tancred

Re: FRPG Ideas from Hero that ain't necessarily so

To a degree' date=' however, it's logical. In a world where magic exists, can be studied and behaves predictably ('make this gesture, say this word, and something will explode'), magic replaces science, so inaccessible magic items make about as much sense as the real world having inaccessible toasters. Magic should have effects on sociological development, including communications, agriculture, and, indeed, warfare and weaponry.[/quote']

 

Pretty much my sentiments.

I've always thought that, if magic is as predictable as you describe, it would essentially replace technology.

(For a REALLY cool take on this, read Hell's Gate by David Weber and Linda Evans. No spoilers, but they explore this very concept.)

 

I've created any number of "mundane" magic items in my games over the years, things with no use in combat but that logically (to my mind at least) would get created because magic makes them possible.

 

The two examples that stand out are a magic "icebox" and a flameless stove.

The implications are large. Remember what refrigeration did by making it so easy to store food.

And imagine being able to cook under conditions where an open flame simply isn't practical (aboard ship in a storm, for example).

Re: Help

Fantasy Hero, page 246, defines Combat Modifiers and Combat Maneuvers that cannot be used with spells.

It then defines that set of restrictions as the Spell Limitation that can be applied to attack spells.

Re: Weather Generator

I have a random names generator program that I built from the old Judges' Guild Treasury of Archaic Names.

It would only take me a couple of hours to add weather to it if I had tables to put in my database.

The only drawback is, it's a VB.NET program; you'd need to be running something with the .NET Framework installed to be able to use it.

Re: Quick confusion on Unusual Senses

I'm not saying it should be' date=' or that the system should not allow such a build: I'm saying there should be an appropriate cost differentiation between senses restricted or stopped by common objects or phenomena, senses restricted or stopped by uncommon objects or phenomena and senses that can't be stopped at all. I'm not so keen on the 'one tool does it all' approach.[/quote']

 

Sean, I don't often agree with you; I'm more of a "It works well enough; leave it alone" mindset.

 

But that makes SO very much sense it's frightening.

Re: New to the Fora; Back to Hero

Welcome back, Vann!

I would suggest checking out Hero Designer. For $25, you get the hands-down best-ever character creation software.

It includes optional rules from most of the published books (and new options are being added), and it enforces the rules to help you make everything legal by the 5th Edition rules.

You can export character sheets in a variety of formats, including making combat record sheets.

There are character packs for nearly all genres. Many of them are an even better steal, as little as $6.99.

It's so very cool to load up a published character or monster, spend 5 minutes tweaking it, and have your adversary for the night.

Even if you like doing your characters with a scratch-pad and a calculator (and I did for years), you'll like HD. It's so easy to use.

Re: I am so, so old...

Nifty! I just bought a copy of Talisman for our family as well. Looking forward to the random mayhem!

Talisman is a hoot; you and your kids should have a blast.

They wanted to play D&D with me, but I don't know it well enough to run it.

I figured they weren't quite ready for Hero yet (the older one is only 10), but Talisman is a good intro.

I figure I can get them into FH by saying, "So how would you like to make up your own Talisman character?"

Either that, or go straight to superheroes; whatever works.

Re: I am so, so old...

Scott, that is so VERY cool.

Enjoy; I know you will.

We don't have any kids of our own, but one of my wife's friends has two boys, who LOVE to play Talisman with me.

We've bought them their own copy for Christmas, and I hope to teach them Champions in a couple more years, when they're old enough.

Re: Whats your view of PC expiry? What's your in-game mortality rate?

I keep being surprised by the resilience of PCs; time and again I've been sure I was heading towards a TPK and had nobody die at all. I have to resist the urge to keep ramping up the danger level out of sheer pique

Amen, brother!

I've only ever killed one PC.

That one was in a Traveller game, 27 years ago. The players were investigating the Ringworld. The PC flew over a field of sunflowers, in daylight. (Somebody HAD to die.) And the player was getting bored with the character anyway. He wound up happier, with a new character.

Re: Starting a new game

Welcome, Ilari.

What CorPse said, only more so.

Buy Hero Designer. Buy it NOW. It will help you so much, you'll wonder how you ever gamed without it. Even when you never played Hero before. It's THAT good.

Start simple. Play a couple of combats to get used to how that works; DON'T use any of the Optional rules at first.

Yes, Hit Locations are a blast, but they add complexity that you don't need to worry with when you're just getting started.

Most of all, have fun.

Re: Building a Library

They went to an actual book for Hero? Neat. Between that and G:Traveller' date=' I'd be all set up for the system. BTW, for all you Traveller fans who didn't know about it yet, the Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society is now in emagazine at jtas.sjgames.com . Loren Wiseman is the editor and the mag is set up for all versions.[/quote']

 

Traveller Hero is available in both print and PDF versions. You also get Hero Designer files for vehicles, equipment, package deals, and so on.

 

If you want to use the Hero System to play in the Traveller universe (any era), you're who we did the conversion for.

 

Comstar also has 2 print books for the 1248 setting. These books are NOT system-specific; they are generic setting books and can be used with any version of Traveller, including Traveller Hero.

Re: Crossover Adventure Seed: Traveller Hero

Now we know what REALLY happened to the galaxy in 1116...

Foxbat!

Re: Building a Library

DEFINITELY pick up Hero Designer as soon as possible.

It will be the best $25 you spend on gaming, bar none. It is so useful that I could go on for pages about how much use you will get out of it. I'll skip that and just say, buy it; you'll be glad you did.

As for other books, decide what genre you want to run and concentrate on that. You said you got Star Hero. If you're going to run a science-fiction game, consider The Spacer's Toolkit, Terran Empire, Alien Wars, and the Vehicle books (Ultimate Vehicle and Vehicle Sourcebook).

Closely related might be Traveller Hero, sold by Comstar Games (click the link in my signature for more information on that). (Why yes, I am one of the co-authors, why do you ask? )

No matter what genre you're running, you will probably want the Ultimate Martial Artist (everybody loves martial arts) and the Hero System Bestiary. If you're going to run fantasy, or want to use more fantastic monsters in another genre, look at Monsters, Minions and Marauders, too.

Re: The Rouges of Sci-Fi

And don't forget Retief is a "two-fisted" diplomat.

He should definitely have some skill in hand-to-hand combat. I think maybe Dirty Infighting, or perhaps Commando Training.

Re: "Your girlfriend works for VIPER!" Huh?

I was in a game where one of the hero PCs hooked up with a villainess NPC that way. It helped in that case that the NPC was not so much of the "take over the world' date=' Muahahahah" type and more the "mercenary who takes cases based on her personal morality rather than what's legal". They both eventually retired and got married and then their kid turned up in another campaign.[/quote']

 

Heh, sounds like my old Champions campaign. One of my players, a rich society man-about-town, fell for the leading socialite philanthropist beauty.

 

Then she turned out to be a supervillain. Of course, she wasn't really evil, just inclined to rob jewelry stores. She'd grown up poor, made herself rich, then turned philanthropist.

 

He eventually convinced her to give up crime, they got married, and were living mostly happily ever after when the campaign went on hold.

Re: What kind of fantasy campaigns do you love?

SJR, my group has just put one FH game on hold and started a Turakian Age fantasy game.

Based on both of these, here are two things I've learned.

1). Hit locations increase lethality, due to the increased damage conferred by certain locations. The trade-off is that's it's more dramatic (and satisfying to the players) to do extra damage for head or vitals shots.

2). You can reduce the lethality by requiring the players to keep track of each wound individually, and allowing each wound to be treated/healed separately.

A follow-on to that is to allow the Paramedics Skill (called Healing in Fantasy Hero) to restore 1 BODY per wound.

This makes combat considerably more survivable, and reduces down-time while the characters heal up (or reduces the need for large quantities of magical healing).

Re: Order of the Stick

"Evil adventuring party." "It happens."

Bwa-ha-ha-ha.

Re: [Review] Ninja Hero

Interesting... I've used UMA for all the games I've done. (Helps that I have HeroDesigner and the UMA/NH character packs/prefabs.)

Same here; all my players love martial arts.

Next to the Bestiary pack, and HD itself, the UMA/NH pack is the best bargain out there.

Re: Old School vs. New School

Welcome, UpChuck!

I definitely recommend that you get the Hero System 5th Edition, Revised rulebook (often referred to as 5ER). The expansion of the rules, with all the extra clarification and examples, is extremely useful.

Depending on what genre you're playing, look at the Ultimate line (Ultimate Martial Artist, Ultimate Skill, Ultimate Brick, etc.). All are very well-written and extremely useful.

The genre books (Champions, Fantasy Hero, Dark Champions, Star Hero, etc.) are also very useful.

And let me second what Checkmate said: Buy Hero Designer NOW!

It is hands-down the best tool you will find for character creation. Because it enforces the rules of the Hero System, you will find it useful for getting up to speed on how the new Edition works.

AND it makes creating characters so very easy.

At $25, it's an absolute steal, a must-have.

Re: Hello, I am new to HERO

I started playing in 1983' date=' D&D in 81. I'm old[/quote']

 

You young whippersnappers!

This goblin started playing D&D in 1977, Traveller in 1980, and saw the light and found Champions in 1983.

The goblin is definitely getting creaky.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so

Back on topic:

70) Every non-human race has its own language. And only one language per non-human race, no matter where they live.

71) Your code of behavior confers on you a special language, that is automatically spoken by every other person in the world who shares a similar code of behavior.

Re: [Review] The Ultimate Martial Artist

If it would help to get it printed' date=' I'd buy 2. [/quote']

 

Me three.

Would make good Christmas gifts for my group, so I'll take 5 copies...

Re: How many Dragon's teeth adorn YOUR shield?

Wyrm, your perspective on dragons is truly memorable; must remember it for my own use.

I can only remember encountering a dragon twice, in all the years I've gamed.

The first was an ancient red, in 2nd edition D&D. My paladin and party had to take him down to reclaim the 2nd of 3 pieces of my heirloom sword. (NOT killing him wasn't an option, as he'd been charged by a demon to guard it.)

We killed him fairly quickly, because my friend playing a half-elven ranger had gone to your school of dragon-slaying.

He had multiple potions, saved over real-time months of gaming, that in combination allowed us to handle his attacks and deal enough damage quickly enough to do the job.

The multiple potions ticked off the GM so bad that he made up a rule on the spot that you had to make a CON save when taking multiple potions. Naturally, my friend failed his (with like a 97% chance!).

Not all bad, though, because my paladin got to argue with a Valkyrie to keep the ranger from being hauled off to paradise.

Best speech I've ever made.

The 2nd one was actually a dracolich, in 5th Edition Fantasy Hero.

We had a secret weapon that (we found out later) cancelled his massive Regeneration. Had we not had that, we'd have been handed our backsides by the end of the first Turn.

With that, and timely use of a Hero point (our other GM gives out Hero points that can do basically ANYTHING; essentially a limited Wish) that allowed me to do max damage with my first spell which actually Stunned the thing, we took it out.

It was a hard fight, and he played it smart, but we finally prevailed.

Both were pretty memorable battles, though not up to your standard.

In my old campaign world, dragons had been extinct for almost a thousand years. (In that magic system, a dragon's heart was a component in a longevity potion, and they'd been hunted to extinction.)

Since I'm starting a Turakian Age game, where dragons are still around, my players may get a chance to fight one. If so, I will be applying your advice on how it should go.

Re: Hello, I am new to HERO

Welcome, dualj.

A worthwhile purchase to consider is the Hero Designer program. It will help you quickly learn to put together characters for Hero. You can set it to use only Sidekick, or the full rules set, whichever you have available.

At $25, it's an absolute steal.

Re: Magical Healing, it's not for Clerics.

For empathic healing, you can use the Side Effect Limitation.

The severity of the Limitation depends on how much damage the Empath takes.

If he takes the full amount of the damage he heals, use the Extreme Side Effect level (a -1 Limitation).

If he takes about half as much damage as he heals, use Major Side Effect (-½).

And if he only takes a quarter of the damage, or only takes STUN but can heal BODY damage, use a Minor Side Effect (-¼).

Note that you'd take all of these as Always occuring when you use the power.

You can apply this to any type of healing you allow the Empath to buy.

Also note that you have to specify WHICH Characteristic you apply Healing to. This is a change from older editions.

You could represent removing scars as a Heal to COM.

Alternately, you also mentioned having Healing producing scarring.

This could be a second Side Effect on the Healing.

Steve, several of the spells in the Fantasy Hero Grimoire reference a Varying Dimensions (Adder or Advantage; the book isn't clear which it is).

For example, the Wall of Iron on page 87, or the Wall of Bones on page 160. In both cases, Varying Dimensions is listed under a "Shapeable" variant of the spell.

I can't find Varying Dimensions anywhere, either in 5ER or Fantasy Hero. (It's not in either index, nor is it listed with Entangle, which is the Power used in both spells.)

Can you tell me where to look?

Thank you!