Christougher

Re: A thread for spaceship and starbase frameworks Correct. Not quite. Only 2 shields each with 180 degree coverage. Each shield arc becomes smaller as the additional shields are added. As for defining 'shields' that's open to interpretation; Star Hero uses Force Walls, for MoO I used extra BODY so they could regenerate properly. Chris.

Re: A thread for spaceship and starbase frameworks I found that when trying to build fighter-scale vehicles, I too rapidly ran out of available spaces. Just adding five for free was one possible method of solving that issue. A porpulsion slot/system (your followup about that is spot on). I admit I was working only on crunchy/break points, so I can't speak with certainty on 10-35" of Flight, but that appears to be correct. One shield has to cover 360 degrees of ship. Adding another shield means you have 180 degree fore and aft shields of equal strength to the single one, effectively doubling shield strength. Three, four or six shields (Five doesn't conform well to hexmaps) continue the trend. Exactly. The Slot/System discrepancy is a variant of copy/paste disease and an inability to decide what to call them. Although it was written for 5E, giving only 25 BODY A 50 point scout has 50 AP slots as pointed out previously. Full Life Support fits easily within that, but by special effect it shouldn't be available at the lowest tech levels. So Special Effects of available life support tech gets involved. All slots are the same size. The Food SFX multiplier is an in-game consideration of how much food you can squeeze into the slot(s) devoted to Food & Water. Astronaut freeze-dried food allowed them to pack more food into smaller space, extending the time they could spend in space. I discarded the idea of +5 cost to double in order to replicate how the computer game Master of Orion does things. So without that, two 25 AP systems would fit into one 50 AP slot. I'm sure a talented GM could extrapolate out how to use the +5 doubling rule if they wanted to. Thank you. There's also documents to duplicate the Master of Orion tech trees which answers some of the SFX questions, but it's outside the scope. Of course, I ignore a lot of things like megascale and handwave the difference between ship grade weapons and hand held weapons. But it works. Chris.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Lightning Lass. First con, so I was a little off my game.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Playing in Remarkable Wrong Righters with Bolo (and not knowing who he was), I can add the following quotes: Discussing the son of stetchy superhero Rick Davies and shapeshifter Swift Kick: GM: He doesn't have superpowers yet, Rampart: But it's not much of a stretch? Avarice (in Friction Lass's frictionless field) leaps (badly) towards Charm, who has a machine gun and a held phase. Lady Lightning(OOC): Pull! Rampart: Ramrod, I have to ask. Under the helmet, evil goatee? Ramrod: *Takes off helmet to show evil goatee* Confronting the Reprehensible Wrong Doers: Rick Davies: I don't know about you guys, but I'm beside myself. From "Through the LCD Screen" After Speed Demon guts a badguy and tries to clean his claws in a dirty puddle, Shock Therapy goes to check on/comfort him. Shock Therapy: Please don't touch me. GM: Dragon Fist, you wake up, tied up, and someone cuts your arm, drawing blood. Then you heal, which just pisses them off. Sky High 2011 - Senior Skip Day. After the heroes receive a confusing text message (srct dy?! biki) Rajiv shows the text to Hank: Do you know what this means? Hank: It's cheerleader talk. Not a chance. GM to Eileen: You have a new bikini, nobodys ever seen you in it. Luke: It's yellow and has polka dots. GM to Roy: And you know that what your girlfriend(Eileen) is wearing under that is really hot. Table: Best. Day. Ever. Seth: David, spank the monkey! I'll save the world.

Re: A thread for spaceship and starbase frameworks Master of Orion Ship Construction Rules While it's named after Master of Orion, it is not an exact translation. Some of my other influences and some playability issues have arranged things differently. Building a Master of Orion ship is a lot like some people write term papers: produce an outline and use it to fill in the blanks. The outline is provided along with the steps to fill it in. Familiarity with Master of Orion II and the 5th Edition HERO rules is presumed. Starship Outline: Hull Size Dimensions STR DCV BOD Systems/Spaces Power Plant Propulsion Handling DEX SPD DCV Armor/Shields Life Support Electronics Computer Sensors/ECM Communications Weapons Vehicles Other Crew Quarters Laboratories Cargo Hull size is straight out of the growth rules for vehicle size. For Master of Orion, every 25 points of growth was designated as a vehicle class size: 25-45 Fighter, 50-70 Scout, 75-95 Frigate, 100-120 Corvette, 125-145 Cruiser, 150-170 Battleship, 175-195 Titan, 200-220 Dreadnaught, 225-250 Behemoth. Hull size gives the default STR, BOD and DCV penalty. Scout ships have only a single deck, every size class beyond that doubles the number of decks. The exact deck size and deck plans are left as an exercise for the builder. Halving the given area, then taking the square root gives a size twice as long as it is wide. Systems and Spaces is the heart of making a ship conform to Masters of Orion standards. Two systems per level of growth provides a steady increase, though adding 5 spaces will give fighters a non-handwaved difference at that small size. Each system or space is presumed to have the number of Active Points equal to the AP in growth. IE: A size 50 Scout has 20 systems/spaces of 50 AP each. Details of specific weapons, systems, etc., is being glossed over for now. A Power Plant provides END to power the ship's systems, generally bought as an END Reserve of the appropriate size and technology. Higher technology gives a greater REC. Propulsion covers how the ship moves, which is different than what provides power - IE: A car has an Internal Combustion power plant but Traction Propulsion bought as running. Movement can be bought as megascale 1 KM, and the number of inches divided by the size of the ship. This means that additional Propulsion slots are required for faster combat flight. Propulsion also covers FTL drives which are incredibly cheap in HERO terms. They should at least take up a full system slot each, with additional slots increasing FTL movement, and different technologies providing the next higher level of FTL. Handling provides the DEX and SPD of the craft, bought as one or more systemsfull of DEX, SPD and DCV levels, usually as evenly as possible. This way, handling can be different among craft based on how many slots they've allocated to it. Armor and Shields are pretty obvious, spending additonal slots on shields narrows the arc that each shield covers, increasing overall shield strength. To duplicate Master of Orion II's Reinforced Hull, a slot can also be purchased with Extra BODY. Life Support is harder to do, with 50 point Scout having enough to afford Full Life Support. Available Technology will have to be the special effect limit here. You can limit available food to the Food SFX multiplier time the size of the slot. Backup Life support systems and extra food would be additional slots. Electronics is just a category header for what follows. For the Computer you have the slot size in points to build a computer, mostly just INT, SPD and Programs. Technology SFX will cover AIs or adding DEX and EGO to the computer. A dedicated Battle Computer can be done with Overall Levels just for combat functions. Sensors are just a slot full of sensory powers. You can choose the VPP sensors option, though it's not recommended as limiting or justifying SFX gets difficult. Multipowers are okay though. ECM can be simulated by the whole range of powers arranged to taste: Flash, Images, Darkness, Invisibility, possibly even Desolid. Additional slots can be added for each of the special sensor/attack addons present. Communications has to be handwaved a little bit, determining range and speed of communications and whether they work only while stationary or at FTL speeds. Weapons, everybody's favorite. Just add bunches of DCs of EB or RKA and be done, right? Well, technology and SFX can add different advantages and even different powers in some cases. Plus, there's something else to consider - MOO2's different weapon sizes. Standard weapon mounts have a 180 degree firing arc and fire every phase the ship has. A Point Defense mount has half the AP of the normal weapon, designed to hold twice as many per slot. These weapons fire every segment, have an extended firing arc of 300 degrees, but only half normal range. Heavy mounts require two weapon slots, and do 150% of normal weapon DCs. They are limited to a 60 degree arc, take an extra phase to fire, and have half normal OCV. END cost is triple normal. Keel or Spinal Mounts require TEN weapon slots, do 200% damage, and take an extra turn to fire. They have a 0 degree firing arc and are 0 OCV - they are aimed by turning the ship! There is a nominal 10x END cost for these monstrosities. Other rules exist for Missiles and Torpedoes, not listed here. A Carried Vehicles slot will fit hull size(s) up to the slot size. Additional slots will provide for more or larger vehicles. The size 50 Scout could carry 2 size 25 fighters per slot. By default, no Crew Quarters slot is required to carry a crew equal to the hull size of the craft. Additional slots increase the size of crew carried, or add amenities like larger quarters, more hallways, bigger recreation areas, etcetera. Laboratories are spaces set aside for skill use, just like in bases. A default laboratory can be presumed to be 25 Active Points. More space means more or bigger laboratories. Cargo space is just empty space.

If I build a DEF 3 Automaton skeleton, and then equip him with store-bought (not point-bought) DEF 6chainmail armor, do I divide the DEF of the chainmail by 3 also?

Re: ADVANCED PLAYER'S GUIDE II -- What Do *You* Want To See? +1/4 Half Range Mods -1/4 Double Range Mods +1/4 Increased by Range (opposite of reduced by range, starts at 2d6 and goes up with each range increment) ?? Inverted Explosion based on the above. Option to combine PD and ED into one DEF stat, and its impact on other powers. Discussion of Entangle and separating the 'stops attacks' and 'stops movement' effects, to reflect mesmerizing effects from Champs Online and other MMOs.

Re: Pole Arm Quiz 16 of 22 without cheating. Mixed up Partisan and Spetum, so I could have done better. Of course, I just recently completed a Fantasy Hero polearm rewrite...

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine

In the fantasy world I'm working on, I'm considering not having any kind of riding animals or beasts of burden. What effects or impacts would this have?

Re: Sewage disposal in a fantasy world From a computer game, (Albion, IIRC) they had a species of plant that doubled as the toilet. Flowers to cover the smell, and lots of leaves. Only worry was it growing too fast from overuse.

Re: Considering: Sliding the KA scale for Weapons

Re: Considering: Sliding the KA scale for Weapons Wow, step away from the thread for a while and see what happens... There are a bunch of interesting arguments here, but I don't see the one I really posed being discussed: To do this, I would change the scale so that 1d6K = 20 AP, keeping the "magic" 1 DC = 5 AP and inserting the d6-1 in the empty space. Admittedly, this would be a nerf on damage inflicted, but I think I have a solution to that (STR Min = AP/3) but I don't want to derail the thread with that yet.

Advantages: Lesser Range Modifier: This +1/4 advantage reduces applicable Range Modifiers by half: -1 at 4", -2 at 8", -3 at 16", etc. Area of Effect Changeable: For an additional +1/2 advantage, the area of effect can be changed with every use of the power. Area of Effect Variable: For an additional +1/2 advantage on Area of Effect Line, this allows the Line to be bent or twisted to cover areas of unusual but contiguous shape, replacing the Area of Effect Any. Limitations: Greater Range Modifier: This -1/4 limitation increases applicable Range Modifiers by +1 for every increment: -3 at 4", -6 at 8", -9 at 16", etc. Reduced by Autofire: This -1/2 limitation decreases the amount of damage done by successive autofire shots by 2 DC. There is an additional -1/2 limitation if the weakest shot is the first. Reduced by Range: An additional -1/2 limitation applies if the attack is weaker at close range than at long range. Questions or comments? These should convert easily to 6E. Author's thoughts: (Explosion may be considered a variation of Area of Effect + Reduced by Range.) (Need a simple way to describe minimum to maximum damage vs range.)

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine No complaints, looks good. I like the boot pouches, have to wonder if they have gloves, and what character they would be appropriate on. And Venom is particularly good too.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Allow me to echo others' comments: Wow. Impressive. Must spread rep.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Completely awesome. Take a hit from my reptwig...

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Black Widow: Female egoist, black costume with red hourglass on belt/tummy. Dr. Spider: Male mutated into spider head, eight hairy limbs. Tarantula: Gigantic actual spider (After seeing the dragon, this might be possible.) Cyb3rSpyd3r: Male with hi-tech multi blaster backpack and mini spider drones. Daddy Long Legs: Power armor with stretching limbs. Recluse: Ninja in brown nightsuit, spiderized weaponry includes hook sword and shuriken. Venom: Bare chested male capoerista with poisoned razor blades. Arachnette: Female martial artist with cord-wrapped limbs and netlike cape. Spinner: Jailbait female sorceress with cloak Trapdoor: Male teleporting speedster, gray-green camoflauge pattern. Some of those are deliberately vague to allow for artistic freedom.

Re: Considering: Sliding the KA scale for Weapons

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Is anyone on the thread taking requests? I've got a spider theme team I'd like to see what people would come up with.

Re: Considering: Sliding the KA scale for Weapons I guess I didn't ask a reasonable question. As players or GMs, how would you react to using such a scale and STR minima? Are players going to feel content with damage capacity? Am I going to need to boost(or lower) damage or armor? Obviously, I have to convert monsters and magic items to this scale, but that's almost a no-brainer. Of course converting RKAs and spells to this might be a bigger issue. I think I'll leave actual 'spells' RAW, and just adopt the new scale to RKA weapons, and leave any normal damage weapons alone save the STR Minima = AP/3.

I'm half considering the idea of changing the KA scale to make d6-1 a different value than 1/2d6 is, at least for weapons. And realigning STR minima (/3) to counter for some of the lost DCs. 5 AP 1pip STR 2 10 AP .5d6 STR 3 Dagger 15 AP d6-1 STR 5 Throwing Axe 20 AP 1d6 STR 7 Short Sword 25 AP 1d6+1 STR 8 Small Axe 30 AP 1.5d6 STR 10 Long Sword 35 AP 2d6-1 STR 12 Large Axe 40 AP 2d6 STR 13 Great Sword 45 AP 2d6+1 STR 15 Great Axe 50 AP 2.5d6 STR 17 Glaive 55 AP 3d6-1 STR 18 Voulge I know this would play havoc with magic spells, so I'm not considering changing that right now. Any thoughts or opinions on how this would work out?

The RKA for bow and/or arrow is obvious, it's the interactions between them that get funny. How do you build a magical arrow so that it requires a bow to fire it? (And conversely, an arrow that doesn't.) What happens when a magic bow rated 2d6K fires an arrow that's 1.5d6K Armor Piercing? (Right now, I'm thinking totalling the AP for the higher and half the lower, and refiguring based on the advantage. For this example, it'd be 37+15=52/1.5=35, or RKA 2d6+1 Armor Piercing.

Re: Dogfighting!

Re: Dogfighting! I know, I read it. This is my attempt at replacing it.