UltraRob

Re: How do you get players to role play the genre? Enjoy! UltraRob

Re: How do you get players to role play the genre? Oh! And as an additional note, if you use this XP option in a superhero game, players will feel less threatened by death, and more inclined to take risks and do cool things because they know they probably won't die. (Player: "There's a flagpole on the side of this building I just jumped off of, right?" GM: "For 1Xp, there can be! And right under you too!") This should help some people's "STUN is my precious!" types get over their fear of diving into combat! UltraRob

Re: How do you get players to role play the genre? If you are doing traditional superheros, they really are. Actually, another way to make XPs more valuable and keep things "in genre" is to allow players to spend their unspent XPs to do 1 of 3 effects...Usually these are at a cost of 1pt. (Or more if they are REALLY pushing things!) 1) Reroll any die roll in the game. (But only if they declare it within a few seconds after the roll is made.) 2) Not die. Lethal blows knock them out, and leave them unconscious, but still at 0 BODY or whatever is appropriate. (As long as there is a logical reason they can escape death...if they jump into a volcano or a sun...they are pooched unless someone has a good reason why not...) 3) "Control Chance"...for example, in my games if a player needs a train to be on time, needs a store to have a rare item, or other "co-incidences" to happen, they can either have me roll for chance or spend a point to make it happen. This can really make games more cinematic, and gives them some feeling of control in the story. Since I started to use this system, my players complain if I don't let PCs do this in every game I run (not just HERO) because it adds to the game and the heroic feel of the game so much. Of course, it depends on the genre I am running...if I am not running a heroic genre but a horror one for example, there is no way I will use this setup...reality in that genre is harsh! UltraRob

Re: How do you get players to role play the genre? Actually, with superheros the solution is pretty easy. Just use the old regulations that Marvel Supers and the DC HEROS game used....You kill the baddie, you lose half (or all) of your XPs, you bring them in alive, you get full XP and extra benefits. Once the players realize it's in their best interests to always bring em back alive, they'll start working on ways to do so in the most efficient fashion possible. Which is at least a change and start from the old Punisher motif. Once they get used to bringing the baddies back alive, they might even start to play a little more in-genre in general if you nudge them that way. Sometimes it's best to just be subtle as a iron bar..."This is a superhero campaign, and if you kill people you don't get XPs because superheros don't kill people in this type of game unless they have to." As a balance, you should also follow another DC rule and say..."If the villians try to kill you, and kill them then you get partial points because it's self defense, but they have to have honestly made the effort to kill you." Good luck! UltraRob

Re: What about the warriors Hmmm, as an extra note...I just suddenly had visions of a "Shining Force" campaign....If anyone knows the game I am talking about....In it your goal was to recruit an army to face the bad guys, and you did it one soldier at a time....One of the coolest games ever! Hell of a lot of work in an RPG though. Rob

Re: What about the warriors I couldn't agree more...I think something people usually forget is that even characters in fantasy settings would rarely have it as a goal to spend their whole lives fighting, training and adventuring. Having lived as a traveller in foreign countries for a couple years in real life, I gotta tell ya it gets old real quick. It doesn't take long before your goals are to find a place to live and settle down so you don't have to deal with this crap anymore. It seems to me that most adventurers would probably have 3 goals...1) gain experience, 2) make money/profit, 3) find a place to settle down so they can have a nice bed to sleep in and not have to worry about their next meal. That said, I have to say that I am one of the only people I know whose characters tend to leave the campaign because they found a nice piece of land, a title, and got married. Not entirely in-genre for a genre that tends to run it's heroes to death, but it just makes sense to me. Interestingly enough, if you check 1st Edition D&D you will find a "followers" rating on the characters because it was expected that as warriors advanced they'd pick up companions who wanted to tag along. Few people use it thought, because they don't want the work, and neither does the GM. (Hard to rationalize why a guy at the head of an army goes on a scouting mission...) Rob

Re: CHAR: Sir Rodderick of Vargas

Re: CHAR: Sir Rodderick of Vargas Whoa....Not bad! I like him! A cool straightforward major antagonist/rival for the PCs. Out of curiosity, how many points are the PCs in this campaign built on? 150+150? Rob

Re: What about the warriors

Re: What about the warriors Here's a thought... In Fantasy Hero, they suggest giving wizards ratios of real points to points spent on spells as a way of making them more cost effective. (ie 1:5 ratio of the PC paying 1 real point per 5 points the spell would normally cost them, or a 1:3 ratio of the 1 real point per 3 real points the spell would normally cost.) Now, what if we did that for Martial Arts "Special Techniques" instead? Say I want my dude to have the "Tree Splitter" Technique, which runs like this: +6DC HA, AP (+1/2), OAF: Sword of Opportunity (-1), 1 phase extra time (-1/2), Requires Meditation Skill Roll (-1/2): Active Points: 45, Real Cost: 12pts Now, with a 1:5 ratio, it's gonna cost 2pts, which is waaay too cheap (but would be what it might cost as part of an MP Ultra slot with disads.) A 1:3 ratio is gonna cost 4pts. Which puts it in line with most of the other Martial Arts maneuver costs, but still seems a little cheap. And a 1:2 ratio is gonna cost 6pts. Which actually doesn't seem too bad. It reflects time required to learn the maneuver, and allows warriors to put together a few techniques without requiring the GM to let them start using Multipowers. (Which to me, is just asking for trouble as every game suddenly you have PCs adding on a new technique with the 2-3Xps they just earned....) Any thoughts? Rob

Re: Big City... what rules? GM question Not a problem. If you take the "Monster Hunters" route make sure to give them a good variety of missions, and encourage them to get involved with the local culture during their "time off". "Cop" campaigns are dangerous because they can quickly turn into a "monster of the week" scenario unless you come up with a good number of baddies and situations. It's why I suggested they be "special ops" troops, because then they can do things besides monster hunters: escorts and guards, investigators, spies, etc...Anyone can kick the butt of a squad of demon worshiping ninja goblins, but breaking up a Thieves guild requires a lot of work! Rob

Re: Big City... what rules? GM question Well, I think you're going to have to think a little deeper on this one... The most pressing thing I think you need to think about is what kind of environment you really want this city to have. I mean, from my point of view the way you currently present it, it probably runs a lot like this... Archmagi do their own thing, hidden away from society to one degree or another. They left the control to the guilds, and gave the guilds two mandates..."we want peace" and "we want order". After all, if those two things aren't in place, then the magi can't get their work done, and if the magi can't get their work done....Well, let's just say godlike magi who are pissed will probably result in large scale population reduction...And they will start with the heads of the guilds... "I find the lack of peace most disturbing..." (Said in best "Vader" voice...) So, of course the guilds want to keep this place tight! Now, how are they gonna do this? This is what will determine a lot about your campaign setting...If the magi aren't too picky, and the guilds have gotten lazy then the place might be various degrees of chaos....if they ARE picky, then the guilds are gonna be really hype on keeping this place under control. There will be several ways to do this: 1) A formal guard/police force. 2) Hired mercenary/security guilds. 3) Some form of magical guardians. (Golems, Walking Suits of Armour, what have you.) 4) A mix of two or three of these. And, of course the size, strength and nature of the enforcement is something you are going to have to determine as well...Are there "lawless zones"? Do only the rich areas have real security? (You seem to want "bodyguards", and there's no need for bodyguards unless things are a little on the chaotic side....) If it's a normal city, there will be rich, poor, and in between areas, and you will have to decide where these are and what those environments are like. Another thing to keep in mind is the nature of the city itself. For example, is this a trade city? Someplace where there will be a lot of people coming a going? Or is it some kind of capitol where there are a lot of political figures? (Which will result in more security...) How did the city form? Why did it form? (Did people just notice one day that this area around where these magi live didn't have monsters and thus flocked there for safety? Did the magi themselves make the city to try and create a paradise but gradually got sick of trying to rule and retreated? Were the original inhabitants all servants of the magi and the place simply grew? etc) Another thing that struck me reading what you wrote is that this would probably be more of a swashbuckling/martial arts environment than a heavy-armour/battle environment. Heavy armour and swords are just asking for trouble, better to go with small light weapons and hand to hand combat techniques that require no weapons at all. You just don't see a lot of non-guard running around in full plate in a fantasy city where there's someone trying to keep order. Of course, it all depends on what you want your PCs to do! My current city-based campaign is all about conflict between secret societies and political intrigues, but I gotta tell ya that takes a lot of work as a GM to do properly. I don't recommend it for people looking for lots of quick action. (My players are more concerned with how to keep their enemies from crashing an upcoming PC wedding right now than they are looking for trouble.) If you want something a little more action-packed and simple to run, might I suggest that the PCs act as mercenary police. If there is a mandate to keep the peace perhaps the Guilds hire small merc groups to deal with problems that crop up as needed. After all, with magic using people running around, there is just gonna be trouble, and things going out of control left right and centre. Summonings go wrong all the time, people cheat each other, kill their wives and replace them with fakes or kill OTHER people's wives and replace them with fakes....Monsters sneak into the city, or are born there, and someone has to hunt them down before the Magi get annoyed...There are rebel groups, enemy spies... Actually, if you wanna go this route, I suggest you track down the "Ghost in the Shell" TV series, it's about a ultratech city's security force, but with a little creativity some of the plotlines could easily be "borrowed" in modified form to give you inspiration. And, of course there is the question of what the Magi are up to...are the citizens of the city just part of a giant chess game they are playing against each other in their own internal politics? Maybe they are "testing" or "toughening up" certain groups which they secretly plan to use against each other in political maneuvers.. Lots of fun here, but you should try to get as much nailed down as possible before you start the game, the more you know, the smoother all this will. Just remember not to overthink things, a rough "sketch" will do, and things will go fine... Good luck! Rob

Re: EqualArmor PCs. Fair and simple? Your "Equalarmour" idea isn't bad, but it will cut down on character customization, or at least the choice that players can make. Setting things and 8rPD max and letting them buy it is probably the better way, the truth is most players will then procede to all buy...8rPD! But, at least they chose to do it, so there will be more satisfaction, and the guy who wants the quick unarmoured swashbucker, or the mage who has magical defenses which don't always work (activation roll) can then customize it as they see fit. Rob

Re: The great armour race... Question: Since the players did take a point of BODY, did they get 1/2 or full PD versus the stun from killing attacks? That's one aspect of Combat Luck I have been pondering over, whether it allows the player to use 1/2 their PD against the STUN from the killing attacks or not. I do like the 1 BODY idea, at the very least it lets them know they can be whittled down, so fights are still dangerous. Oh, and I assume you did not let "heroic roughness" stack with armour, correct? Best Rob

Re: The great armour race... Hey Mark! I read your website, and agree with you 100%, next campaign I run is 75+50pt characters with martial arts based on that multipower system you have on your nifty site. ^_- Excellent work there! Oh, I did want to ask, since you had PCs who didn't wear armour much, did you let them have Combat Luck so they didn't just die whenever they didn't have their armour on and a fight broke out? I can see that when the PCs armoured up, they would feel cool and heroic if they weren't used to armour...Sounds good! ^__^ Rob

Re: The great armour race... But, I can make replacement armour really hard to come by as it gets chipped away. And idea I've toyed with for a long time was that armour gains an "activation" roll following critical hits in combat, each critical hit it stops reduces the roll by one until the armour is repaired. Sounds good as well. Also sounds good. Already had one heavy-armour character nearly drown during a river battle, but most of the action in the current campaign is city-based. Still, something to keep in mind for a more travelling campaign. Now THAT is perhaps the best idea I have ever heard for a HERO martial arts campaign, it is extremely in-genre, and makes enough sense that I doubt I'll get many complaints. I think I will apply it in all future games where martial maneuvering and special techniques are involved. THANKS! I'm surprised nobody else every thought of this! (Including me! ) This would also be a good one to apply in swashbuckling campaigns. Hmm, I think making them naturally AP when performing impaling attacks might do the trick. On average, they would probably be doing less damage per hit (unless striking vital areas), but at the same time they are more likely to actually DO some damage. (ie BODY) Heh heh. Even I forgot that one, people wandering around in armour are going to stink to high heaven...And if your armour gets stolen (being so valuable) while you keep leaving it places, at what point do you say "screw replacing it!". Especially when most others in the game aren't wearing it either. As I noted earlier, they're in a city under martial law right now anyways...so no weapons or armour as it is....But these will be good things to implement when they start using it again! Great ideas there Hugh! Thank you VERY much! I think you just solved all my armour problems! Rob

Re: Not wishing to offend Well, as a general rule, most gamers are fairly open minded about such things, at least in my experience. You are more likely to get racism in jokes and general conversation than you are in the game, and I think most gamers won't care much about the racism in the setting because they understand it's a setting, not reality. Especially with historical gaming, it just goes with the territory, and as long as the GM doesn't seem to be focussing on it (say, persecuting the female PCs especially hard in a sexist setting) I don't think it's going to be a play issue. Even in the case of a made-up fantasy world, there can be social injustice, but it's accepted to be part of that game world unless specifically the GM is hammering one particular group all the time. I think a Christian GM could quite capably run a WWII campaign set in occupied France (PCs as freedom fighters, for example) for a predominantly jewish group and they wouldn't bat an eye, unless he went overboard with the Nazi rhettoric, and made sure what anti-semitism there was was kept in-context and coming from the villians. Rob

Re: The great armour race... Well, in reality in China (wish I'd thought of all this stuff BEFORE I started the campaign, but hindsight is 20-20...) there were a few reasons why they didn't tend to wear armour as I see it: 1) It was rare, expensive, and generally only made during wartime by rich guys for themselves and their troops. Unlike Japan, where the proliferation of armour became common as a result of wars, in China the armour tended to be forgotten after the war ended. (probably for other reasons listed here...) 2) It was hard to maintain. In Southern China, with it's lovely heat and humidity, the armour would literally rot away, leather, metal...didn't matter much. In Northern China, this wasn't such a problem, but it still costs money to maintain this stuff unless you know how to do it yourself. (and few would) 3) It's uncomfortable, especially when the heat is literally on. Do you really wanna travel and live in this stuff? Do you want to travel and live in your winter coat? 4) It's heavy. Especially if you move around a lot (and China was one of the biggest countries on Earth for most of human history), do you really wanna drag this stuff all over the countryside for a fight you "might" have. (In game, of course, PCs know there will be fights, but...) And China is a really really hilly country....you're walking in armour uphill half the time. 5) It limits your "style". Performing high-energy martial arts in a suit of armour, when you need to put your whole body into maneuvers, motions and stances is generally just going to limit you. Better to just not be there when the blow comes. 6) Chinese weapon fighting styles tend to focus on precise impaling attacks as opposed to slashing weapons. One of the big differences between Japanese and Chinese fighting styles is that Japanese cut, Chinese impale. Many Chinese swords don't even have sharp edges on them because they are only designed to pierce vital points on the target. I see this as the equivalent of the "arrow" thing, these blades are gonna go through most armour like butter. 7) Except during wartime, even city guard don't wear armour, and will regard anyone who does as bandits and troublemakers unless they have some sort of official markings. The Chinese are big on staying inconspicuous, and it's much easier to get away with carrying concealed weapons like sword if you're not wearing a suit of armour to attract their attention. Also keep in mind they are an extremely legalistic society during most of the later dynasties, and people tend to end up in jail (or torture chambers) really really quick if they are suspected troublemakers. Low profile= good. During many eras swords were carried for protection when travelling, so they're not a big deal, but armour would be. 8) China is filled with waterways and Canals (something most people outside of it don't know), and they were a common obstacle and means of travel. Armour doesn't float very well. 9) The "wimp" factor, unskilled grunts wear armour during wartime, but a "real" warrior shows he has no fear by relying on his skill to save him. (A good excuse probably expoused by those who can't afford armour....) End result. Armour just wasn't a big thing old China. Am I missing any? Rob

Re: The great armour race... Equally nasty when you consider that the armour will also slow you down, giving the archers more chances to shoot at you as you advance at them...Better hope you have some fast friends around! I think the next time I run a WuXia campaign, I will simply tell the players that people who wear armour in this setting are considered "wimps" by the general warrior culture. Wearing armour is a sure sign your skill level is too low to actually be able to defend yourself and fight properly, and will generally get you little respect. After a little research, I have found this is extremely in-genre. How many people even in fighting games are wearing armour? Almost nobody in a WuXia story (or Samurai Drama) ever wears armour unless they are going to war. Rob

Re: Yu-Gi-herO Sounds reasonable. I was just thinking in terms of using a YuGiOh type system for mages in actual roleplay, not just simulated duels, but it works equally well for that. The only problem I can see is, aren't they a little more than OAF? I mean, they're much easier to hit than say a ring or a gun. I suppose it's all special effects, though, so in the end it doesn't matter much. I thought that each "card" should be preplanned, and the player would have a "deck" that they would use to produce the magic from. (perhaps even using real YuGiOh cards, if they were handy) I suppose dividing those Power ratings on the YuGiOh card by say 100 would probably give rough active points. The size of the VPP would determine how many cards they can have "in play" at once, which will affect and reflect their duelling skill and level. Although you're right, they would probably need either huge VPPs, or VPP's with a modifier to allow more active points in the pool than the pool cost, but no single card can actually be more than the maximum real size of the pool... I really want this to basically be an odd summoning system...I hadn't considered much how "trap" cards would work...I guess if this were "real" the caster would place them in the air around him...which would be reflected by a trigger. These would be his magical defenses. Rob

Here's a question... I was thinking of how to do something along the lines of YuGiOh duelling monster summoning with HERO, but I was starting to think...Aren't most of the Monsters just special effects for Powers? Any damage done is done to your hero, therefore the monsters themselves are just manifestations of whatever power options you have available. It's kind've like being able to "see" a person's Variable Power Pool selections in front of you. Now the question would be, based on this, how could we set it up so that the opponent could wipe out the "powers". Would they have BODY points equal to their Active Points/5 or somesuch? With the blowthrough damage hitting the player? Or perhaps something a little different, the Active/5 is their DEF rating and they just have 1 BODY. If I remember right they don't take damage from attacks that don't do enough to kill them, so I guess the "force wall" approach might be better. So, let's see...Say I summoned up "Fire Magician", a 30AP Energy Blast (Fire)....He would have 6Def and 1 Body and float there looking cool....Should anyone kill him, the player would suffer a backlash of any remaining damage....maybe.... I guess opponents would have to choose between targeting the "powers" and targeting the user, although some powers like "Shield Warrior" (a force field) would automatically defend the Caster until he "dies"... Actually, this could be kinda cool, and would get around the cost of summoning "real" monsters which is a natural problem with doing something like this normally. Does this seem reasonable to people? Any thoughts? Rob

Re: Role Playing Challenge You know...a wizard who specializes in "making and breaking" and "creation" magic makes an awfully good forger....He can make fake seals, forge documents, make "evidence"... It seems to me, you guys should be doing your best to turn these big baddies against each other...and what better way to do that than to make each think the other is conducting espionage against them? Of course, if your group is more fight-oriented, a few well-places raids should provide some nice chances for battle! Those ships need supply depots, and wouldn't it be horrible if one of the rival dukes (or whoever) were to raid said supply depot, leaving just enough clues that "they" did it...^_- There must be supply lines for the other guys as well, and what if there were rumours of a plague in that really rich guy's lands...It would be a shame if nobody would trade with him....Or his winter stores of food were to be destroyed in a fire....then he wouldn't be able to feed his troops, would he? Poor guy... All too often players neglect that humans are driven by their needs for the basics, and it's those basics which will make or break almost everything...Armies without food or water go down really fast. Rob

Re: [spellcasting] Looking for the Right Ingredients I made a duelling game CCG not long ago that had 13 elements...Still shy two, but it might help...Here's the basic progression chart....

Re: The great armour race... Noted, if this were a standard fantasy campaign, I would agree with you and probably not do it this way. But, it's a China-based WuXia game, so they are also all skilled martial artists. Take away the weapons and they just become more focussed on the martial arts side...Which is fine by me, and the bad guys are in the same situation. My swordplay game just became more focussed on fistcuffs. Rob

Re: The great armour race... Well, I solved one problem.... The players were just involved in a major battle between rival factions totalling over a hundred people in the campaign city...as such all weapons and armour are now illegal to wear in public inside the city until further notice....And there are guards everywhere. Of course, since the PCs orchestrated the war...they have nothing to complain about... Rob