Urlord

Here is the revised HD file after applying most of the suggestions by @dsatow as well as adding the Rapid Attack Skill. I didn't add the Ultrasonic Hearing or HRRH since it wouldn't really have an effect in the campaign. What do you think now? Insectoid - Varkon.hdc

@dsatow - Great suggestions. Thank you very much.

Here is my first stab as this creature, what do you think? Insectoid - Varkon.hdc

It's been years since I read the book and I just watched the first movie again the other day. So I guess the movies. However, any comments on diffrences between the two would be appreciated.

Thanks for your responses and perhaps I need to explain better. I want creatures in my new campaign that are similar in design to the Arachnids from Starship Troopers. I want the fierceness and toughness of them, but not the hive mind. They will be encountered solitary or in small groups. If captured young enough, they can be tamed as workers and mounts (both civilian and military). There are also the flying bugs as well which can be used as flying mounts. My campaign is low magic fantasy. These creatures should be the upper level of land and aerial mounts. I can create them from scratch, but I wanted the thoughts of others.

Has anyone ever tried to create the Arachnids from Starship Troopers in the Hero System? If so, I would love to see what you did. I am creating unique creatures for my new campaign and I am wanting something similar to the Soldier, the Hoppers and the Arial bugs. There will be wild versions as well as domesticated/tamed versions.

Umm, wouldn't the logical power to use be Dispell?

This is kind of like an AE Sleep spell, but instead of sleeping, they just lay around and say "Nah, I really don't feel like it right now." For the AE, I thought about making it mobile with a limitation that the caster dies not having control of where it moves, it moves with the wind. Does this help at all? I don't have the book in front of me, so can some one explain Conforming?

I am looking for assistance on creating a "Fog of Apathy" spell. The caster creates the fog which drifts according with the wind (if there is any) for a period of time. Creatures caught in the fog (non-selective) are filled with an overwhelming feeling of apathy that lasts for 1 hour.

In the campaign I am working on, there is a minor ritual called "Blessing of the Lesser Servant". With this ritual, I want the Priest to be able to summon a minor spirit to possess a corpse and become his temporary servant. The Summon Power looks to fit the bill perfectly, because it is not permanent and the the Priest isn't guaranteed to be able to control the summons. I have built the ritual as follows: Blessing of the Lesser Servant: Summon 40-point (Minor Spirit), Any mostly intact corpse (Very Limited Group; +1/4) (10 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Turn (Post-Segment 12), -1 1/4), OAF (Focus: A mostly intact corpse; -1), Increased Endurance Cost (x2 END; -1/2), Requires A Blessings of Thrask Skill Roll (Skill roll; -1/2), Concentration (1/2 DCV; -1/4), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4), Side Effects (15 Active Points or 1/4 the Ritual's Active Points (whichever is greater); -1/4); Real Cost: 2, END: 4 One might assume the corpse would typically be a standard size humanoid. But, it doesn't have to be. It could be used on a spider, wolf, or an elephant corpse. However, an elephant would be very different than a tarantula. Should I create some sort of templates to account for different corpses?

Hello Hero Players, I'm looking for minimalist Stat Block ideas for enemies in a heroic campaign. I want to put the enemies on index cards for easier reference and handling during play. Do any of you know of any such stat blocks? If not, what is the minimum information you would like to see on such a card? Keep in mind that there are two sides to the card and would some information be better for one side or the other.

Your comment made me research things and you're right about taking a recovery with a held action. Somewhere down the line after years of play, I forgot that and my wonderful players never reminded me (I wonder why, hummm). But, it will be corrected next game session. Luckily, it didn't happened that often. With that corrected, here is how I intend to use Segment Cards incorporating Held Actions. At the beginning of a Turn, the GM shuffles the 12 Segment Cards and places them face down. We also have Held Action Cards to the side. Each Segment, the top Segment Card is flipped over revealing the current Segment. If characters can act on the Current Segment, they act in order of DEX rolls (ties are handled as simultaneous actions - this can be fun when it happens). A character may elect to Hold their Action (all or none - no held partial actions), if so they get a Held Action Card (they can only have one Held Action Card at a time). Held Actions may not be used to take a recovery (Thanks eepjr24 for straightening me out) On any future Segment, a character may trade in their Held Action Card to act immediately as long as they have not already acted in that Segment. If a character's Segment comes up and they are holding a Held Action Card, they take their action as normal retaining the Held Action Card for a future Segment. I understand this is a minor adjustment to the canonized rules regarding Holding an Action, but it makes sense and doesn't impact game play adversely. When, all 12 Segment Cards are used up, it's Post-Segment 12 as normal and we get ready for the next Turn. At the end of a conflict, all Held Action Cards are collected. This adds randomness to to a Turn without additional complexity and handles Held Actions without penalizing characters who purchased higher SPD. This is probably most useful for Heroic Campaigns and not so much for Supers, but we almost exclusively play Heroic.

In reality how most players use it is... If they have a held phase and their Phase card flips, then just before their DEX they use the held phase for a recovery, snap-shot, suppression fire or something and then hold their next Phase. It looks like it penalizes higher SPD characters on the surface, but it actually gives them a lot of flexibility in a combat.

If a character elects to hold their Phase, they are able to act at any point until their next Phase+DEX comes up, at which point, their held phase expires. What this does for my games is it makes combats less predictable without adding complexity or completely changing the process. It also keeps players who have characters with low SPD more engaged since they don't know when their next phase will come up. I'm not saying its for everyone, but it works in our games.

What I do is... As a GM, I have a deck of 12 cards with numbers 1-12 on the faces. At the beginning of each Turn, I quickly shuffle the cards and then cut them. I place the deck face down and flip the top card. This is the current Phase. Any character who can act goes in order of DEX. When that phase is over, I flip the next card revealing the next phase, and so on until all the cards are used. Then it is Post-Segment Recovery. While the players are updating their END and STUN, I reshuffle and get ready for the next Turn. Real simple and solves several issues,

This is interesting - I haven't seen this thread. Could you point me to it please?

The only way I would allow a Hay Maker with a bow is if the archer decided to use the bow staff like a club and smack some with it. I'm Just Say'n!

The recessed areas are only 4" x 6" @ 3/4" deep. They are for holding your dice. We roll in the leather covered area on each side of the TV or sometimes on the TV itself. Another reason for the piece of glass over it. Thanks for the compliment.

I found this statement to be very revealing and thought to myself... "Wow, that seems like a lot of water." I then wanted to look the calculations. I'm assuming, when you say HEX, you mean a standard 2m across hexagon by 2 meters tall? Is a Hex different in. If that assumption is correct, a hex volume is 10.4 cu. meters. Water weighs 1000kg (1 tonne) per cubic meter, so a single hex of water is 10.4 tonnes. A 12d6 Blast is 60 active points and costs 12 END (1 END per 5 AP in my low magic campaign). You were probably going on the standard 1/10 END cost. To charge a water caster's Mana Pool with 12 END would require the destruction of 2 hexes of water, given a standard of 6 BODY per hex. That is even more water than I thought - its 20.8 tonnes of water or 5,492 gallons. That is over 100 standard whiskey barrels. IS THAT RIGHT?

I want the use of magic to be destructive to the environment, which is why the game world is so messed up (Dystopian Fantasy World with toxic air & water, vast dry wastelands where there shouldn't be, lack of mineral resources, dehumanized population). This magic I call "Consumption Magic" meaning that it consumes much more than the benefits it offers. An example of this would be Healing someone from a Spirit source: It should take 2 BODY drained to heal 1 BODY of damage. A similar level of consumption should be seen with the other four elements. I like Markdoc's idea of tying it to the REC of an END Reserve. But, after reading the Transform power, you cannot kill/destroy with Transform. The Drain power however states that if an object is Drained of all its BODY, it is destroyed - which is what I want. But, what would hexes of destroyed Air & Water look like, and how long would it linger? How about this for the Spirit Element: BLOOD MAGIC (Spirit Element) Characters attuned to the Spirit Element must use the life-force (spirit) of sentient, living creatures to charge their Mana Pool. The Mana Pool Recharge Power must use Personal END. All Blood Magic spells must have: Must Cost END (From Blood Magic Mana Pool); Requires A Magic Skill Roll (-1/2); Concentration, 1/2 DCV (-1/4); Gestures (-1/4); Incantations (-1/4) Blood Magic Mana Pool: Endurance Reserve (30 END, 6 REC) Reserve: (12 Active Points); REC: (4 Active Points); Limited Recovery: 1 REC per BODY drained through Blood Magic Drain Ability (-2) Cost (A/R): 16 / 9; END (1 per 5 AP): None Blood Magic Drain Ability: Drain BODY 1d6 (10 Active Points); Only to recharge Blood Magic Mana Pool Power (-2); Extra Time, 1 Turn - Post-Segment 12, (-1 1/4); Gestures, Requires Gestures throughout, Requires both hands -1; No Range (-1/2); Incantations, Requires Incantations throughout (-1/2); Requires A Magic Skill Roll (-1/2); Concentration, 0 DCV (-1/2) Cost (A/R): 10 / 1; END (1 per 5 AP): 2 (personal) Body Mending: Healing BODY 2d6 (20 Active Points); Extra Time,1 Minute, Character May Take No Other Actions, (-1 3/4); Requires A Magic Skill Roll (-1/2); Concentration, 1/2 DCV, (-1/4); Gestures (-1/4); Incantations (-1/4) Cost (A/R): 20 / 5; END (1 per 5 AP): 4 (Blood Magic Mana Pool)

Need a little help with the magic system. Magic is split into the five classic elements (Fire, Air, Earth, Water and Spirit). Mages are attuned to one element based on the season in which they are born. It is possible to be attuned to two elements if born on the cusp. All that is pretty traditional stuff. Where it differs, is the element you are attuned to is not the special effect of your spells, but where you draw magical energies from. When you cast a spell, you consume (and destroy) an amount of the element you are attuned to. So, an mage attuned to earth could design a Blast power with any special effect they wanted, but the "Fuel" used to power it must be Earth based (metals, gems, etc). A mage attuned to Spirit (aka Blood Mage) must use BODY of a living sentient being, to power their spells instead of END. Either their BODY or someone else's. The BODY for the Spirit element is actually the easiest to create in FH. Where I am needing help is mechanically how to structure the other four elements. Any help will be most appreciated.

Testing...

How Come I cannot include pictures in my posts? Am I not worthy?

In my gaming group, we are still having this discussion too. I think we all find it a fascinating topic. First a bit of background material: In our games, we have a house rule for Criticals and Fumbles... 3 = Critical Success (0.46%)...Typically Maximum Effect. 4 = Success (1.38%)............Always a success, regardless of target number. 17 = Failure (1.38%)............Always a failure, regardless of the target number. 18 = Critical Failure (0.46%)...The GM gets to really screw with the character. One of the ideas we came up with is all gear has a Quality Rating with Standard being the default. Each Quality/Condition Rating has a value modifier and an Unmodified Burnout Roll associated with it. We even added a 3d6 roll to determine random quality/condition. 3d6 Quality/Condition (Value Mod) Roll To Avoid Breakage 3.........Junk (x0.25 or less)................................8- 3-5........Shoddy (x0.50)......................................9- 6-8........Poor (x0.75) ......................................10- 9-12.......Standard (x1.00) ..................................11- 13-15.......Good (x1.50).......................................12- 16-17.......Great (x2.00)......................................13- 18.........Masterwork (x3.00 or more).........................14- Whenever a Failure or Critical Failure is rolled (1.85% chance) when actively using a piece of gear, the Quality/Condition must be rolled to check for breakage. This avoids keeping track of any damage, tick marks, etc., and adds the randomness of breaking things into the game. This works fine for actively used gear, like weapons, but for passively used gear, like armor, we're still tossing ideas around.

Poison Resistance: +5 with CON Rolls (10 Active Points); Only to Resist the effects of Poison (-1) (5 Real Points) Disease Resistance: +5 with CON Rolls (10 Active Points); Only to Resist the effects of Disease (-1) (5 Real Points)