Wolf

Re: Lightning Reflexes.....is it worth it? yes, however the assumption is that everyone already has their weapons out and maybe even "at the ready". I've even seen building takedowns (commonly) against opponents that are actively covering open doors and still work, as I said #1 man usually get's pegged though, and I wasn't doing SOF stuff at that point. -woof

Re: Lightning Reflexes.....is it worth it? *Bows* I humbly submit to someone who obviously knows more about the system than I do… Mine was a crude attempt to mimic. Not to mention Von D-man has the knowledge of SOF to make it work well. Thanks. This is being nit picky, and I know your talking about Delta, which is specifically SfOD (Special Forces Operation Delta), but so you know: Myth: Special Forces is a generic term that can be used for Rangers, SEALs, Marine Recon, Pararescue, and any other special unit. Truth: The term Special Forces when used for U.S. military units refers only to the U.S. Army Special Forces. Maybe it was a little unthoughful for SF's founding fathers to pick such an unoriginal name for their organization but anyways, they did so if someone tells you they were a SEAL, don't think "wow this guy was in special forces!" think "wow this guy was in a special operations unit!" The term Special Forces is used outside of the US, however, to describe SOF units of other nations. found here: Special Operations.com I think Von D-man helped me and answered your question.

Re: Lightning Reflexes.....is it worth it? Of course supers are better, they’re supers, I was saying for a Heroic level game… and as far as the surprise thing… it’s kind of like that, and kind of not. We call it Violence of action, it’s training to enter a room with speed drills, not unlike a football team, until you can enter it quickly to take advantage of that moment of surprise… most untrained people can do it, but the #1 man (read as front man in a stack of 3) normally get’s a bullet in him, however the rest are usually able to take the room down. Delta Force are able to do this without the enemy ever firing a round… it’s beautiful to watch.

Re: Lightning Reflexes.....is it worth it? Well for one, I never said Seldom get’s hit… there is no desire or need for a defense that high from a SF member, the point of their training is to move in and kill everyone before anyone can shoot back. My point was I don’t want DCV, or DEX based skills that high… it’s not realistic to the characters… however if you just buy up what they are supposed to be good at, then you get a good clean version of what I’m looking to represent… Walk into a room, fire it up, that’s it, no dodging like a John Woo movie, no ability to balance a table on your nose, just speed and shooting. Then for that atmosphere it’s a perfect talent. -woof

Re: Lightning Reflexes.....is it worth it? Personally I use the heck out of Lightning Reflexes. Then again I also run pretty strait SF/normals games anyway. And if you have Delta Force, SEAL team 6, CQB, or SWAT personnel it can properly mimic the Violence of action during entry techniques. It is said that Delta enter the room so quickly that you never even see them coming in, And from some of the videos that I’ve watched of their training, I believe it. I think when it’s all said and done I give Delta a +15 lightning reflexes to show that element. But I don’t think their world-class Olympic gymnastics professionals either, so you let their DEX stay at 10-15, bump their OCV up by 8-10, and bump their Lightning reflexes up by 10-15 (for a CQB, Close Quarters Battle, environment only) and keeping your thugs/ terrorists (other than the big bosses, you know the CIA trained ones) at DEX 10, and DCV 5 and you get a character/ NPC that can hardly miss, and goes first upon entering a room…. And that’s what they do. Green Berets get Lightning reflexes for the quick fire drills they do, but I don’t know how useful it is when you are talking supers. That’s my 2 coppers. Woof

If you need info on the world, you can always trust.... the CIA The CIA World Factbook

I thought this might be useful, maps, info, etc. The CIA World Factbook -Woof

He he he, I rhymed, just thought you all over here would like this… I should put it elsewhere, but I figured that DC threads would find more uses. The CIA World Factbook -Woof

I’m working on a Stargate sg-1 Hero game, yah I know original ain’t it? But I wanted to bounce it off of you all before I hammered more into it. As far as the packages and so forth I’ve done a fair job, I run really skill heavy, and know this, I have redone the skill list for Hero, and as such much of the packages, though most aren’t where I’d like them to be yet… so I’ll keep those. Needless to say it’s still looking like a total of 350 points for most Characters, but I’ll probably be going the route of 300 base, and 50 with disadvantages…. Again due to the skill packages I have a “crapload†of disads already into each character. I mean just to make a character with a Bachelors Degree one is looking at 40 character points, and you need that just to get the officer package, Academy package (for if you got it through one of the military academies), and branch specific packaging. So if you all would like to see some of the work I’ve done, then I’ll post it later…. But on to the point. I was a little worried about the trappings of running a game that came from something so explored as Stargate, so I decided to alter the setting in my way… Being that The group of SG-1 have explored almost all of the Egyptian mythos, I decided to look to a similar culture, and have my team open the world of Aztec mythos… similar enough structure I might even be able to push another gate onto our world. Now I can feel free to explore this universe without major interruption, or crossover to the SG-1 team. I also have increased the team to a normal operators team in 8- 16 man groups, as the ideal SG-# size with a alphabetic designator to denote a smaller unit… IE SG-1 would really be a combination of SG-1 and SG-2, but it would be called SG-1a (alpha), and SG-1b (bravo). SG-1b would be for all intents and purposes what the show calls SG-2. and together they make up the 8 man SG-1. My group I have yet to name, but they will be part of a 16 man action SG-#, the Major is a Delta operator, and the Capt. is a SEAL team 6 operator, so they are a bit of a door kicker unit. Sure they can do the snoop and poop missions but they focus on kicking open urban doors and rescue. The only other player on this one is my girlfriend and she’s playing pretty much a Sam Carter clone (pilot, Physics, math geek) and I’ll be running the Anthro geek, and rest of the team… probably mostly taken from Air Farce combat control and Tactical Air Control Parties. I don’t know, that’s most of what I have so far, I will be spending the next week or so working on the packages, though I do have a rough outline of them, and pretty much all the skills down, just no description of said skills, mostly rips from other systems in my collection. what do ya'll think?

Re: Hero Mods For me, personally, I had a rough time with skills. I tend to run heroic level games, as I’ve never really been a fan of the supers, other than reading them… Personal reasons and off topic. I didn’t like the whole buying skills at 8-, or 11-, despite char’s. So I took them out, and now use skills in a almost white wolf type of “how are you using the skill†approach. It’s late and I can’t think of an example, however I find that not always does a skill fall under the char that Hero has placed it in. So this is my “new†system: Skill Cost Summery 0 points- Char Roll -6 1 point- Char Roll -3 3 points- Char Roll +0 +2 points- +1 to Skill basing it with a average character your still buying the same thing. However KS’s, PS’s, SS’s, and the rest of the 2/1 progression don’t exists as 2/1. Everyman still getting essentially a list of free 3 point skills. In the end I have skill lists that look a little like this: Navigation, Land +2 K.S.: Military: Army +2 P.S.: Military: Army +2 Bureaucratics +3 Teamwork Radio, Basic +2 First aid Tactics: Infantry +2 Camouflage +1 Road march +3 Now you just apply the bonus to the stat you feel fits the circumstance. I hope I didn’t ramble, and made that make sense.

Hey, I'm working on a game based on modern military troops, and I was wondering how one would/ should handle Awards on a cost basis. I was also wondering how one should handle "buying rank". if at all possable. Thanks, Woof.

Re: marvel conversions Thank you all for the suggestions, It looks like I'll have to (as THE MAN SAID) do it my way. But that deffinately goes in well to help me get a feel for some of the characters I don't know... Thanks all... I was still wondering if anyone out there has tried to tackle, or would think about tackleing a conversion of the HEROCLIX... I was thinking more and more.... and man... that would be a feat.. not to mention I don't really agree on most things they have for ppl... However between some of the MSH, Saga, and Heroclix stuff... not to mention all this cool stuff that's been converted, with a dash of What OL' Wolf thinks things should be... I think I'll manage a workable heroic supers game in oh, 3 month's work permiting. If anyone has anything out there that has just generic "other systems" stat's out there, I'd be glad to check it... I'm just looking for Herofodder, and NPC's, along with examples to give ppl. -Wolf

Hey all, I was just looking, and found an old post filled with mostly out of order links, for any resourses for converting marvel characters to Champions... I have thought about trying to use Heroclix to do it, or even the VS. series of cards that are out now... but that's rather absurd, being that those are kindof out there for converting.... if anyone has any thoughts on how to do it, I know Killer Shrike is rather good a pulling a converson out of the "unconvertable". Wolf

Re: We're Gonna Need Guns Hey everybody your favorite neighborhood wolf here, I have some thoughts, but first the sights.... I think ppl might like to look at the newest off the line from H&K with the OICW progect, it's the XM-8, and is looking to be America's next major assult rifle, Carbine, SAW, and undermounted Granade launcher all in one... It's a pretty abititous project, and they say that by 2008 we could see it on the line. Here's the website: http://www.hk-usa.com/pages/military-le/rifles-carbines/xm8.html Personally, I would like to see a book at some time that deals with Dul-Ram rounds, or depleated uranium rounds. I know in Desert storm they were being put through Barret .50's and getting engine/crew Kills in one shot... that's some dunk if you ask me... good stuff. Oh, personal peave, Please put in there something about the diference between the .50AE and the .50 round... I know too many ppl who think that the Desert Eagle .50AE shoots .50 rounds, and that is just getting too silly for words. It's enough to get under a persons skin, any other gunbunnies out there feel me on that one? If I've said it once, I've said it a milion times, Kydex (spelling?) holsters rock. Make note of the difference between a Red Dot (point scope), and a more traditional scope.. please. I'd like to see some rules for the standard "duble-tap" or just a writeup on it... it's a way of shooting that is closest to the "more led, means better chance to hit, thus better chance to down a target". Quote RDU neil said: I'd also love some kind of rule mods that encourage "throwing a lot of lead" as in real life... rather than the standard Hero combat of counting every shot, rarely having to reload, etc. Automatic weapons are better than single shot because they not only increase the number of possible hits... but increase the chance of hitting period. This isn't reflected in Hero... for game balance reasons at the supers level, I understand... but it makes automatic weapons much less scary than they should be. Close quarters automatic gunfire should be horrendously scary, IMO. Characters should be encouraged to throw multiple shots down range (realistic fashion, or a'la John Wu, either way) for better chances to hit/more damage... etc. -Quote As an infantry man, veteran of 1 forign military action, and Paratrooper, I just wish to point out that More led= heads down, not better chance to hit, in fact your acruacy goes south like a duck in winter the more rounds you fire out your barrel in one fire grouping... Plus it wastes your ammo real quickly. I've seen it a million times, somone on a .50 Cal. rocking away, from a braced and set position (read, on the top of a parked Track) trying to hit a platoon of targets, and not able to hit one... in fact If I ever get shot at by a large spray fire weapon, I've noticed the best thing to do is not to move, because he (the firerer) is shure as spit not going to be able to place any rounds where he's aiming... Trained soldiers, well trained soldiers and those who hit what their shooting at tend to do a much better job when fireing one round at a time... anything else is just foolish. Go out an buy a navy seal tape, or Delta force tape or DVD, one that shows room entry, and you'll see well placed double taps at the most... and those guys almost never miss... got it... It's an old Axium from the best units out there, from the GSG-9 to the israli SF... "Two in the head, you know their dead." learn it love it, operate it... That's all my input for now... Wolf. PS, just as a Me thing please put in a write up, or at least stats on the socom Mk 23 .45. I love that pistol... it's so great (wipes tear from eye).

Re: Is "evil race" an intrinsically rascist concept? Inherently I believe that this comes down to whether you can distinguish reality from Fiction… I mean one can argue that Orcs can be good in D&D. Why, because they are a condition of the environment they live in. They were raised that way. Orcs from Tolkien on the other hand are corrupted beings (elves really) Tainted with the shadow, and that infuses them with evil, Their creator, Morgoth, is evil, he knows it, he has a higher power to answer to, and that power has judged him evil, and he can accept that…. Now, does that make us think that there are an “evil†people here in present time, present location (however you wish to say our world, our look on life), well, I dunno, I’m not Psychologist, I have heard watching cartoons and playing video games make you want to kill, or at least make you so desensitized to it, that it would be easier. Does roleplaying start you on the road to Satan? For many families in the 80’s (hell, even today we’re fighting that stereotype) it did/does. This is the same question, are we all so weak willed that a little bit of difference is going to make us these people who stride against the grain of our culture, in the end, I believe that it’s your opinion, not mine, but yours that will make the difference. As far as me, I’ve been all over the world, met all kinds of people, just because I kill orcs in game, it doesn’t make me a racist, living with my (older family) who believed in racism, has given me most of my tendencies, am I racist? HELL NO! However we all learn things from our culture, and that is what we learn, learning that that’s NOT how I see it, is just growing up, and taking responsibility for your own actions, much less opinions. It’s called thinking for yourself. I was in the military, a Veteran of one of the numerous incursions we were involved in in the late 90’s through today. Most of the men I served with played lots of video games in their spare time before we went to war, Hell they were INFANTRY soldiers, “trained not to care†so all in all prime candidates for desensitization however, they shook, cried, and drank A LOT, when forced to get into a real firefight, or take a life. If you don’t buy it, talk to a Veteran of Normandy, Sicily, or any of the beach heads, or any of the fighting in WWII, it effected them. All in all in my oh-so Humble opinion, you are born with the ability to accept, deny, or go along with whatever you hear or receive from whatever media source you wish, but hey, that’s me. -Wolf

I see, damn.. ok. Thanks.

I'm noticing FReD dosn't have a CGRS, and was wondering if this was intentionally left out, I found that it helps newbe GM's and gives a good hand out for ppl to make characters. IE I've got a new GM that wants to do a PBeM Hero game, and well, he's not listening to much of my advice, so I figured something like this would help him to help us... so if anyone knows where one is... or I could just use the 4th ed as a model, and go from there.

Not a prob. I'll try to come up with a more comprehensive list when I think of one, however with it being the hollidays it's hard to find the time to sit down and just do it. I've never had to do one before, because all of my friends back in Ohio were all Gear Heads and former military themselves, so we just never wrote anything down, being that we knew what everyone would have. Now that I'm in Arizona, I'll have to make a list sooner or later to give to new players, so if you wan't I'll fire off a copy to you once I get it done (read as some time after January 10th). -Wolf

Just for starts, I was Infantry (in the Army, Airborne 82nd) If you wish to know. I had as basic load. 1- Colt M-4 (however now they use the Bushmaster M-4 in spec. ops.) Carbine assult rifle. 7- Mags (30 rounds) 2- Ammo pouches 1- Cumpass, With Radioactive Isatopes so you can still read the #'s at night. 1- Firstaid kit (it's pretty bare bones- Feild Gause really) They tell you to only use the Kit that people are wareing, so yours can be used on you if you need it. 1- Butt pack, it's small, to stoe things like your Chem lights ( those breakable light-sticks you see in Raves and Halloween) As a side note they also Have IR chemlights, that don't show up to "normal eyes". POGy bate (Snacks that you might want to eat, usually beef-jerky) 100 rounds for the SAW gunner, cold weather gear, and anything else you wish to fit, including extra ammo. 1- set of NODs (Night Vision goggles), I forget the nomenclature, I think its PVS7-B. Anyway they now have a Monoculer, and usually it's worn around the neck, you don't want your shooting eye (also usually your good eye) to get too use to the bright light. 2- Fragmentary (frag) granades, and sometimes a Incideary granade. 1- set of armour, the RBI was used in the late 90's however now they have a set that you can connect your gear directly to so you don't have to use any extra gear (Like the classic H-harness) to strap your mag pouches and water canteen to. 2- canteens, however now they use Camelbacks. it's a hidration system that you carry on your back. 1- Ruck sack, this has all your changes of cloths and other assortments. It's also got Quick Releise straps so you can ditch it quickly during an ambush... I use it to cut encubrance down. And that really is the basics of Ground pounders. The Squad leader usually also has: A radio, a Granade launcher (M-203) underslung on the front of his rifle, and extra granades. The Saw gunner has an Full-time automatic macheine gun, whitch is light, it's the M-249, it rocks, however gets sluggish if not cleaned properly, and then missfires alot. He also carries about 500 belted 223 ammo (same as the M-4's and M-16's) And the older 249's can use the same ammo mag's that the rifle take, incase it's needed, but it's a b*tch. SF vary, several notable exceptions are the use of Cuncussion granades (stun dmg only, and a ton of it I'd say like 10d6 nnd, area effect- they can take out a whole room for hours, and yes they make you bleed from every pore of your body (read as eyes and nose, sometimes mouth). Also SF have started to use the H&K MK-23, it's a .45 pistol, that can attach a silencer and "LAM" ( a lazer sight, and flashlight in one) It's what they got the idea for for the tag picture for... I can't remember the name of the vidio game... Solid Snake and all that... If you can remember. Like I said, you can find plenty of info on the web from "gearheads" who love collecting gear. I dabble, however I have friends that are worse, and would give you a 10 page write up. I figure that's good enough for now. I hope it's of use. -Wolf

I recently posted alot more, but my advice... Read some old Image Team 7. I think that may help, otherwise your doing good. Maby talk to a few of us ret. service people (KS seems to be Xmilitary) to get the particulars on service life, and your in. -Wolf.

I kindof skimmed the surface of page 2 here, sorry all. I saw the direction that it was going and wanted to give you some help in the campaign departmen. KS you had a great thing going... I don't know if you read alot, so I don't know if it will help, however I usually run a normals game in military with Hero, I helped me to pick up Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy, it's his idea of how WWIII would have happoned in the 80's you could give it a read, it may help. There are plenty of cheap books on tactics and military knowledge at any local book stores. Don't forget Janes Sets They do a wonderful job of telling you what units are using what. It could give a sence of realism. What I've found though with taking this tac as far as hero goes you pretty much have to let the Supers use weapons without buying them... Not that it does alot of good firing a M-4 when you can "blast" your enemies, however even Cap. used a Sub gun during WWII, so you need to consider that, and actually now that I think on it look into the Captin America WWII stuff, along with the old Image line Team 7 (if you don't know them, they were a supers team during Viet Nam. Hope I've at least given you some ideas, if I have repeated all this chalk it up to my lazyness in not wanting to read all the posts. -Wolf

I think there was something wrong with that link... What would the URL for that Netbook of real hero's be if you don't mind:) -Wolf

I agree, however D&D "looks" cheeper. at $30 for the PHB you aren't aware that your spending another 30 for your class book, and whatever else you can come up with to justify the spending. I love Hero, and the Sidekick to me is a way to show people how easy it really is to play Hero. I hope. -Wolf

Thanks. -Wolf

I have a friend who is wanting to get into Hero, however he is rather.... intimidated by the size of Hero 5th. I have looked however not found the name and expected releise time of the Hero- EZ stuff that was being talked about (last month I think). Anyhow, thanks. -Wolf