CorpCommander

Re: Silver Bullets - Ballistic Effectiveness Actually, if you do it right, the hardness of the silver plating should prevent it from scraping off like brass or copper does. I use copper sheathed bullets in my .308 and a lot of the cleaning I do is to remove the metal as opposed to the carbon buildup from the powder charge. The amount lost from the copper is not nearly enough to affect the final bullet upon impact on target so the same would be expected of silver. I do like the idea of using a high density core to improve the ballistic coefficient of the silver bullet. Of course it depends upon the Age and location of the adventure if such high density cores are even available and if the technique is available for creating such bullets. Thanks for the valuable input!

Everyone knows Silver Bullets get the job done, right? So why aren't all bullets made of Silver? Better to spend a bit more to get all that effectiveness right? Well, don't rush out and spend a lot on special reloading supplies just yet. Silver Bullets have some negative benefits one must weigh against their superior performance against lycanthropes. First: What's Good They are often listed as having a major impact on the limitations a lycanthrope has used to by defenses and or BODY. They have good hardness (2.5 Mohs) and fantastic shear modulus (30 GPa) so their penetration capability is fantastic at short range! They have a reputation in some circles as a symbol of justice. What their limitations are: Silver is much less dense than lead and because the volume of the bullet is determined by the chamber size of the gun, a silver bullet of comparable caliber is going to be lighter. This has an interesting effect on the aerodynamic stability of the bullet causing it to be more easily deflected. At longer ranges, silver bullets are inaccurate! Finally, casting silver bullets is not quite as easy as just melting down silver dollars! See this article for the difficulties involved: http://www.patriciabriggs.com/books/silver/silverbullet2.shtml So, this Halloween, before you go off to hunt werewolves, just remember, silver bullets aren't perfect. Get in close, take careful aim and git er done.

Re: Power Suits Remote Assault Drones Who needs air power? We just bring our own!

I had a very interesting discussion about what vehicles one might prefer in a Post-apocalypse setting. Obviously the environment would dictate the general nature of the ideal vehicle (Waterworld vs. Mad Max's desert) but we tossed around ideas on which APCs from today's world would be best. Clearly the lighter, more fuel efficient ones would be best because the fight for fuel would be really tight but then the discussion took a whole new twist. Some groups would opt to go with different technology and develop really amazing off road bikes (human power). Some would rediscover the value of horses (assuming enough edible plant life) and some would devise alcohol based vehicles. Then someone suggested bio-diesel fuel... which meant that every fast food restaurant would be a magnet for scavengers because of the massive fat traps. The idea of fighting over a MacDonalds because of it's fuel reserves... wonderful! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel

Re: Power Suits Remote Assault Drones Automatons is an interesting way to go. You can justify tinkering with them. Making them a separate focus allows for them to also be targeted apart from you. I agree with using doubling instead of quantity. 10 pts of doubling is equal to the 15 you are spending on quantity. What you want to create is a compound power so that if attacked all of the powers go away if the attack is successful. Compound Power: An ability or power constructed by using two or more Powers or other game elements. Typically it involves the Linked Limitation (6E1 383) or a partially- Limited power (6E1 366). For example, a “Flare Blast” that combines a Blast 8d6 with a Sight Group Flash 4d6 is a compound power.

Re: The Footprint of God (?) Given the age of the purported fossil it moved via geologic activity. Lots of fossils are found on hillsides in a different angle from which they were originally formed. Its discovery in 1912 predates a lot of understanding of plate tectonics and geological activity that we have today. The science of geology was barely 20 years old at that time so the ideas needed to make it a plausible hoax are missing. The only explanation there can be... Mythos!

Re: Converting Dark Champions 5th Edition to the 6th Edition rules 6th edition for me. The Equipment guide has most/all equipment you need in 6th edition and I always create my own NPCs.

Start here: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?38174-Giant-Footprint-shown-by-Michael-Tellinger-in-South-Africa/page3 In 1912 a giant foot print was found as an impression in granite. It is 4' long indicating a 26' (7.5 meter) tall humanoid. It is considered a sacred place. It is estimated to be 200 million years old. Nearby were found crystal skulls, weird carvings and giant bones. That's what they say. Read all of the comments to get the full length story from the local tribesman who had been visiting the site since 1937! Cthulhu? Bible Giants? Very large ancient astronauts? YOU DECIDE!

Here is a tutorial series I have started that I want to use to help my new players when I start a new campaign. I hope to take the tutorial series from character creation to combat and adventuring to finally end with some esoteric and advanced topics. This first part hardly scratches actually building a character and mainly focuses on building a strong character concept and background first. Suggestions are always welcome! http://victorypoints.com/2011/07/creating-a-character-in-the-hero-system-tutorial-part-1/

Re: armor and endurance I plan to add it to my next campaign among other limitations. It will be more survival centered than "explore the dungeon" centered. Amour requires care against rust and damage. You can't sit comfortably in it for long. You certainly can't sleep in it. We have this image in fantasy games of people wearing armor all the time. Hey, I get it, you paid the points for it after all! Its just not realistic. You put on armor when you go to war or are on duty but you don't "hang out" in it!

Re: Magic systems based on science? Mage 2 Mage is pretty cool! Thanks for the link! Don't forget "The Empire of the East" series in which a version of our world, during the Cold War goes through The Change in which nuclear defenses (and by that I mean they defend against nukes and not that they threaten the rest of the world with nuclear weapons for deterrent) are actually created that change subtly the basic function of certain sub-atomic physical laws. The "Enemy" (Commies lets face it!!!) have their own defense system. When they go to war both systems go into effect and as the wavefronts collide unexpected results are had and the world is changed from one where science works to one where magic rules. One of the chief bad guys was a nuke that was going off then the wave hit and transformed it into a demonic beast. Technology runs through out the books. In fact part of the first book is about the hero stealing and operating a main battle tank and kicking ass with it. Oh and the protagonist is a young man with "special gifts he wasn't aware he had" whose family is killed by the Empire so he joins the rebellion. You probably think this is a total rip off of Star Wars... and it is Star Wars that filed the serial number off that story and stole it! Star Wars comes 10 years AFTER the first book The Broken Lands was written. Empire of the East + Ardneh's Sword by Fred Saberhagen. Get them!

This article is interesting. It seems to state the obvious, wearing armor is tiring work! http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/07/heavy-armor-gave-knights-a-worko.html The point is, and I think this is relevant if you are running a gritty realistic fantasy game, its more than just weight that makes armor an endurance drain. Restricted mobility, being off normal balance and heat buildup are major factors contributing to endurance use beyond just the weight of the thing. Modern improved Interceptor body armor, for example, runs about 15kg. It's hot. Damn it's hot. It will wear you out but if you wear the whole thing, properly, it will save your life. The cost of course is endurance is used up pretty quickly. So I was looking at 6E2 pg 132 and reading up on Long Term Endurance and thought this was the perfect way to model how armor wears you down and why you don't just wear armor 24/7! The resting period rule given in that section is great and gives a good model of how, on a larger scales, armies can get fatigued and be unavailable for battle after having just fought. An example would be the failure of the Army under Meade to pursue Robert E. Lee's army after Gettysburg. This was just as important to ancient and medieval armies. Take light troops - they weren't effective at killing the enemy. However they were fantastic at harrassing the enemy - you couldn't just turn your back on them because then they would be effective! What they did was rain arrows and javalins and slingshot upon your troops, cause your troops to maneuver and chase them and bear the brunt of hurtful insults as well I imagine! The result was that the unit's endurance was sapped, unit to unit cohesion was lost and that is when the big boys came in to do some real killing. Never attack fresh heavy troops face on. Wear 'em down and disorder them first then send in a noble on a chariot to finish them with relative ease. Anyway, interesting article I thought and it led to these thoughts. When I ran my fantasy campaign I never considered the long term effects of wearing armor day to day.

Re: Embers of the Reich I think we can forgive Eisenhower. The wholesale looting of eastern Europe by the soviets, the Berlin Wall, Coup d' Main of half a dozen countries. Stalin almost completed Hitler's work. 50 million executions are hard to forgive. Patton may have been assassinated, not by Germans but by Soviets. I wouldn't blame them. If the World could have suffered another war he would have willingly led it.

Re: Embers of the Reich Those three operations support my point. There is no equivalent operation to, say Market-Garden. Verona was a limited intel sharing operation. Frantic was limited allied use of Soviet airfields and Keelhaul was a repatriotization of Soviet prisoners. The minimum type of cooperation one would expect. Stalin himself accused the other allies of holding back on the Germans so they could free up more troops to fight the Red Tide. I don't know that to be true but I bet it is credible. That attitude fits more in line with the post '45 state of things in Europe. Consider this: Verona ends in 1945 when the Russians are still fighting the Japanese on the Asian mainland. We don't even share information about escaped Nazi leaders who are at large. You are the first person I've come across who knew even one joint operation. For that you get a cookie! Or at least some Rep!

Re: Embers of the Reich The PCs are Americans. After the end of the war with Germany the allied nations maintained the alliance but started to act in self-interest. It can be argued the Russians were never in the alliance and just accepted as fighting the same enemy. The Americans and Brits did many joint operations. Name three they did with the Russians. Ok, how about one? Given the self interest angle it was important to keep some things secret from the Brits and to not trust the Russians at all as they were starting to look like they weren't liberating Eastern Europe but conquering it. Interesting NPCs are Dr. Heisenberg's grad students captured in Operation Alsop, Gypsies, defectors and other intelligence agents looking for tit-for-tat sharing. Riht now I'm doing research on actual people who will figure into the story arc as well as actual events. Nominally it will take place between January 1946 and June of 1948.