Michael Hopcroft

Anyone got any ideas for a writeup for a 300-point Sharpness Elemental that a mage could summon?

I recently picked up the new Complete Warrior splatbook for D&D and, while it;'s unleikly I will ever use it to play D&D, it did give me some general fantasy ideas for character arechetypes. I don't know if I liked their take on the Samurai (removing samurai from their cultural context is an iffy proposition IMHO), but the hexblade is an especially intribuging character concept. And face it -- doesn't Hexblade sound like an anime title to you? It does to me! I got this idea for a series that centers around a Hexblade who find that in his quest for wealth and power he finds himself quite unintentionally assembling a cadre of friends and changing the world -- for the better, which is a surprise because he sees himself as selfish at best and evil at worst. What is the most efficient way to model D&D characters with special and spell-like abilities and turn their classes into HERo templates that are not unbalancing yet still allow for both effective and cinematic Fantasy HERO play?

E-mail me. Send me a private message if you need my address. We are always looking for artists. Speaking of whiuch, I am trying to see if the HERO System is available for license for this particular project. It seems unlikely, but I'm sure it's worth asking.

Re: Whovians Unite! I need to find that URL so i can finish the current Richard E. Grant epiosde. The voice is fine, but I'm not sure I like the way they drew the character.

How am I going to get this back on topic? How on Earth am i going to convince this thread to get back on topic? Or is it an utterly hopeless case?

Another Doctor Who themed question: if you could pplay an original version of the Docotr who looked, dressed and acted any way you like, what would he (or she -- some fans have posited the posibility that regenration might be capable of altering gender) be like? Character sheets would be welcome in this discussion.

Re: Re: The 'couple-in-denial" sydnrome I hope that means Shakespeare is part of the japanese high school and college cirriculum! Becxause this syndrome is episodemic in anime. There are almost too many examples to list -- Ranma & Akane (Ranma 1/2), Meimi & Asuka Jr.(Kaitou Saint Tail), Lina & Gourry (Slayers), Shinji and Ausuka(Neon Genesisi Evangelion), Hikaru and Misa Hayase(Superdimensional Fortress Macross) and oh so many more....

"One of these days, we are going to have to have a talk about accepotable safety standards"':) If you;re into men, I understand that some people considered Steven taylor rather attractive. "That is a chair with a panda on it."

The onlky prpoblem with GGW's diea is that it assumes a degree of player omniscience about his campaign thatb as a GM I would not allow. if we could know whether the onesw we loved loved us without asking them, romance wouldbe a lto easier. I alter this to make Romancce a flat 10 points (because it makes major changes to a character's ofe) and posit that the player doesn;tknow how the other person feels and won;t until they get around to aslking them. Which, dependiog on how much he or she fears rejectuion, could take a very long time. The A "Argeus with X' gradually becoming the basis for :In love with X" might be a better idea. I'd probably make them Social Limitations rather than Psych Lims, though. Its main effect, after all, is social. falling in love is usually handled wi\thout disadvanatges entirely in the HERO System in actualy play, so a Disad would onl really be appropriate, now that i think about it, whent he two characers BEGIN the campaign in that situation.So usagi and mamoru would take it (the have a past hoistyr before the campaign starts of baiting each other) but ranma and Akanne wouldn't (although Ranma would has as a Social limitaiton "Has WAY tpop many fiances, none of them of his choosing....)

The Ultimate Interdimensional: Everything you need to know 9and a lot you don;t) about character who can travel in time or other dimensions. A chance to tie all the HERO books togetehr into a single campaign, show what happens to magic-using characters when transplanted into worlds where magic doesn;t work (and what happens if magic does work -- but only for them....) Plus all the different technolgocial, magical and other methods you can use to travel in time, space and alternate dimensions, from time machines to dimensional portals to time=shifting spells that enable you to send you enemies to the distant past. Hope you like the age of the Dinosaurs, hero, because you're [i}not{/I} coming back....

This cuts across genre lines, so here it is. What kind of disadvantage, if any, would it be in character creation when two characters of the opposite sex are attracted to each other, but conceal it from themselves trhough such tactics as criticizing everything the other does, bickering constantly, and teasing each other relentlessly? The thing is it is patently obvious to everyone except the two people involved that they are a pair who will be together, merrily bickering, for life, and that the right circumstances is the only thing required to transmute their rivalry itno the sort of white-hot passion that reshapes entire lives. The thing is that no matter how much they bicker, you know each would lay down their lives for the other if there was a serious threat. given a choice between saving the world and saving this person they;ve been figthing with throughout the campaign, it's the other person. No contest.

I want my own Miniature Dragon. The idea of having a pet who's smarter than i am has a vuage sort of appeal 9although I could probably get the same effect with a goldfish given recent situations....) Several of the creatures listed as "monsters" would actually make very interesting PC races in the right kind of campaign, and i would like to have seen templates for the, Of course the Dark Elf is a romantic favorite for players who just have the exercise their angst, but several of the other races there look like they would be very appealing for players. the problem is that for most of them in spite of the fact that they ahve normal sentient motivations, you have to train youself to think in alien ways to play one properly. For example, if your mate is only going to have one child over the course of her very long life, protecting that child is going to be more improtant to you than anything in the world, becaueif the child dies you don;t get another one. I also like the idea of the fantasy race of dream-eaters. They sound monstrous and could be played as evil, but what if they aren't? What if one or two of them serve as a sort of perverse protective function, twisting and feeding off the dreams of evil people, slowly driving them mad until they no longer pose a htreat to the world at large? one could build an entire urban fantasy campaign around characters who can enter and manipulate the dreams of others. Several of these races might also prove useful for modern Fantays as well. There are still Dragoins in the mountains -- they're just very well hidden, or disguised as humans and walking among us, using what they have accumulated in their hoards over the centuries to be secret movers and shakers in the financial and polcitical worlds. How many of the great bankers and financiers of hisotry could have turned out to be dragons in dsuguise, pretending to "die" of "old age" every fifty years or so to avert surpicion and assuming a new identity to resume their aims? partcilaurly if those aims are malignant?

my 350th post! Do you have your superspies pay character points for a Gadget pool and then assign their gadgets based on that pool befor each mission (in effect giving them a VPP, probably not more tha 15 AP. but you ahve control of what goes in it)? I still vividly remember in Goldfinger how Bond had all those gadgets and every singe one of them proved unsuccessful in their intended task. The car crashed. The tracker was compacted before Felix could get a signal. It all functioned properly, but Bond ended up miscalculating how he ended up using them. In the end, it was both his wits and his, er, "nether reigons" that ended up saving his tail (and the world) from the villain. I always dislike it when gadgets are too reliable as a way out of situations. In my spy camapigns, the PCs would have to think to get out of trouble. Myabe that;s why my favorite Bond was timothy Dalton -- not only did he actually make 007 a character you could actually care about rather than just attach your own wish fulfilment to, but his Bond used his head. The mind games he played on the evil drug lord in License to Kill were sheer brilliance.

True, but they won't all be in the same place at the same time. And there may be an infinity of different versions of the Dimeonsion poilce, so they may spend a lot of time actually FIGHTING their counterparts, who may have less noble goald for dimensional travel. Of course, if dimensional travel is known there might be people trying to use it for purposes even nefarious than those of P.C. Hero's mysterious employer. N.P.C. Master Villain might like the the idea con controlling a few of these alternative Earths, especialy if he has developed a reliable means to send armies or weapons between dimensions. P.C. hero and freidns could find themselves distracted from their mission by the presence of N.P.C. Master Villain and discoverign and foiling his aims (because P.C. Hero is the heroic sort in spite of his current task, and no hero lets a conqueror go unchallenged).

Re: 150 pts....Hmmm hey, it worked for Captain Quark! (Now THERE"S a sereis i want to see a DVD box of. I remember enjoying this SF comedy with Richard Benjamin a great deal.)

If i could be any kind of media SF character, I'd be a Renegade Time Lord. Smart as hell yet still emotional, able to go anywhere he wants, not caring that he never fits in anywhere in the cosmos -- what's NOT to love about being a Time Lord? Even having Daleks trying to EX-TER-MIN-ATE you wouldn't be so bad if you could stay one step ahead of them. Plus you ALWAYS get the girl.

Obviously they don't build gods like they used to. One of my principal rules when thinking about character creation is that if a player creates a character that's really bada**, there's awlays a BIGGEr bada** out there somewhere waiting for them. Someone the PC's most potent attacks would result in a shrug and a sly "Is THAt the BEST you can do?" Something that no matter how powerufl the PC becomes they will have to use inner resources they didn;t know they had to overcome. One of my players in the Galvania campaign found me rather a pushover. She built a half-elf character (I've been trying to discourage non0-humans) who built a 50 AP mutlipower within her spell mutliplier and ended up paying only 33 points for all her powers. Then to top it all off she took an "Elven Longevity" perk and convinced me to give her a SKILL mutliplier to reflect the fact that a person who's been a,live for a hundred years will naturally have learned a lot. I think I got snookered.

Since we've had svereal Doctor Who discussions, one thing I'm wondering is how you would build a TARDIS in HERO. The most obvious thing to know about a TARDIS is that it can go anywhere in Time and Space. Usually, however, it is restiricted to a single universe (it would have to pass through some sort of phenomena to get into a different universe), it takes real time to get from place.time to place/time, its course can be altered mid-flight, and it can materialize anywhere. The extrerior can be made to look like any phsycial object (unless the Chameleon Circuit is broken as in a certain Type 40 of our intimate acquiantance). In any event, the exterior look of the TARDIS, whatever its shape, is MUCh smaller than the interior of the ship. Although a crew of one can fly one, it has a potential carrying capacity of hundreds. You could jettison a quarter of its interior mass and still have a phenomenally large ship. It's very easy for people not familair with the interior to get lost, and the configuration changes eveyr so often so maps are no good. Most TARDISes (TARDII?) come equippped with both utlitiarian food synthesizers 9that produce food that can taste like anything but looks like a gummy white stick), but also have full kitchens and well-stocker larders. A ATDRIS generally has enough food and drink stored aboard it SOMEWHERE to operate indefinitely, although you'll want to restock to suit your indivdual tastes. Figuing out how to work the kitchen equipment is probably a chore for any Earth person who happens to find themselves aboard a TARDIS and having to live there. There are innumerable rooms of various sizes that can be used for a wide variety of purposes. A well-equuipped TARDIS has a very large wardrobe full of clothing for every occasion that most Time lords are too eccentric to really use more than once or twice an incarnation. (Companions, on the other hand, can go through the clothing like fiends.) No matter what size a companion is, or what kind of body a time Lord regenerates into, they can always find SOMETHING that fits (I like to think that Colin baker's choice of garb was partly inspired because it was the first thing he could throw on that fit that he liked and that if he had tried on a few more outfits he could have found something at least remotely approaching sane.) As for bedrooms and baths, there are an innmerable number of those. Everyone aboard a TARDIS can easily have their own room, and nobody needs to share quarters unless they want to. 9As to whether anyone WOULD want to.... no comment. ) The principal problem with TARDISes is that they're persnickety. especially the oilder models. Even when treated with endless TLC they have an alarming tendency to dump you where you didn;t want to go. No matter how many times you want to go to that popualr seaside resort, it'll reliably dump you someplace like telos in the middle of the Cyberman invasion. Something in the machines seems to be attracted to trouble. And even if you do get where you want to go, it's unliekly to get you there at a particularly peaceful moment. You could go to the shopping mall, and sure enough the moment you arrive it will come under alien attack. It also has an uncanny ability to just miss meeting improtant historical figures you want to pay a social call to. Unless of course that important hisotricla figure is Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (for whom it seems to have a homing beacon....).

Presdient Bush is about to annoucne his desire to establish a base on the Moon. fair enough, but I want it taken a step further. I want to see a COLONY on the Moon in my lifetime. Before i die I want to read in the newspaper about the first children born on other worlds. If you were to build a lunar colony with available-in-the-present-day technolgoy, hwat would life there be like? How can you build things so the colony is not totally dependent on resupply from Earth for survival? If someone were to move to the Moon permanently, what effect would lunar gravity and living in cotnrolled environments eventually have on their bodies? Can we put enough people on the moon that cabin fever won;t be a problem anymore, and you're not just talkigng with the same five or six people every day and never seeing anyone else?? How would you raise a family on the Moon? How would a child who has lived the Moon all her life "go outside and play"?

Sounds like something someone would cook up in the lab if he wanted to slay every psi in the world with impunity and make it look like a natural effect (or even "divine judgment").

You are the Seventh Doctor: Brooding, enigmatic, soulful, and occasionally silly. There are a great many mysteries lurking behind your ancient eyes, and even your closest companions aren't allowed to know the full extent of your schemes and concerns. You are often downright manipulative, using friends and adversaries alike as chess pieces in a private game against the universe. Your wrath is slow to build, but terrible when aroused, and you are slowly settling old scores with threats across the cosmos. I'm pleasantly surprised! My Doctor is the Real McCoy! And my personal favorite. Which Incarnation of the Doctor Are You? brought to you by QuizillaAnd as if i wasn;t feeling vaguely incestuous.... You've had the good fortune to set your heart on Ace, as played by Sophie Aldred! Rebellious, emotional, combative, and not as sure of herself as she wants to appear, this volatile young woman will knock you dead at twenty paces with a smile that promises trouble of the most fascinating sort. She's easy on the eyes, but you'd better be charming when you tell her that. Explosive demolition is her favorite hobby. Never happen. Not in a million years. But, surprisingly, spot on. My second and third choices would be Peri (she had the patience of a saint, and I cannot bear even the thought that she MIGHT have died) and Nyssa (when I was in college I had a major crush on Nyssa, even though she uttered the single worst-read line in television hisotry in "TGhe Visitation" Which Lovely Doctor Who Companion Are You Ashamed To Admit Your Crush On? brought to you by Quizilla

Normally you can "log out" of the World by going to a save point, saving your game, and exiting. You are also kicked out of the game when you 'die", and have to log back in (having lost anything you gained prior to your last save). the problem explored in .hack//SIGN is that of a player who is trapped in The World and can't log out, despite the efforts of the company that runs the servers to kick him out of the game. Essentially there is some evil 'virtual spirit" that lvies in The World and manipulates it for its own purposes, and was manipulating the hero(ine) until (s)he found a way to resist and was able to finally log out. One of the major characters was a notorious "player-killer" who acted out all his agressions in the World because he was utterly powerless in relaity. Another was a "gaurdian" type whose desire to ehlp other players extended into reality -- he ended up becoming the hero(ine)'s real-world guardian when (s)he finally logged out.

Re: NCM, Base Points The point is taken, but I still think it is aginst the spirit of the rules for Normal campaigns. Just because the maxima is different does not make NCM a legal disad in this case IMHO but YMMV. AYTOATA? A better way to do it might be to attach a Social Disad to reflect the fact that in on-Ocish lands just being an Orc often carries the death penalty. In other words, if you;re an orc by yourself who isn;t in the company of other orcs who can prtect you, anyone you meet can slay you on the spot with no legal repurcussions. Nasty? true. But so is the life of an Orc. I can easily imagine a fantasy world whose religion is based around reincarnation stating that the sould of wicked men, isntead of going to Hell, are reincarnated as Orcs....

The problem with Elemntal Evil I thought "only vs. evil" was one of those forbidden power constructions like "doesn't work against friends (or teammmates)". it removes the chance of accidentally hitting an innocent bystander with your attack, which encorauges you to throw powerful attacks around willyy-nilly.This is A Bad Thing. I incidentallyalso have a problem with evil being somehow elemental in a fantasy game. As faramir said in the extended version of The Two Towers (in a scnee that blew me away) Sauron's servants did not believe they were serving evil incarnate. I doubt that even Staan himself belives himself to be evil. (In the theology of my religion, the reason Satan was expelled from Heaven was because he lost an argument with God over the value of human free will aka "Agency". Satan probably still believes he was in the right as he sits in the Outer darkness working his wiles.) have you read your Milton?

Glorantha is a great world, and would be fun to play FH in! One thing of note in any version of Glorantha is that everybody knows a little magic. EVERYBODY. I can;t think of any RuneQuest or heroQuest character in which 'the gift had gone dead" and they couldn;t use magic at all. Reminds me that the current edition of HeroQuest is on my short list of Games I Want To Buy. I loved the system and wish it was open Content so that i could adapt the basic ideas of the system in other genres. How Robin Laws keeps coming up with all this brilliant stuff is as much of a mystery to me as how Hero games keeps up with its schedule.