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bcholmes

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About bcholmes

  • Birthday 11/10/1966

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  1. Re: Adventures Into Darkness Arrives Jan. 12! Yes. I think I acknowledged that, but I can understand you wanting to stress the point. For what it's worth I stand by my points. First: I think the layout of the book is more exciting (for me) than any of the Hero Games products that I've purchased. I know that you hafta weigh that feedback against people who say, "fancy design is a waste; gimme as many words crammed in as possible." You own the company; you get to make those calls. But if I'm making a choice between a Hero Games PDF and another Atomic Overmind Press PDF, I'll likely pick the latter, 'cause layout matters to me. Second: Darren asked the question, "how come nobody bought a copy of this new product in our store?" and I replied, "For my part, awareness that the product is available is a big part of how I come to buy a Hero System product." I've known that Urban Fantasy Her is coming for a while because I check in on the planned releases periodically. So I've planned to buy it for a while. I discover other types of RPG products in other ways, but discovery of Hero System products has generally involved announcements somewhere on the Hero Games website for me. That's just data about how one person operates. You've explained that you have Very Clear Reasons why it's not included in your planned release announcements. Great! But I do kinda think it speaks to Darren's question for me to say, "I would have bought the product earlier if I'd had some inkling that it was coming." Just sayin'. BCing you
  2. Re: CotN Outtakes Nice. My version of the Red Ensign (the one that Storn drew) was only ever a piece of background history in my Northern Guard campaign and didn't ever have a write-up or fleshed-out background. I like this take.
  3. Re: Horror Hero: Handling SANity So few, yet how they creep through my fingers to the deep. While I weep! BCing you
  4. Re: Horror Hero: Handling SANity Some characters are much more susceptible to psychological break-down than others. This can be emulated using "Physical" Limitations. Physical Limitation: Psychologically Frail: The character is more susceptible to psychological issues. The character should be considered -1 for Fright Checks and should be considered to have a SAN calculated as .75 x (INT + PRE + EGO). (Frequent, Slightly). -10 Point Disadvantage. Physical Limitation: Psychologically Very Frail: The character is much more susceptible to psychological issues. The character should be considered -2 for Fright Checks and should be considered to have a SAN calculated as .5 x (INT + PRE + EGO). (Frequent, Greatly). -15 Point Disadvantage. Physical Limitation: Psychologically Tenuous: The character is extremely susceptible to psychological issues. The character should be considered -4 for Fright Checks and should be considered to have a SAN calculated as .25 x (INT + PRE + EGO). (Frequent, Fully). -20 Point Disadvantage. (These limitations assume a Horror campaign where scary stuff is likely to be Frequent).
  5. The 5th Edition rule book makes a passing reference to SANity in the "extending the system" section -- suggesting it as an option for horror campaigns. It feels to me like there are a few mechanics for handling fear and sanity in a Horror Hero campaign. 1. Fright Check This optional rule is essentially the same as the Dark Champions "Grace under Fire" check. When a character has to make a choice to act in scary circumstances, they must make a successful PRE roll. I think it makes sense to allow certain types of training to counteract the effects of fear. Example: FBI trainee, Clarice Starling has just realized that her interview subject is really the serial killer, Buffalo Bill. Buffalo Bill has raced into the basement of his house, where Starling assumes he is holding his latest victim: a senator's daughter. Starling is alone, with no back-up, and the killer is on his own turf. Starling is trained for this kind of situation (PS: Federal Agent), so makes a PRE roll using her PS as a secondary skill, and she rushes down the stairs after the killer. Shortly afterwards, Buffalo Bill turns off the power, plunging the basement into darkness. This new situation calls for another fright check. Starling misses the roll by 2, and the GM declares that she's panicky. She has a -2 penalty on her subsequent rolls. Further, she's breathing heavily, which makes it hard to hear anything. And she doesn't know that Buffalo Bill has nightvision goggles... I also think the game mechanic is useful in non-combat situations. Example: Starling has travelled with her supervisor, Jack Crawford, to Potter, West Virginia to examine a body. It's the first time she's dealt with a floater, and when the body is exposed for the first time, the smell assaults her senses. She makes a fright check, failing by 1 point, which gives her a -1 penalty to her subsequent Skill rolls while examining the body. Crawford notices that she's become unsettled. None of these situations has long-term consequences. When the situation changes, the effects of a failed (or successful) fright check no longer applies. Some games, like Call of Cthulhu, treat these situations as equivalent to other SANity rolls. For my part, I think that simple fear effects should have a different mechanic than the kind of sanity-destroying effects of encountering Great Old Ones. 2. PRE Attacks Nasty horrors obviously use PRE attacks, as appropriate, to their advantage in combat. PRE attacks are well-understood in the Hero rules. One suggestion for handling the SANity consequences of a PRE attacks is to treat SANity like one would treat impairment in the damage rules. Characters can be said to have a figured stat, SAN, which is calculated as INT + EGO + PRE. A PRE attack that exceeds a character's PRE has the normal effects of PRE attacks. But if the attack also exceeds the character's SAN, then the character might develop psychological impairment as a consequence. If a character is affected by a PRE attack that exceeds her SAN, then she must make a PRE roll at -2. If the character fails this PRE roll, she takes on a temporary Psychological Limitation, typically informed by the circumstances of the original PRE attack. If a character is affected by a PRE attack that exceeds twice his SAN (SANx2), then he must make a PRE roll at -4. If the character fails this PRE roll, he takes on a permanent Psychological Limitation. 3. Ambient PRE Attacks The 4th edition Horror Hero sourcebook suggests that sometimes environments can act like a PRE attack. The sourcebook calls these "General PRE Attacks", but in my mind "Ambient PRE Attacks" are a bit more specific to environments that have are sufficiently horrific: the interior of the ship Event Horizon, or the "red weed"-covered terrain in The War of the Worlds. Example: George Lutz and his family have just discovered a secret room under the basement stairs. The room is painted blood red and has no doors or windows. There's something deeply unnatural about the room, and just seeing it has the effect of a 8d6 PRE attack against Lutz. The PRE roll exceeds Lutz's PRE by 20, and Lutz is awed into inactivity. All he can do is moan, "It's the passage to Hell!" Like standard PRE attacks, Ambient PRE attacks can exceed the character's SANity, and cause psychological impairment. 4. Cosmic Horrors As described in the 4th edition sourcebook, Champions in 3-D, some cosmic horrors cause madness just by looking at them. In these cases, the cosmic horror is built with a continuous Transform (sane person to insane person) such as this: 1.5d6 Major Transform, Affects Desolid (+1/2), 18" Radius (+1 1/4), NND (+1; defence is a successful EGO roll), 0 END (+1/2), Persistent (+1/2), Always On (-1/2), Reduced by Range (-1/4). Active Cost: 119 / Total Cost: 68 Example: Gustav Johansen, a Norwegian sailor, and other members of the crew of the schooner, Emma, has accidentally unleashed the great Cthulhu. Simply being in the presence of a thing that cannot be described, Johansen and his shipmates must make EGO rolls to avoid going mad.
  6. Re: Champions Of The North Maybe tomorrow, he'll want to settle down.
  7. bcholmes

    Red Ensign

    Re: Red Ensign This is one of the sad things about books like Champions of the North coming out: in my campaign world, the supers in Canada were already all fleshed out, and now my vision of the super world in Canada is out of synch with the official Champions Universe. Do I recton my campaign to be "in continuity" with the newer books, or do I keep on my merry way with telling stories on Earth-BCH instead of Earth-SB? In my world, Red Ensign was one of the two WWII Canadian supers (the other being The Great Canadian Shield). He was a top soldier -- recruited because he was the best of the best, but had no powers. In my world, Celestar was, essentially, Celine Dion: media darling, stylish, scarily skinny, and with a charming Quebecois accent. And commands cosmic powers. In my world, COMET, StarForce and all versions of the Northern Guard have all played significant (although supporting) roles in stories. All those years of reading comics have fueled, in me, a dislike for continuity problems. But now, there's a potential for a major continuity change, and I've got all these characters wandering around like the '60s version of Animal Man saying, "hey, what about me? What happens to me?" Sad now. But I'll still get the book. BC
  8. I recently picked up M&M's Paragons book -- a campaign setting more like TV shows such as Heroes or The 4400. Superpowers, without flashy costumes. I liked the book, but I thought that they still kept one foot in the four-colour world, which weakened the overall premise, in my opinion (even the cover highlights a superdude with traditional skintight costume). I don't suppose any thoughts gone in to a Plainclothes Champions campaign setting?
  9. Re: Gestalt Now Available In Color Hot damn, that's one beautiful book. The colour adds a lot.
  10. Re: Gestalt Now Available In Color My process went like this (I'm kinda doing this from memory): 1. Click on the "Buy Color Book", get taken to Lulu web site 2. Click on "Add Book", and get taken to a shopping cart page 3. Click on "Save and Continue", and get a "Please sign in to continue" message 4. Provide an email address and fill in the "create password"/"confirm password" sections 5. The next page is almost blank and says "Database error" with a link to go back to the shopping cart. I tried it a coupl'a times, and had the same result both times. I figured it was probably barfing on the insert of a new user, so I tried creating my userid through the site registration process. After that I was fine. This isn't intended as kvetching; I hope it helps to track down any bugs.
  11. Re: Gestalt Now Available In Color
  12. Re: Gestalt Now Available In Color So if I go to my Friendly Local Game Store and ask them to order a copy of the colour version, is that viable? (I'm in Canada, and ordering online across the border is sometimes fraught with peril. Or, at least, cross-border charges) On the other hand, can't beat that exchange rate, these days.
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