JavalTigar

Re: Campaign Concept Source: "No Ordinary Family"

One of these days I'm going to write an urban fantasy in which supernatural critters (vampires' date=' werewolves, etc) are like the mafia. Everyone knows that organized crime exists. And it victimizes people. People are robbed, coerced, sometimes killed by mobsters. But MOST people have never actually met one--not knowingly, at least. Ditto, in my book, vampires and weres and whatnot. Everyone knows they exist, but there's lots of misinformation and myth about them, and most people will never, ever meet one.[/quote']

 

 

DUDE!! I am SOOO gonna use that for my next White Wolf World of Darkness campaign!!

 

With your permission, of course Master Chiun.

Re: question about multipower magic pools

If you are building a wizard another good limitation is a skill roll required (ie Magik Skill). Its worth another -1/2. That is how my wizard is built.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Storn,

Love your work. Veronika is especially nice. But when you have such a lovely muse only greatness can be produced.

I'm pinching my pennies so I can have one of your beautiful works hanging on my wall.

Re: Radiation Shielding

Well in the real world as a Navy Nuclear Engineer, the mantra was Time - Distance - Shielding.

How long exposed to the source, how far away from the source, and what is between you and the source.

From the list you can see that heavy dense material is your friend. That's why there was lead, concrete and water around our reactor core. On the other hand, air is a very light and sparce material. Insulates for heat well since there are not a lot of particles to rub together. But that is exactly the reason that it sucks for radiation.

Think of radiation as fast moving projectiles not unlike bullets. Would you want to hide behind a brick wall or a rice paper wall? It might seem wierd that atmosphere doesn't stop much but remember there is 62 MILES of air and 8 light minutes of distance between the sun and us. So to put that into my bullet analogy, it would be 50 meters of rice paper and the bullet was fired from 1 mile off.

I hope this helps clear up the confusion.

Re: Welcome to McGuffins. May I take your order?

In some versions of the legend of Arthur' date=' Excalibur's scabbard also had extraordinary properties. Most notably, while wearing the scabbard wounds taken would not bleed. Morgan le Fay stole the sword and scabbard, and while Arthur recovered Excalibur its scabbard was lost. That might make a nice plot change from going after the sword.[/quote']There was a "OLD" AD&D magical item book that described the power of the scabbard. In game terms, you always had 1 hit point. You kept track of all damage and had to heal all of it before removing the scabbard, or insta-death. But basically while you had it, you trully were INVINCIBLE!

 

For Hero System, maybe something like 20d6 Aid, always on, 0 end, persitant, only to character max, all characteristics at once

Re: Help creating the D&D cleric's power Turn Undead

Turn Undead:

AE (Cone) +1, Only vs Undead -1, x2 KB +3/4, Gestures -1/2, Incantations -1/2

Apply this to either an EB or KA and it should have the desired effect. Turn Undead is supposed to cause damage not just give them pause and make them run.

Re: Rules of thumb for the "challenge level" of bad guy creation?

things to watch for:

1) SPD

- if you have lots of lower lvl goblins, like dbl # of your PCs, make sure the goblins are slower than your PCs or they will get overwelmed quickly due to per attack numbers. i.e; 3 PCs @ SPD 4 vs 6 Goblins @ SPD 5 = PCs 12 hits per turn vs Goblins 30 hits per turn. For 3 "equals" then it should be the same as the PCs, maybe 1 faster & 1 slower. And a big "dragon" type might be equal or 1 faster.

2) total points spent on combat

- if your PCs spent 175 but only "really" spent 140-150 on combat related stuff, due to the fact some of their skills and powers have non-combat uses, if their foes spend the full 175 on combat, that can present a challenge. Same goes for the goblins as above. Maybe 90-100 points for them. Basically the PCs should be 1-shotting those types. the big "dragon" should be 175% to 225% what the PCs spent on combat, so 300 pts +/- 50

3) CVs

-for goblin swarms they should be lower, for 3 "equals" they sould be the same to just a tad lower, for the "dragon" type creature it should be same to slightly higher. This helps even the playing field.

Overall keep in mind that behind the screen your dice read however to tell the best story. If it appears that you made an attack too powerful then pull back, switch targets, "roll badly" to hit. Whatever.

The battle should be epic, but not a pushover. I don't believe in a TPK. Only the potential to have the party wake from what they tought was defeat to end up working for the Dragon. For a while

Re: building the final fantasy RPG table-top game in the HERO system

our gaming group is doing the same thing right now.

I'm loving my Vivi/Blackmage Warforged. He is one of the coolest characters that I have had the good fortune to run. Can't wait to play again. Last time was a nice barfight with some orcs. Good times..

Re: END cost for AID

You are correct. 1 time cost on activation because it's an instant power. If it was persistant/constant then you would be charged each phase. Suppress works like that. As long as you pay END the target doesn't get access to a certain amount of character points.

Re: How To Build: Multiform

seems right. Assuming it comes from some type of amulet since there is the focus lim in the mix.

But it is weird to have charges (so no END) on a power that doesn't have any to begin with, then have the lim for cost END + extra. The math works but feels strange.

Re: Activating Power Sets

Well based on the title of the thread wouldn't an activation/skill roll on a multipower achieve the desired effect? Heck, no real need for the roll, just having the other powers in a set/multipower already defines that this group of stuff can only be used together.

Simplest solutions being the easiest.

But I can also see the only in energy form concept as well....to a degree.... sorta...kinda...

I don't really care for zero value limits myself. To each their own.

Re: House Rules

I have always been a fan of the "These are Guidelines" mentality with other systems. However with the Hero System, it's flexibility pretty much throws that right out the window.

About the only thing as a GM I alter is END. I don't track it but I just make sure that all the players have enough to last at full power for 2 turns. I haven't seen combat last too much longer than that. Works out okay for my players.

Re: Hero System Books Have Way to many Typos

I never wuss about anyones spelling and grammar, since I know mine both suck on any given day.

"Me fail english?! That impossible!" -Ralph Wiggam

Re: clarification on what is more appropriate for "spells" and "weapon" powers?

I would just do an extra attack that has a trigger with the less acurate limitation.

For the magic part, I would not have the focus limitation at all, just use gestures and incantations limitations plus a magik skill roll. That gives a total of -1. Put that on a MultiPower with fixed slots that use an END reserve to represent mana. Easy as Pi.

Also this site gives a lot of great ideas:

http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/HighFantasyHERO/FantasyHERO.aspx

Re: What's a good way to learn the game?

Lucius, your write ups are awesome. Keep them comming!!

I was thinking about the original question, and came to realize that trial by fire is the best way to learn to play. Just grab some charaters from a manual and slug it out.

Learning to build takes a little longer but helps a lot if:

a) if the GM knows the system, so he can teach the others [ kinda like a pyramid scheme]

if the players have played other systems first. [so you can say things like your "Partial change claws for aggrevated damage" yeah that's just a "HKA with Penetrating"]

The more I think about it, I would think it is impossible to start with HERO, but it IS the last system you will ever need.