in this genre. Weight matters, too, because Encumbrance can be a huge factor in a Heroic level game. Thanks your for attention.

Re: Some suggestions for FRED revised. I'd like to echo this request of Dan's. As I understand it, the current method (Side Effect) is an FAQ ruling, and actually contradicts the way weapons were originally written up in FRED. I posted a question to Dan over in the HERO Designer forum because HD v1 allowed you to create negative skill levels that applied to yourself when you used a particular weapon (the weapon is inherently inaccurate or short-ranged). HD v2 no longer allows you to do this, in accordance with this FAQ ruling. I find making the negative levels a Side Effect to be counter-intuitive and inelegant, too. I genuinely preferred the original method of applying negative levels to the user of the weapon.

Re: Firefly Badger, you don't know how ironically funny that cartoon is. I watched the first 2 episodes after a friend gave me the DVD set for Christmas. Then my wife came home from work. When I told her about it, she remembered watching (part of) the train robbery episode with me when it was first on. She didn't like it then, but wanted to watch the pilot since she'd never seen it. Over the next two weeks, we watched the whole thing. But I kept having to wait for her to get home from work to watch it. Most amazing of all, she enjoyed every bit as much as I did. She's suffered through my Star Trek fixation for 17 years, but rarely enjoys any science fiction show enough to actually say so. Just goes to show you how good Firefly really was, that a non-science fiction fan thought it was great television.

Re: What do you call this genre? Good sourcebooks: Too Many Magicians, Lord Darcy Investigates, and at least 1 more book (name escapes me), all by Randall Garrett. Summary of Premise: King Richard the Lionheart in the Crusades, a monk in his time period discovered magic and got the blessing of the Church, and the Plantagenet dynasty never fell. Fast forward to the 1960's: Magic is a licensed profession (Lord Darcy's companion is a forensic sorceror), but technology exists as well. The Plantagenets STILL rule the Anglo-French empire, and their major enemy is the Polish Empire. REALLY good reads, and a fabulous world for this kind of setting.

Re: Origins Award Nomination In the software category, anything less than a win for Hero Designer is absurd. I've also done software support, and HD compares favorably to anything M*******t has put out. And that doesn't even consider Dan's incredible support of the product. The way he answers questions personally here, and has incorporated requested features, is absolutely unprecedented. To not even put HD in the final round is an absolute travesty. One wonders about the impartiality of the judges.

Terran Empire Weapons Systems Table (page 56): The Armor Depletion Beam has a listed A/R Cost of 2617, and a Price of 11. Protective Systems: Defense Packages 3.T and 4.E (Page 58): The Hull Armor in each package is not Hardened (+¼). The Hull Armor in Terran Empire (page 166) for Defense Packages 3 and 4 IS Hardened; this is inconsistent. Point Defense Systems: Elite Point Defense System (Page 58): The table lists this system as “Elite PDS Mark X.†The text has it as “Elite Point Defense System Mark II.†Also, the computed total in the text is incorrect. The total given is 28 Real Points; the Real Cost should be 36. Thorgon IBL “Hammerhead†War Cruiser (pp. 114-5): The Tactical Systems list on page 114 shows Mark XII Starship Lasers. The second sentence of the first paragraph of the Description (page 115) lists “eight X†lasers. Also, the last sentence of the first paragraph of the Description (page 115) says “The ship also has four forward-and-aft-mounted missile launchers (two in each direction).†However, the writeup for this ship on pp. 114-5 does not include missile launchers. Terran Empire Price List, Personal Sensor Units, Soil Analyzer (Page 125): ATRI is listed as 19. Terran Empire Price List, Ground Vehicles, Toractan Excavator (Page 126): The year in service for this vehicle is listed as 2435, with an ATRI of 10. However, Terran Empire (page 23) says: “The Toractans had ATRI 4 technology when Terran explorers discovered them in 2467. Exposure to Imperial technology has rapidly advanced them to ATRI 9.â€

Steve, thank you for the previous answer; I was afraid I was just missing something completely. A further question, though: For step 12 (still page 93 of Star Hero), how do you determine that any given planet does or does not have life forms? (I see in the text on page 91 where you roll to determine whether there is intelligent life, but I can't find a method to determine whether there is life at all.) The Life Complexity Table does not have anywhere to roll. It gives the appearance of assuming that a planet automatically has lifeforms (assuming, of course, that the planet meets the other conditions listed on pp. 90-1). Is this correct? In other words, do you automatically assign life to a world which meets a condition in the list under the topic Exotic Life on page 90? If not, how do you decide?

On page 93 of Star Hero, Step 12 of the Quick Planet Creation checklist says, "Step 12: Roll on the Life Forms Table to see what kind of creatures exist." Can anyone tell me where the Life Forms Table is? I've looked through my copy of Star Hero several times, and I don't see any table with that title. The Life Complexity Table on page 91 just doesn't seem to fit the description in the text, and nothing else is even close.

On page 93 of Star Hero, Step 12 of the Quick Planet Creation checklist says, "Step 12: Roll on the Life Forms Table to see what kind of creatures exist." Can anyone tell me where the Life Forms Table is? I've looked through my copy of Star Hero several times, and I don't see any table with that title. (Maybe my Density Increase only affects my brain today.)

Traveller-HERO campaign I've just begun a Traveller-HERO campaign. Our group is only three people, so my 2 players are a noble ex-Marine on the outs with his family, and a former Aslan scout (retired). I've done a bunch of conversions of equipment, and am in the process of building prefabs for all of the gear. As for the package deal for the Aslan, I just winged it. I wrote a conversion system for all characters, and added racial abilities to the Aslan that seemed to fit. I plan on starting the team off with some old Traveller modules I never got to finish (The Traveller Adventure, then perhaps Twilight's Peak and/or Expedition to Zhodane). By the way, I was VERY disappointed with the HERO Designer pack for Star Hero. The Bestiary download, for only $2.00 more, had over 350 files, while the Star Hero pack had less than 100. And a dozen of the Star Hero prefabs were repeats of the Size/Weight packages included with the Bestiary. Where were all the weapons and equipment from Star Hero? (pp. 148-176). Of all those examples, something like 6 were included in the Star Hero pack, 2 generic blaster weapons, a force blade and energy sword, and 2 robots. I'm going to be VERY reluctant to buy packages in the future, until I'm certain they're actually worth the price. I'm having to write up most of the things I expected to find in the download. One of the first things I've always found with Traveller players is they want to buy stuff, and I wanted to have the gear all ready for them. I thought that the Star Hero pack would take care of that, but it helped hardly at all. (Down off my soap box, now.)