Kristopher

Re: Aamurusko Hamara (a goddess) I like. I think I recall some artwork for this character.

Re: Traveller Hero I'd be interested simply for the research material value for the game I'm working on. Keep me in the loop.

Re: Skills in Science Fiction It does help me to get it out and discuss it instead of wondering in a vacuum. The views offered by others help me make sure I'm constructing the game in a way that will work.

Re: Skills in Science Fiction There's a specific reason that the latter character has some "out-of-place" skills. I guess the question is more about "design theory". I look at how HERO tends to write up "normal" people, then look at the list of skills that people I know would have, and the points don't work out. It seems to me that HERO's skill setup is almost based on the assumption that someone could take PS: Whatever-They-Do-For-A-Living, and that would cover everything involved in whatever that character's job is... and I rather dislike that approach.

Re: Star-Trek-Gate-Wars 5 Stargate closed the tech gap quite a bit by the end of the series. But even if the other guy has a phasor, bullets still kill people.

Re: Star HERO with... not magic, really, but... The following quote is sampled in the self-titled UNKLE song, U.N.K.L.E, and I have to find somewhere to use it, probably as the inspiration for an NPC and a story arc: "There were too many of us. We had access to too much money.. too much equipment. And little by little we went insane." -- Francis Ford Coppola (whether he's commenting on the Vietnam War, or the making of his war movie Apocalypse Now, is unclear.)

Re: Secret Wars Campaign Log Hat's off to you guys. Sounds like a good campaign so far.

I'm finding that the important NPCs I'm creating for my campaign have, so far, a lot of points in Skills. When I assign skills, I look at what a character is supposed to do, and what skills would be possessed by someone doing what they do, and from the place they're from. And yet I seem to come up with skill lists that are long in comparison to many I see published or posted. Is this just a matter of me trying to be too specific, or the typical character not being built around a full list of what they'd actually be capable of? Or what? Two examples (and note that I've done nothing with Languages or TFs, or any KS on the first one): The Enemy Agent 3 Acrobatics 13- 3 Breakfall 13- 3 Bureaucratics 12- 3 Climbing 13- 3 Combat Driving 13- 3 Combat Piloting 13- 3 Concealment 12- 3 Contortionist 13- 3 Conversation 12- 5 Cramming 3 Fast Draw 13- 3 High Society 12- 3 Interrogation 12- 3 Lipreading 12- 3 Lockpicking 13- 3 Paramedics 12- 3 Persuasion 12- 3 Security Systems 12- 3 Seduction 12- 3 Shadowing 12- 3 Sleight Of Hand 13- 3 Stealth 13- 3 Streetwise 12- 3 Survival 12- 3 Systems Operation 12- 3 Tactics 12- 5 WF: Beam Weapons, Energy Weapons, Vehicle Weapons 3 Zero-G Ops 13- Starship Repair Genius 3 AK: Cold Harbor Station 13- 3 Analyze: Technology 13- 3 Astrogation / Stellar Cartography 13- 3 Bugging 13- 3 Combat Driving 12- 3 Combat Piloting 12- 3 Computer Programming 13- 5 Cramming 3 Cryptography 13- 3 CuK: Spacer 13- 3 Demolitions 13- 3 Electronics 13- 5 Fast Draw 13- 3 Inventor 13- 3 KS: Star Systems 13- 3 Lockpicking 12- 3 Mechanics 13- 3 Optronics 13- 3 Paramedics 13- 3 Scientist 2 1) SS: Dim Drive Engineering 13- (3 Active Points) 2 2) SS: Field Systems Engineering 13- (3 Active Points) 2 3) SS: Hull Engineering 13- (3 Active Points) 2 4) SS: Life Support Engineering 13- (3 Active Points) 2 5) SS: Power Systems Engineering 13- (3 Active Points) 2 6) SS: Sublight Drive Engineering 13- (3 Active Points) 2 7) SS: Weapons Engineering 13- (3 Active Points) 3 Security Systems 13- 3 Shadowing 13- 3 Sleight Of Hand 12- 3 Stealth 12- 3 Streetwise 12- 3 Systems Operation 13- 3 Tactics 13- 6 WF: Beam Weapons, Energy Weapons, Blades, Vehicle Weapons 3 Weaponsmith 13- 3 Zero-G Ops 12-

Re: Star HERO with... not magic, really, but...

Re: Free-flying cyborg insects steered from a distance That's not in the article... you're just messing with me, aren't you?

Re: Free-flying cyborg insects steered from a distance

Re: Star HERO with... not magic, really, but... Speaking of Gifts and the Gifted, (working name, will take suggestions), that's what I'm writing up next.

Re: Free-flying cyborg insects steered from a distance Creepy.

Re: Star HERO with... not magic, really, but... I probably won't make this true of all with the Navigating Gift, but I like the idea of the rate being higher, and it would make for an interesting NPC.

Re: Star HERO with... not magic, really, but... Here's a rough draft of the material for my players regarding otherspace. Let me know what you think.

Re: Star HERO with... not magic, really, but... Has anyone done any work on a somewhat simplified presentation for spacecraft and vehicle combat?

Re: How do you build Drives?

Re: How do you build Drives? That's what I was thinking -- if communication is limited to the speed of travel, as opposed to being much faster, that encourages the formation of local governance.

Re: How do you build Drives? That's not the same thing, though. "Speed of plot" is a negative term for blatantly inconsistant travel times that serve whatever whim the writer or director has. Once one has established how your drives work and how long it takes to go certain places, one does not ignore it later just because it's inconvenient to the story one wants to tell.

Re: Star HERO with... not magic, really, but... Teleportation that doesn't violate physical laws? A "microjump drive" isn't really the feel I'm looking for.

Re: Star HERO with... not magic, really, but... Let me put things another way when it comes to the issue of the "sublight drives": I don't think that my probable players would be interested in a setting that involved detailed calculations of delta v, fuel remaining, burn times, etc, or in taking days to travel between planets in the same system, or in waiting a week to get to "safe FTL distance". So what I want is something that has a "real" feel, but doesn't disinterest those players. I hope that makes more sense and clarifies what I'm going for.

Re: Miles Vorkosigan RPG

Re: Star HERO with... not magic, really, but...

Re: Star HERO with... not magic, really, but...

Re: Star HERO with... not magic, really, but... Or it came from someone trying to give a quick and dirty version of what's being talked about in this discussion. EDIT: So it's not that there's a fundamental difference beween a rocket and a reactionless drive that makes the latter more dangerous, it's just that the former runs out of reaction mass and that limits its maxiumum velocity.