bcholmes

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

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.

Re: Adventures Into Darkness Arrives Jan. 12!

Re: Horror Hero: Handling SANity So few, yet how they creep through my fingers to the deep. While I weep! BCing you

Re: Horror Hero: Handling SANity

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).

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.

Re: Champions Of The North Maybe tomorrow, he'll want to settle down.

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

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?

Re: Gestalt Now Available In Color Hot damn, that's one beautiful book. The colour adds a lot.

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.

Re: Gestalt Now Available In Color

Re: Gestalt Now Available In Color

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.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. I really like this piece. It's quietly understated. And it conveys a different feel than the majority of your work.

Re: Voodoo master Ayizan is a female Lwa -- the first Priestess -- although it's also the name of the palm fronds used in the initiation process. Still, as a name it's a little unusual for a male character.

Re: Dr. Hannibal Lector (Preliminary write up) Nice first draft. In the books, until Hannibal, Lecter had DF: Polydactyly (he had a sixth finger on one of his hands). Also, he had an almost-inhuman calm. (Dr. Chilton refers, in two movies, to an incident in which Lecter attacked a nurse and "His pulse never got above 85, even when he ate her tongue.") I don't know if that's increased CON. Hmmm. Also, your entry for Eidetic Memory is screaming out for the quotation, "Memory, Agent Starling, is what I have instead of a view".

Re: Horror Hero: What would you have liked to have seen? So I keep thinking about this topic, and come up with more: In Section 5 (Game Mastering Horror Adventures), it'd be great to see some Villainy Amok-style treatment of some classic adventure formats. Some might include: - the Wax Museum - the Overnight Sleep-over in the Old Mansion with Strange Architectural Features - figuring out what happened to the team at the Antarctic Research Station - is that cute, adorable child really the spawn of evil? Like Villainy Amok, you could have twists, turns, and typical personalities: - the crazy old guy who tells you not to go to that place, but who, maddeningly, won't just tell you why - the very intense nanny who is exceptionally protective of her charge - the last known survivor who draws insane scribbles on all the walls The last section on sample characters should have at least these monsters: - the sewer alligator - the modern golems (e.g. junkyard golem) - the subterranean cannibal monster - the crazy slasher type

Re: VILLAINS, VANDALS, AND VERMIN -- What Would *You* Like To See? Back, and to the left. Back, and to the left. BC now cleaning snorted coffee off my monitor...

Re: CHAMPIONS OF THE NORTH -- What Would You Like To See? I don't know. I think my gut's telling me "Kingston". (Or maybe lunch is disagreeing with me). And for the criminally insane: just north of Toronto. Markham Asylum. BCing you

I've been putting together some ideas for a personal Horror bestiary. Here's a first character. Comments? Thoughts? [b]Myrmidon[/b] [b][u]VAL[/u] [u]CHA[/u] [u]Cost[/u] [u]Total[/u] [u]Roll[/u] [u]Notes[/u][/b] 28 STR 10 28 15- HTH Damage 5 1/2d6 END [3] 14 DEX 12 14 12- OCV 5 DCV 5 17 CON 14 17 12- 17 BODY 14 17 12- 7 INT -3 7 10- PER Roll 10-/16- 8 EGO -4 8 11- ECV: 3 13 PRE 3 13 12- PRE Attack: 2 1/2d6 6 COM -2 6 10- 8 PD 2 8/20 8/20 PD (0/12 rPD) 5 ED 2 5/13 5/13 ED (0/8 rED) 4 SPD 16 4 Phases: 3, 6, 9, 12 9 REC 0 9 34 END 0 34 40 STUN 0 40 6 RUN 0 6" END [1] 2 SWIM 0 2" END [1] 6 LEAP 0 5 1/2" 5 1/2" forward, 2 1/2" upward [b]CHA Cost: 64[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]POWERS[/u][/b] 24 [b][i]Exoskeleton[/i][/b]: Armor (12 PD/8 ED) (30 Active Points); Activation Roll 15- (Exposed areas; -1/4) - END=0 10 [b][i]Digging[/i][/b]: Tunneling 2" through 2 DEF material - END=1 8 [b][i]Ant Senses[/i][/b]: +4 PER with Smell/Taste Group - END=0 10 [b][i]Mandibles[/i][/b]: Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 1d6-1 (1d6+1 w/STR) - END=1 4 [b][i]Ant Communication[/i][/b]: Mind Link , Other Myrmidons (10 Active Points); Must touch feelers (-1), Does Not Provide Mental Awareness (-1/4) - END=0 4 [b][i]Compound Eyes[/i][/b]: +2 PER with Sight Group - END=0 5 [b][i]Compound Eyes[/i][/b]: Nightvision - END=0 8 [b][i]Ant Strength[/i][/b]: +8 STR (Modifiers affect Base Characteristic) - END=1 [b]POWERS Cost: 73[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]SKILLS[/u][/b] 3 Teamwork 12- [b]SKILLS Cost: 3[/b] [b][u]Value[/u] [u]DISADVANTAGES[/u][/b] 0 Normal Characteristic Maxima 15 Physical Limitation: Mute (All the Time, Slightly Impairing) 20 Distinctive Features: Hideous, unnatural ant/human hybrid (Concealable; Extreme Reaction; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses) 5 Psychological Limitation: Disoriented by Important Items from Human Life (Uncommon, Moderate) 25 Psychological Limitation: Slavishly Loyal to Leader (Very Common, Total) [b]DISADVANTAGES Points: 65[/b] Base Pts: 75 Exp Required: 0 Total Exp Available: 0 Exp Unspent: 0 Total Character Cost: 140 [b]BACKGROUND:[/b] Back at the beginning of the Anno Domini epoch, the Roman poet Ovid learned the tale of Aegina. A deadly plague sent by the goddess, Hera, killed most of the population of Aegina, and Zeus, in response, transformed the ants of Aegina into an army, fiercely loyal and exceptionally strong. These soldiers, called myrmidons, would later fight with Achilles during the Trojan War. Or so Ovid wrote in Metamorphoses. The truth of the situation, he kept to himself, recorded in personal notes. Hundreds of years later, a Roman Catholic priest discovered Ovid's personal notes in Costanta, Romania (formerly the Greek colony of Tomis, where Ovid lived, exiled, in his later years). The notes told a different story: how King Aeacus had a mystic prepare a potion that could imbue the people of Aegina with the essential qualities of the ants: strength, armour, and slavish loyalty. Once the potion was prepared, Aeacus had it slipped into water resevoirs and cisterns around the city. What followed was a horrific period of transformation, as citizens of Aegina underwent grotesque changes, finally becoming powerful soldiers. After transformation, the soldiers appeared mostly human, although their armour was now part of their bodies, and their behaviour seemed slightly alien. Ovid even unearthed part of the recipe of the potion, which was recorded in his notes. These notes eventually found their way into the Vatican Library. In the 17th century, a priest who worked in the library fell under evil influences, and stole many dark tomes and papers (an act that lead Pope Paul V to remove many volumes into a Secret Vatican Archive, where they remain to this day). These works eventually found their way into the occult underground. Since then, a few dark occultists have gotten their hands on the recipe for the potion. But because it's not completely intact, the victims of the potion never attain the human-like appearance that the ancient myrmidons had. Instead, they transform into disgusting half-ant/half-human creatures. They still have the essential qualities that Aeacus sought: strength, armour and slavish loyalty, but no one who sees a myrmidon can deny that it's a foul, unnatural creature. [b]PERSONALITY/MOTIVATIONS:[/b] The myrmidon is a slavishly loyal to their leader. Blood and hair clippings from the leader-to-be are just one of many of the significant ingredients to the potion, and all myrmidons instinctively know who their leader is. While they understand human language, they don't generally have human-level intelligence, and cannot make logical conclusions or solve complicated problems. They can perform limited tool use (build a rock wall to block a tunnel or pile things to be able to climb up over a barrier), but can't use weapons more complicated than a club. Myrmidons will follow any order their leader gives them, including fighting to the death. Myrmidons tend to cluster in groups when not under any specific order, often keeping busy moving things and walking in circular patterns. Myrmidons are distrustful of outsiders and if strangers come into their space, they'll generally attack, trying to destroy the invader. Myrmidons mostly have no memory of their lives as humans, although if they encounter an object or place strongly associated with their past lives, they might experience some disorientation as if a memory was triggered. [b]QUOTATION:[/b] None. Myrmidons are mute. [b]POWERS/TACTICS:[/b] Myrmidons tend to lack subtlety; once they detect an intruder, they attack en masse, biting with their mandibles or hitting. They do work together somewhat instinctively, and can use teamwork to try to bring down foes. One myrmidon might, for example, try to pin an opponent down while another attacks the opponent's appendages with its mandibles. The transformation process has left them with several ant-related abilities. They have tremendous strength (much higher than an average human), and they often use this strength for lifting rocks and boulders. In combat, their strength can be used with improvised clubs to subdue opponents. They also have extremely thick, chitinous armour on most of their bodies. Although the armour is very effective, the transformation process has often left exposed patches which can be targetted. Myrmidons have exceptional senses; their compound eyes see extremely well, and in the dark, and they have powerful senses of smell. Myrmidons often make nests underground, and using their strength and mandibles, they are able to dig tunnels very quickly. [b]CAMPAIGN USE:[/b] Two Plot Seeds: 1) Tommy Knockers: Outside of town, Hauptman Mines has been in the news a fair bit lately. It seems that three of its miners have disappeared. One at a time, and on three different days. Now there's talk of all kinds of crazy things. Ghosts. And Tommy Knockers. The miners are getting skittish. Hauptman has had to deal with a number of employees quitting or calling in "sick". And while this is going on, a rival company is putting pressure on him to sell. And maybe Hauptman should sell, but with the current bad publicity, it'd almost certainly be at a loss. Hauptman wonders if the rival company is somehow involved in the disappearances, but he doesn't suspect the truth: that Lucious Drake, president of the rival mine is using myrmidons to tunnel into the mines and attack his miners. 2) One of the PCs comes home to discover the police at a neighbour's house. There's been a murder. Bob Spolsky can home early from a business trip, and was viciously attacked in his own home. His wife is missing and there's a tunnel in the base of the house. If the PCs investigate, they discover that Mr. Spolsky came home early because his wife has been very ill over the last few days. They may even learn enough to realize that Mrs. Spolsky hasn't been sick; she's been transforming into... something else. And more disturbing: there might be a relationship between Mrs. Spolsky's transformation and the new bottled water service that the Spolsky's signed up for just days ago. [b]APPEARANCE:[/b] Myrmidons appear like an unnatural hybrid of humans and ants. They brownish-red, chitinous exoskeletal armour covering much of their bodies. The armour doesn't cover their bodies uniformly; instead, seemingly random parts will be exposed revealing almost-human skin beneath. This skin is often slick with some kind of oily substance. Both the armoured and unarmoured parts of the body are usually covered with thick, coarse hairs. The myrmidons usually appear humanoid in shape, with two arms and two legs. A pair of small, useless, vestigial limbs may grow from their torsoes; the myrmidons have no conscious control over these limbs. The heads of the myrmidons are large and seem to approach the shape of worker ants. Their small, compound eyes are usually black and many myrmidons have feelers and mandibles. Ironically, the head also often contains some of the most human-looking features -- many myrmidons have intact ears or patches of head-hair. Sometimes a beard or mustache remains around the creature's mandibles. If the human form had tattoos, these are often preserved as fairly clear images either on the armour or exposed skin underneath.

Re: CHAMPIONS OF THE NORTH -- What Would You Like To See? What's the Canadian equivalent of Stronghold? Where do the Canadian authorities put captured supervillains?

Re: Horror Hero: What would you have liked to have seen? Here's the outline I've been noodling on: 1. Introduction 2. The Genre - what makes the Horror Genre tick - conventions of the genre 2a. Sub-genres - Call of Cthulhu-esque (investigators attempt to prevent ancient evils from coming back) - Occult (Nephilim and Unknown Armies are weird examples) - Zombie (or Vampire) apocalypse (Zombies have taken over parts of the world. Can you characters even survive?) - Monster hunters (Buffy, Nightstalker, X-Files, Supernatural) - Splatterpunk (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc.) - Demonic (Omen, Rosemary's baby) - Secret World of Monsters (a la World of Darkness) 2b. Mixing Genres - Pulp Hero (Lovecraftian) - Star Hero (post-apocalyptic Zombie World, Predator/Alien, Space 1999: Devil's Domain) - Champions (Blade, Night Force, Hellblazer) - Dark Champions (X-Files, Ultraviolet) - Fantasy Hero (Urban Fantasy) 3. Horror Characters 3a. Archetypes - Spooky Alphabet Agent (Mulder/Scully) - Cop on the Beat - Scientist / Inventor - Private Investigator - Occult Investigator - Monster looking for Redemption (Angel) 3b. Points and Threat - sometimes lower point characters are more vulnerable; increases threat for players 3c. Sanity - various options for treating SAN 3d. Powers and Abilities in the Horror Genre 4. Settings 4a. Threats - Aliens (how Horror aliens are different than Star Hero aliens) - Monsters - Vast world-manipulating cabals - Evil-worshipping mystical cults - Ancient insanity-producing unnameable things 4b. Organizations 5. Game Mastering Horror Adventures 6. Sample Occult Items 7. Sample Characters 7a. Heroes 7b. Adversaries 7c. Monsters

Re: Horror Hero: What would you have liked to have seen?