UltraRob

Re: Team Iron Angel-BDGA: A Superheroic Audio Adventure Serial

Re: 50 fathoms conversion

Has anyone done a 50 fathoms conversion?

What's 50 Fathoms?

Rob

Re: FH Gripes

It is funny that the majority of times this has happened to me have been on stage, during a live show.

Both times doing the same basic maneuver. You'd think I would learn.

 

Keith "Ah well, if it hadn't happened, I wouldn't have met Susan" Curtis

Wait a moment, your wife nailed you in the nads the first time you met? That's quite a "how we met" story!

Rob

Re: FH Gripes

I have my players' END REC capped at a minor percentage of the END reserve; 10% doesn't raise any protests from my players' date=' and it doesn't allow them to recover very quickly, either.[/quote']

 

Hmm, 10% sounds good!

 

Rob

Re: FH Gripes

I am ashamed. I used to 'think in HERO' so well. Now, shoot, after reading the recent posts in the forum, I could slap my damned forehead.

 

I think an EC with END reserve/slow recovery is EXACTLY what I have been trying to do with magic all along. It might take some balancing. I might do without the EC. Could cause too much point shaving, but it would also allow characters to get new spells more frequently.

 

I am going to re-read the END reserve rules as soon as I get home from work...

Another tip- make sure you LIMIT the REC on the reserve if you want this to work, because it's very cheap and so they'll buy huge amounts of if they can to get around the limits. I suggest making it max at 1/2 EGO per time period, or maybe 1/2 INT, depending on the type of spellcaster. (Also a good reason to buy up INT or EGO!)

Rob

Re: FH Gripes

I'm personally a big fan of END Reserves with slow-ish recovery rates if you want END-powered magic. Have them get back a point of END like every 5 minutes, and you'll see them being very careful how they spend their magic. The problem with just x2 END on their normal END is that they do recover fairly quick.

Also, I'm thinking of a campaign myself, and was thinking rather than specifically just a Staff or Book or whatever, let them take whatever kind of focus they want, it just has to be OAF. They want it to be a jar of magic bees, go ahead!

Rob

Re: Random Rokugan Stuff

SKJAM! I just want to comment that you're doing amazing work here! Out of curiosity, how many points would the PCs in a game using these packages start out with in your opinion? And what does "power loses 1/4 of it's effectiveness" mean in this case?

Rob

Re: FH Gripes

There is also a chart that they can refer to to see what sort of things earn how much EXP. The big amounts are subjective though - Good In Character Roleplaying = .5 to 1 EXP. You get the idea.

Any chance of us seeing that chart? Please? Pretty please?

Rob

Re: Anime series as a campaign

Akira was seminal in North America, but it's generally not considered the thing that kicked off the modern anime age in Japan: Megazone 23 is.

It goes a little like this:

Gundam (the original) was the major paradigm shifter for TV anime, and helped push anime for an older audience into more of the mainstream by virtue of being one of the first shows with...fanboys. This leads to more "mature" anime being done, which leads to things like Macross, and that (in it's second run) in turn lead someone to speculate and think that maybe, just maybe, there might be enough older fans out there to buy something they later termed an Original Animation Video.

That first OAV was the above Megazone 23, and it really changed the playing field by proving that there was a market for direct to consumer animation and it could pay! Suddenly anime was free to stretch it's wings into all kinds of new directions, not limited by censors, but limited more by budgets and creativity. This was the dawn of the real modern age of anime, as an art form that went beyond TV cartoons and comics. Akira didn't even come around until 1988, and was a product of this 80's anime boom.

Of course, before you run out and see Megazone 23, you should know it really ain't all that great. It doesn't suck horribly, but their idea of mature meant that the hero got to get laid. (At a pretty high price I might add...)

Rob

Re: Team Iron Angel-BDGA: A Superheroic Audio Adventure Serial

Re: Ritterschlag

Bwahahahahahaha

Good one! Thanks for posting this! ^__^

Rob

Re: REH Out of Copyright and Online

That explains the sudden rush of Conan books in the past few years as they tried to milk it while they still could.

Excellent news! Thanks for letting us know Von D-Man!

Rob

Re: Japanese unmanned rescue robots

I better be unconscious when that thing comes for me, otherwise I'm going to die of a heart attack!

Rob

Re: Legend of Galactic Heroes Timeline

When I taught in Japan, and asked people what their favorite book was, a common answer was "Ginga Eiyu Densetsu!" Legend of the Galactic Heroes is a personal favorite series that I have loved for a long time, and seen all 110 episodes of. (I had to watch the second half in Japanese at the time, though, before the Chinese DVDs with English subs were available.) It's an amazing story, with lots of politics and twists, and you really do fall in love with the characters on both sides. And, unlike many Japanese series, it has a very clear and definitive ending.

There were some fan translations of the first few novels in English kicking around the net, and if you look carefully, you might be able to find them.

Rob

P.S. Another good LoGH fan page is here.

Re: Balancing Magic Use is a myth

For example, perhaps every mage has the option of chosing a "niche" or flavor for his magician. For example, one might be a fire mage, another might be a spirit mage, another might be n iron mage, another a healer and so forth...

 

well for spells which fall specifically qand clearly in those NARROW, be strict, niches, the mage can have powerful spell. For all other magics, he is limited to 15 ap or maybe 10 ap.

 

that way each mage has a single ara of effects he is good at and some small utility spells for other stuff. That way he is capable but not overwhelmingly broad. that lets you script encounters to highlight his strengths and others which draw on abilities the other characters have.

 

For example: the fire mage is obviously good in offensive combat and not so good at defense and not good at subtle sneakery. So a scenario involving sneaking in... the thief gets to ply his stealth because the mage does not have and isn't allowed to buy a 20 ap invisibility spell. Want something toqsted? No problem. I got 3d6 rka for that.

I rather like this idea! Consider it borrowed!

Rob

Re: Balancing Magic Use

Flying mounts (giant eagles, gryphons, dragons, etc.) Airships (possibly pulled by flying creatures)

And no flight at all is a perfectly viable option. In many (most?) fantasy source material, "getting there is half the fun". LotR would be about ten pages long if they could have just flown directly to Mt. Doom (do not pass Gollum, do not collect 200 Dead soldiers' spirits).

Yeah, I had a bad experience in one campaign where the players were all different kinds of Mages. As soon as one player learned a flight spell, his character's feet literally never left the ground for the rest of the campaign, and it circumvented pretty much any geographical challenges I had planned for them. You don't realize how powerful flight is in a fantasy game until someone clever has it.

Rob

Re: College of Blademagic

It's not a limit in 5th edition FH. It's discussed on p241 under "Eligibility Requirements". The design philospohy change is that it's a campaign thing rather than a limit, because it doesn't actually limit the use of the spell at all. If you have the requisite number of points to have a particular spell (say a 20 pointer) then you can buy it. If you don't have the points, then you can't. So the Limit never actually limits the Character, and hence is a -0

 

That said it's a good carryover if you're using the Spell college system from 4th and works well as an access control element for magic in a campaign, keeping dabblers with only a few spells from having the really uber effects.

So, the idea is, say...you need to have four 15 point spells before you can buy 30 point spells? Or closer to "for every 60 point spell you have, you must have X number of points in lesser spells?"

Rob

Re: This is why I play Fantasy Hero

Sounds good to me too! I WISH my players did that sort of thing! (Actually, one does, and I reward him for it, the others...not so much...)

Rob

Re: Daily Art Findings

Here be monsters. Really really really cool monsters!

Rob

Re: Multiple Power attacks????

But, wouldn't using this turn characters into death-dealing howitzers? I mean, it becomes almost a way to circumvent AP caps, just hitting them with five different powers at max for the game.

Of course, those 5 powers better cost 0 END or you're screwed!

Rob

Re: Balancing Magic Use

I've found that Magic as a Variable Power Pool is the easiest way to control magic.

 

How's that you say, because of the high costs associated with a VPP (one can only apply limitations to the control cost and never the pool itself) a Mage in a relatively low to moderate point campaign (150ish) can never really afford high levels of power without being deficient just about everywhere else. And in addition to this, the active point limits of the campaign are much easier to enforce with a VPP...attempting to purchase a pool any higher than 60 active points is exceedingly prohibitive.

But, how do you keep them from running roughshod with those points since they can in theory do anything? Do you make them use a spell list or have other limitations?

Rob

Re: Balancing Magic Use

It seems most people here prefer to house rule that magic armour and real armour doesn't stack to prevent that. (Citing the "real armour" limitation as including this.) You cast your magic armour, you still only take the higher value of the magic and the armour- not both.

This is a bit of a kludge, since it would be nice to have mages who can improve armour and even makes sense, but unfortunately the way HERO scales this is a bit of a weak spot when it comes to running Fantasy.

Rob

So, I'd been thinking for a while of running a Naruto campaign, but wasn't sure I wanted to run another asian-themed game. (Which are pretty much my standard.) I also had ideas of running a traditional Western-style Fantasy game, but hadn't quite set on the campaign focus.

Then tonight while reading that webcomic about D&D and Lord of the Rings it hit me...Why not combine them? Rangers are effectively the Fantasy equivalent of Ninjas, with the exception that their job description is even broader, and they're not focussed on assassination. (An aspect of Naruto that always left me cold..."I want to be the best and happiest psycho killer I can be!" ) Rangers are guardians, and you can do a lot more with that on so many levels.

So, with that in mind. I started to ponder this campaign:

Ranger Trainees

The PCs are a bunch of young (13 or so) ranger cadets in a western-style fantasy setting who are being trained to act as rangers/escorts/scouts/healers/monster hunters/etc which is what Rangers in this setting do. As Ranger Trainees (sprouts? Green leaves?) they are assigned to a team and sent on various increasingly difficult missions as well as engaging in competitions with other Ranger villages in their various skills as a way to trade skills and exchange techniques. All while dealing with their own various personal plotlines and issues. ("That Orc chief killed my family...When I grow up..."etc)

Since they're anime-ish Rangers they need great leaping and running abilities as well as some kind of martial arts. (What kind of martial arts would Rangers use? Have to think about this one...)

Rangers of course do have access to various magics and are trained in the standard ranger spells, plus different kinds which each ranger specializes in. They are powered by their ability to draw mana from the air around them (small END Reserve with slow recovering REC), and their connections with the spirits of the forest. It makes sense to mix in "druidic" type magic as a way to add more variety, as well as making them more powerful.

Standard Ranger "Spells"

Stealth

Tracking

Accuracy (with bow or thrown weapons)

Talking to spirits

Pathfinding

Find water

Healing

Climbing

See the Invisible/Hidden

Spirit Warding (?)

Invisibility

Magic Arrow types (fire, entangling, flare, etc)

Hmmm...I'll need to make a package at some point to reflect the "standard" trainee and go from there.

Any thoughts?

Rob

Re: [Warning Anime] How would you create this character?

Garra has the following abilities:

[*]A protective barrier of sand that has a will of its own to protect Garra above all costs. the best way around this is to go so fast that the sand can't react in time

Having seen and read this, it's a block. It's a really fancy block, but it's just a block with the special effect that that the sand is doing this. Some people above have said Armour with a Dex roll, but that fails to take into account that someone with sufficient speed (OCV) can overcome it, which a DEX roll won't represent but a bonus to the Block maneuver will. (Unless there's some way for the opponent to reduce his DEX roll by taking a penalty on the attack roll.)

[*]A layer of hardened sand on his body as armor. This armor takes the blows but cracks easily. Garra needs to spend energy to fix his damaged armor

Ablative Armour sounds good to me, it could also be a plain ole Force Field with the whole cracking thing being a special effect. Also, Gaara needs to blow to alot of END to even stand with that armour on according to the manga, it makes him really heavy. I'd probably write it up as a Force Field with extra END cost myself, and/or Side Effect (penalty to DCV/DEX)

[*]Sand based ninjutsus, like teleportation with Sand, can hide under sand easily, a remote eye made of sand, sand shurikens, and can use his defensive sand (armor and the barrier) to form a deadly sand spear

Multipower with:

Teleport

Tunnelling

Sight Sense at Range

RKA

HKA

[*]He can use surrounding sand (or his protecive sand) to ensnare someone and crush them to death

Telekinesis (OIF: Sand)

[*]Later, he can even summon a tsunami of sand

Energy Blast, Physical, Area Effect

, or a ultimate defense sand doll thingy that is nearly unbreakable as a shield

Lots of armour, force field or force wall- take your pick of defenses. If it only defends him-force field, if it can defend others- force wall.

Rob