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Damon_Dusk

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About Damon_Dusk

  • Birthday 09/20/1972

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    A gaming freak from the midwest
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  1. Re: Wild-West Style Fantasy Idea - Looking for ideas Those are some really good ideas. I definitely like your Aztec idea, as it was in many ways the direction I was thinking for this "ancient powerful civilization." I will use those ideas when setting up the geography. Thanks again.
  2. Re: Wild-West Style Fantasy Idea - Looking for ideas Yeah, I threw the number out there without really knowing how long it took Columbus, etc. to cross the Atlantic. I'd like to keep it mostly "mundane" (i.e. no dimension hopping continents) but I agree that 10 days is too short. Any suggestions as to a length that would make it unlikely to have a mass emigration to this new land. Or maybe a good reason why it doesn't happen that isn't too unbelievable (frequent storms, hurricanes, etc.). Distance is fine, but I'd like to keep it a bit closer than Europe to North America... Thanks for the advice, it definitely helps.
  3. And when I say Wild-West Fantasy, I don't mean Deadlands. I'm looking to create a setting that has a very wild-west appeal, but using only fantasy/medieval technology. Basically, I'd break it down like this: -There is a smaller continent where most of this campaign's kingdoms reside. They are somewhat separated from the "main area" by a large body of water. This wouldn't be an Atlantic Ocean-sized distance, by any stretch. Perhaps only a 7-10 day journey by ship. -There are colonies of the kingdoms upon this new continent where they are trying to settle. They are fairly civilized, but not nearly so much as their homeland. -The majority of the campaign area is unsettled, unexplored, and holds a vast amount of resources for the taking. -But there is an indigenous people/monster race living there that are not too keen on invaders. Some extra things that I want to include: -There are cities/artifacts/remnants of an ancient civilization that was apparently destroyed long, long ago. -Deep, deep into the wilderness, the relatively few survivors of this ancient civilization live protected in their last fortress. They are incredibly powerful and overly paranoid. -Very few "races" in the world in general (just trying to get away from the "my character is different because he's an *elf*", and go more toward the "my character is different because he grew up in the mountains of whatever, where his town was oppressed by the followers of religion, but he secretly believed in said religion, and often informed the oppressors of heretic plans"). I want to have only a few different races (1-3 besides human) and for each of the races to be somehow related to humanity (either through being a half-breed, descendent of a long lost ethnic group, having a trace of "inhuman blood" in their lineage, etc.). Basically, any of the non-human races will look very similar to humans, but perhaps have some distinguishing feature or trait. They are generally accepted by most humans, but there can always be distrust. An extreme but easily recognizable example would be vampires. They look human, can easily pass for human, but die in the sunlight, and everyone hates them. I don't plan to use vampires per se, but it's a valid example. Any ideas on this would be greatly appreciated. -I want to include a lot of the politics, etc. of the kingdoms as each tries to stake their claims on the "new world". The wars, treaties, etc. that would ensue, and the PCs involvement in them. -I want to include the aspects of settlers, fortune-seekers, ne'er-do-wells, mercenaries, and general "wild-west-iness" of people trying to settle in an untamed land. -I want the "new world" to generally be "unconquerable" except by concentrated effort by the kingdoms. In other words, they can be claimed, but holding onto such land is difficult unless the colonies somehow band together. But I intend to set things up in such a way that this banding together is unlikely, the relatively close proximity of their home kingdoms goes a long way toward ensuring there is no massive revolution. -The world is generally medium-magic level; magic are uncommon and difficult to master, but wizards can become very powerful. The most powerful magic was possessed and wielded by this ancient civilization, but that knowledge is long lost or forgotten. -Religion will play a big part in the world (much as it did in our own in medieval times). There will be a few distinct religions: Two religions will be based around the belief that there is only one god, but will have very different takes on how to follow that god. Another religion will promote spiritual balance as its main theme. A fourth religion will be very shamanistic in nature, with the belief that spirits fill the land, influence all life, and shape the natural world. A fifth religion is the antithesis to the first two (a somewhat "evil" god/devil), promoting selfishness, the strong rule, and the weak were meant to serve others mentality (this religion is a secret society type, oppressed and not tolerated by most of the others). The last religion that I have is kind of the "old religion" which spawned the first two religions. It consists of a council of gods/goddesses that serve a very advisory role in society. They are generally passive, though members of this pantheon have definitive "aspects" that they cover (i.e. god of the sun, goddess of death, etc.). To try to sum this up, I'm going for a feel that there is a lot of religious differences even though there are few directly opposed "forces". A lot of problems arise from which religion believes they are "right" as well as suspicion about who is really a follower of "the devil." -I want there to be a few distinct styles of magic. First, I want the typical wizard type, of which I would probably go with a VPP style (with all spells needing to be created beforehand; created by me or approved by me) and all spells being "powered" by an END Reserve. Second, I want a sort of sorcerer style. I would either go with the character spending the full Real Points of individual spells (which are the same as wizard spells) and all spells "powered" by the character's own END, or the character buys a Multipower Pool, with every spell powered by his own END. The difference being that a wizard is more refined and able to channel the magic "around" him, whereas a sorcerer channels the magic "through" him. I also would like to see a style of arcane magic that focuses around summoning powerful spirits that perform the spells (in effect, it would cover a lot of the same ground as the other two magicians but include the ability to actually Summon creatures, the other two would not). I see this is being a Multipower, perhaps with all spells costing 0 END, but having significant side effects (the demon/spirit gets angry and rips into the summoner with its spiritual force). There will be divine magic as well, which I'm seeing as a Multipower as well, with 0 END spells and no side effects. Lastly, and I think it overlaps a bit with the spirit summoner type, is a shamanistic style (perhaps they work the exact same way, but have a different mentality; one pursues it religiously, the other uses it purely for power). -On the nature of magic, I'd like to go with the idea that magic is an invisible element (mana, etc.) that covers the world (more concentrated in some areas and almost non-existant in others). Those with "mage-sight" can see the flows and weaves of this element, and can manipulate it with the proper incantations, gestures, foci, etc. They can manipulate this energy to create almost unlimited effects, but there are a few things that it can't do. It can't create permanent items (though it *can* be infused into specially constructed items to create magic items), nor summon creatures (though it *can* create an artificial life form with a very short life span), nor resurrect the dead (though it *can* infuse a dead body with an artificial life force). Another aspect is that death of a living thing returns its energy to this pool of mana covering the world. Resurrection is not possible because it's like trying to find the exact formula for a person and infusing it into the body again, into a body that can no longer sustain life. Animating dead is possible because it's using the magic not to grant life, but to move a dead body in a "programmed" fashion (which brings up issues of "turning undead"). I haven't decided how a nearby death could affect a magician. In effect, it will increase the local mana available, but I'm not sure that it should have any immediate effect. Any ideas on what to do with this would be greatly appreciated. I suppose it does open it up for a style of magician that uses sacrifices to augment his power (somehow harnessing the energy from the dead body upon the time of death). -Another idea that appeals to me greatly is the thought that even mundanes who somehow achieve an incredible level of skill in something can tap into the flow of magic to perform near magical abilities (like "super-skills" from DC). So warriors of incredible talent (measured in how many points they have in Martial Arts?) can perform "super-human" abilities (like many legendary martial artists were claimed to have been capable of doing). Hmmm...This post is really long. Anyway, I'm looking for ideas and comments as to where to go with this. I've started writing a lot of this down, but a little inspiration from you would go a long way.
  4. Damon_Dusk

    Movies

    Re: Movies Not sure if these have been posted yet, but some fantasy movies that come to mind: The Sword and the Sorcerer: Besides the ridiculous "tri-sword" and cheesy story, it had some interesting ideas...The "tri-sword" wasn't one of them. Metalstorm - The Destruction of Jared Syn: Basically a fantasy story wrapped in sci-fi trappings. I remember it was "really cool" as a kid. The Ator Movies: Pretty horrible movies all in all, but there are certainly some nuggets that can be mined from them. The Deathstalker Movies: See Ator above. She (1985): Probably the last movie to have Sandahl Bergman as a main character; a post-apocalyptic setting with plenty of swordplay. Steel Dawn: Patrick Swayze as a master swordsman in a post-apocalyptic world...Nuff said Gor, Outlaw of Gor: Based on the book series of the same name (I've never read it). In fact, I can't remember much about the movies either... Big Trouble in Little China: Modern-day fantasy by John Carpenter. Great martial arts, interesting characters and wholly entertaining. One of my favorites. The Secret of Nimh: Pure fantasy animated story with the main characters being Anthopomorphic rats/mice. Interesting story and a lot of fantasy trappings. Granted, not all of these movies are *good*, but I figured I'd throw them in the mix...
  5. Re: Developing Shadowrun Hero, could use some input! Which spells in particular would you use this on? I was just wondering because it seems that many of the built-in mechanics in Hero already address these issues. For example, with Manabolt, the caster still needs to hit with his OECV versus the target. For Control Thoughts/Mind Probe, the caster still needs to achieve the desired level of success for Mind Control and Telepathy respectively as well as hitting with OECV.
  6. Re: Developing Shadowrun Hero, could use some input! As a note, since it is near impossible to represent Spirit's "Force" adequately in Hero, I instead just decided on creating a couple of different versions of spirits. The Lesser Spirits were meant to roughly equal a Force 3 spirit. The "regular" spirits were meant to roughly equal a Force 6 spirit. In the future, I planned to add Greater Spirits that were meant to approximate Force 10 spirits. After that, there would be a package that could be added to any spirit that would grant them Great Form status. There's still so much to do...
  7. Re: Developing Shadowrun Hero, could use some input! Actually this is very similar to how the most recent version of my conversion works. All spells work automatically, but have a Side Effect that does STUN damage (or BODY if the Active Cost is higher than the magician's Magic Attribute). The amount is equal to 1 point per 5 AP of the Spell. This "Drain" is resistable: for every point the magician makes the Sorcery Skill Roll, it reduces drain by 1. So a magician with a Magic of 60 casting a 60 AP spell would suffer 12 Stun Drain. If his roll is 23-, he would need to roll an 11- to suffer no drain. The limitation is written up thus: Side Effect: Drain STUN/BODY (1 per 5 Active Points), Major, Always Occurs, Predefined Damage, Resistable (-1/2) It seems to follow the established feel for Shadowrun Magic more than END drain, and is a fairly decent offset for the relative power of magic.
  8. Re: Developing Shadowrun Hero, could use some input! Sure! You can send me a message to the email address posted earlier in this thread or PM me with the email address you'd like me to send it to. Either way, I think that would be great to have it hosted somewhere.
  9. Re: Developing Shadowrun Hero, could use some input! Well, it isn't explained very well in that text, but the Damage Reduction can be offset if the attacker uses his ECV to attack (even with a mundane weapon; yes, not strictly Hero Rules, but it was a kludge to deal with an effect created in Shadowrun). In shadowrun, elementals took almost no damage from mundane weapons unless the attacker used their "force of will". In play, a melee-based street-samurai ended up fairly well cleaning the floor with a "standard" fire-elemental. In fact, I don't think he even took any BODY or STUN. But several balances have been made since that time, as well as spirits being increased in power. The next elemental encounter was far more balanced, with them striking enough concern into the party to make them worth the effort of having around.
  10. Re: Developing Shadowrun Hero, could use some input! Hey, no problem, QM. I forgot to credit FASA with the source material for the conversion. Either way, I just hope people are able to use it so all that work has a purpose.
  11. Re: Developing Shadowrun Hero, could use some input! There's definitely been a lot of tweaking of the Shadowrun conversion since the version that the Question Man posted, and if you are interested, I can send you the most recent version. It has optional rules, packages, Magic, Cyberware, Bioware, Weapons (from Shadowrun & Cyberpunk), Decking, Rigging, Equipment, and Vehicles. I think it comes in around 150 pages now, so it covers a decent amount of the Shadowrun game and it certainly emulates the feel of Shadowrun very well. And the newest version is quite a bit more balanced overall. If you are interested, email me at damondusk@cox.net and I can send you what I have.
  12. Re: Cyber Hero: Money or pts for Cybernetics? Well, I'm a bit in the same boat, in that I have a group of players that like the Shadowrun setting, but none of us are willing to go through the effort (read: pain) of relearning the Shadowrun rules. So I have done a fairly comprehensive work up of Shadowrun for Hero (about 160 pages of stuff) that covers just about everything (archetypes, magic, weapons, equipment, vehicles, rigging, the matrix, etc.). So far, the campaign is progressing fairly well, and even with characters paying money for cyberware, there are no shortages of magician characters (who must pay points for all their abilities). As for what makes good cyberpunk or Shadowrun setting in game terms, I would say a lot of it is oppression of the the characters by "the man." Who is "the man?" It could be anything. In cyberpunk, it could be the dominant corporations the keep the characters down in the shadows and the gutter. It could be organized crime that burns the characters at every opportunity. In Shadowrun, it could be any one of the many shadow organizations (magical groups, dragons, Tir Tairngire, gangs, etc.). To me, cyberpunk/Shadowrun is a tragic setting, where the characters tend to get along as well as they can, always keeping in mind that they could die at any moment, and struggling to make it out of the gutter, though very few actually do. Also, I think the players need to always have the feeling that they only know half the story, which tends to help spur them on with motivation to find out what's really going on. Conspiracies abound, everyone is scheming, and the characters happen to be caught in the middle. But it can also depend on your players as well. Are they going to let you keep "screwing them over by the man" and still enjoy the game? You have to let them have their minor successes and reprieves so they don't feel so oppressed all the time. But you also have to have the feeling that there is always something out there just waiting to burst their bubble. They are never safe, since the gritty setting always means that someone is gunning for you. Of course that's just my take, and it may not be "strict" cyberpunk per se, but it tends to work well in a gaming environment.
  13. Re: Cyber Hero: Money or pts for Cybernetics? Just wanted to throw in here with my own experience, as I am running a Shadowrun game in Hero. To put it simply, characters pay money for cyberware/bioware, as it's a simulation of the genre. But there are a few things that go into it that balance it off. First, the Wealth perk is changed to more follow the Shadowrun system (characters can pay upwards of 40 points just for wealth). Second, cyberware is more like a piece of equipment than just a new "power". It can be damaged, it can be destroyed, it can be removed, and it can be "turned off" in special circumstances. Third, to emulate the (3rd Edition) Shadowrun take on "Humanity" or "Cyber-psychosis", their Essence attribute, installing too much cyberware begins to give a blanket penalty to all the character's Interaction Skills (and Magic Skills, but that's a different story). I would say, go with what "feels" right for the game you are trying to run. If the cyberware is more of a tool or piece of equipment, then have the characters pay money for it (if you really want to balance it out, make the cost of wealth give an equal amount of money as what the cyberware would cost; i.e. if wired reflexes has a real cost of 11 and costs 100,000 dollars, make 11 points of wealth give the character 100,000 dollars). But if calling it "cyberware" is really just a special effect for an ability that is much like a superpower, have them pay points. Either way, I think game balance can easily be preserved and give you the style of game you are looking for.
  14. Re: Range Combat: Gun Fu & rule changes Well, I figured I would throw in my experience here. I am running a Shadowrun/Cyberpunk game in Hero and have come up with a few house rules to make guns "feel" more like guns. The first is granting a +1 OCV for every 10 shots fired through autofire. I had considered going to +1 OCV per 5 shots, but since OCVs are already so high in the game (because of cyberware like Smartgun Links, Targeting Computers, and Tactical Computers, as well as characters having superhuman DEX scores) that +1 per 10 seemed safe. I will admit, +1 per 5 shot autofire (or even +1 for 3-round burst, +2 for 5-round burst, +3 for Autofire-10, and +4 for Autofire-20) isn't really a bad way to go either. In practice, it does give the feeling of going through ammo in almost no time. Most guns give only 2 or 3 attacks at AF-10 before the clip runs dry. We've also changed the way Two-Weapon Fighting works, because as we saw it, paying the 10 points for that was never worth it when compared to just using a submachine gun or machine pistol, let alone an assault rifle. Comparing the two you have these issues: First, Two-Weapon Fighting costs points to essentially do what Autofire weapons do, and do it very poorly at that. Second, using Two-Weapon Fighting halves the character's DCV vs. Full DCV when using Autofire (though not with Autofire Skills). Third, Two-Weapon Fighting takes a full phase action vs. the half-phase action of using an autofire weapon. So instead of basing Two-Weapon Fighting on the Sweep Maneuver, we based it on the concept of Autofire. A character without the Two-Weapon Fighting Skill can effectively fire both weapons at a -2 OCV penalty (for each weapon, not including penalties for off-hand weapon use). The primary attack has a penalty to discourage a character from always doing it. The secondary attack is the equivalent of Autofire's "for every 2 points the attack exceeded the roll, another round hits." We've also made it a half-phase maneuver that doesn't reduce DCV (after all, it's not that hard, at least cinematically, to aim two guns at a guy and pull the trigger). Also, the second attack costs an extra +1 END (END is figured off the highest STR Min of the two weapons, +1 per extra attack). A character can take the Two-Weapon Fighting skill (Ranged or HtH; 5 points) to offset the penalty for the primary weapon (built as +2 OCV with Ranged or HtH; 10 Active Points; Only to offset first penalty to Two-Weapon Fighting (-1)). A character can also perform a Rapid Attack Maneuver with allows Semi-Auto weapons to fire twice as a half-phase maneuver at -2 OCV for both weapons. The extra attack is +1 END (as two-weapon fighting above). And a character can also perform a Two-Weapon Rapid Attack Maneuver, which combines both the above maneuvers with each successive attack imposing a cumulative -2 OCV penalty (-2 for the first attack with primary weapon (offset by skills), -2 for first attack with secondary weapon, -4 for second attack with primary weapon (can't be offset), -6 for second attack with secondary weapon). This is a full phase action, and each extra attack is +1 END. Also, we got rid of the Rapid Attack Skill and replaced with Fast Attack, which basically allows the character to perform any full phase maneuvers as half phase actions. It costs 5 points. It's meant mostly for use with Autofire Skills. For weapon jamming, we use a modified version of the table in the 5E book. Some weapons are Very Reliable, bought as a +1/4 Advantage and jam less often. Some weapons are Unreliable, bought as a -1/4 Limitation and jam more often. Lastly, to account for the possibility of characters not being able to control Autofire weapons, we went with a modified STR Min rule. Basically, for every shot fired, increase the STR Min by +1. Some weapons are inherently more stable and suffer 1/2 "recoil penalties" (miniguns, etc.) and the STR Min increases by +1 per 2 shots fired on autofire. As a note, characters cannot do a Two-Weapon Rapid Attack maneuver with Autofire Weapons. Only with HtH and Semi-Auto weapons. It's an exception to the rule, and I'm not big on exceptions, but one that is necessary to preserve balance. edit: wasn't finished.
  15. Re: Modern-Day Fantasy Well, I would respectfully disagree with you on the Shadowrun system being better than Hero. And I'm a fan of Shadowrun, having played the game since its 1st Edition. It's very inconsistent in it's mechanics (Ok, is my target number the opponent system's rating or an abitrary number decided by the designer? Is my level of success determined by every success, every two successes, or a single success? Etc.). But I do love the setting, and I've done a conversion of Shadowrun to Hero. It emulates the spirit of the world of Shadowrun and works very well. But some of the ideas put forth in this thread are pretty interesting. I'm particularly intrigued by the idea that the internet is actually a "system" of magical knowledge accessed by those who possess magic. It's actually kind of interesting to have such a thing in a pure fantasy game with low tech levels. I guess I would put forth that depending on when magic was "discovered" and how common it is, technology could be severely handicapped. If everyone has access to magic in some form or another, I would think that technology wouldn't advance one bit further than that point. Unless magic could not be used to "simulate" technology, I would think that magic would effectively replace it (flying cars, horseless carriages, crystal ball phones, etc.). But by placing limitations on what magic can do, or if it wasn't an everyday appliance, technology could have advanced much as it has in the real world, though I'm sure magic would have had an effect on that as well (maybe instead of DNA testing, they have Aura tests). If magic was just recently discovered, then the events described in the Shadowrun history could be a great reference for determining how the world would change.
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