Bozimus

Originally posted by Vanguard00

I just finished reading "Storm Front" by Jim Butcher. It's the first in a series about a private investigator/warlock in a "modern" world that still doesn't believe in magic. Vampires, fairies, mystic cults...it's got all the stuff any good mystic Dark Champions adventure could want. It's quite entertaining and has given me a couple of ideas for magic-related stories/plot devices. Highly recommended.

I just started "Death Masks", 5th book in the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. Vanguard, good news is that books 2-4 are all fun and consistent. Great series! Bad news, the wait for book 6 may be pure agony!

Originally posted by death tribble

I have just finished Northern Lights the first of the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman.

 

Set in a world similar yet different to our own in the 19th or 20th Century. Everyone has their own familiar or daemon.

And then pre-pubescent children start disappearing.

Very interesting book. Highly recommended. I have yet to start book 2.

Across the pond we call that book "The Golden Compass", if I am not mistaken...

Originally posted by Allandrel

Just finished the sixth Honor Harrington book by David Weber. This time he cut back the scale of operations substantially, with only limited engagements. Character development was a bit short, with subplots plumping the book out. I'll probably continue the series, but not for a while.

 

Patrick J McGraw

Many friends have steered me towards "Honor Harrington". I read the first book, but never the 2nd, for reasons that my 40 year old mind cannot recall.

Currently getting my space opera fix with "Deathstalker".

Clash of Kings finished

Finished book 2 of the Song of Ice and Fire by G.R.R. Martin.

I want to give it a 10 of 10. It did NOT do what soooo many sequels do (disappoint, drag out, serve as a stop-gap for book 3, etc.) instead it seemed like one steady continuation of the story. Good pacing, no real complaints.

Yet something...prevents me from giving it a 10. Not sure what that something is...

So, 9.5. IMO, doesn't get much better than this. I am holding off reading book 3 with a supreme effort of will (don't want to end up waiting 2 years for book 5).

Originally posted by death tribble

Boz,

 

re the View from the Mirror by Iain Irvine

 

I just finished book 3 yesterday. It deals with a little magic in a quasi medieval world where you have four different species of humans. The characters hop backwards and forwards across a continent as they search for a way to stop a great evil implementing his plan and getting loose again.

The two main heroes are unusual. One is a story teller with no physical skills (like sword fighting) or mental ones (like telepathy) while the other is an impoverished landowner. But the latter is a blending of three of the different species. This makes her unique and prone to madness. She can also form links like empathy.

I would try and find the first book and read that. If you like it read the series. The first and third books definitely have cliffhangers that you may want to follow on with.

Thanks!

Sorry for that belated thanks, I lost track of this thread for a time.

Quick question, how long till things start hopping? I have the attention span of roadkill and need books that get beyond the set-up phase within the first 75 pages or so...

Originally posted by KA.

Here are some places on the web to read pulp stories.

 

http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Sax_Rohmer/

Has a couple of reprints of Fu Manchu novels

 

http://www.spaceports.com/~deshadow/

A fantastic collection of stories from The Shadow Magazine

 

Enjoy.

 

KA.

Thanks for those links! Gonna download a Shadow story now...

Originally posted by Lightray

Across the Nightingale Floor

This book is at a library I frequent!

The sequel is also available...

May I never lose that warm glow from finding out about another cool series of books...

Originally posted by Lightray

Across the Nightingale Floor

Weird, that the search didn't work for me, but works for you.

Thanks!

Originally posted by death tribble

I've got Across the Nightingale Floor but not read it yet.

 

Currently reading book 3 of Ian Irvine's View from the Mirror books. So far so good.

I cannot find AtNF at Amazon. I did find an author called Lafcadio Hearn that writes about Japan.

How was the first and second Ian Irving book? I have considered starting this series...

Originally posted by Southern Cross

I just finished reading a compilation of Gene Wolfe's The Sword of the Lictor andThe Citadel Of The Autarch.while it's clear that The Book of The New Sun is a classic SF tetralogy (even after only reading the last two books in the series,it's stil an imperfect work,especially The Citadel Of the Autarch ,which included the Autarch Severian's attempt to gain the New Sun as a postscript! I rank both novels as follows:

The Sword Of the Lictor :9/10

the Citadel Of The Autarch : 8/10

What rank did you give "The Shadow of the Torturer", first book of that series? EvilLuke told me that he ranks Gene Wolfe the finest overall writer he has encountered and gave me the above book to read.

I didn't include Game of Thrones in this thread 'cause its been a few months since I read it. I can understand how some are put off by its constantly changing character perspectives - chapter to chapter. I am used to reading 3 books at a time, so this doesn't bother me. But it bothers others...

I give it a "9" out of 10.

If you reveal some juicy plot details, please make good use of the SPOILER notification to avoid ruining someone else's pleasure...

For me, "Something from the Nightside" by Simon R. Green stands out. Fast paced urban fantasy with interesting characters. Sequel is "Agents of Light and Darkness".

I give it an "8" out of 10.

Originally posted by zornwil

Thanks for the reference, as stupid as this sounds it didn't occur to me to seek out PDFs of not-too-old RPG books.

My pleasure! If you knew how many ebay battles I waged to get some of those Deadlands' books in hardcopy...

Sigh.

Originally posted by misterdeath

Alas, the guy with the books moved back to Huntsville. So, I'd have to hunt down books, and learn a system, and find people who want to play.

 

Too much work for me.

 

D

Many of the books are available through PDF...

http://www.rpgnow.com/default.php?manufacturers_id=111&PHPSESSID=c7f697520db30703e977397e22d46f26

You should do what I did...join a PBeM as a player to familiarize yourself with the system slowly. Trust me, if you try to run this before playing it a rules lawyer or powergamer is gonna make your GM life a pure living hell...

Originally posted by misterdeath

Alas, the guy with the books moved back to Huntsville. So, I'd have to hunt down books, and learn a system, and find people who want to play.

 

Too much work for me.

 

D

Or you could play Deadlands Hero - once we convert it and I set up the PBeM...

Originally posted by misterdeath

Aces is a pretty common term for "ones" where dice are concerned.

 

"I rolled all aces" == "I got all ones".

 

D

Not what I meant, sorry for the miscommunication. "Ace" means you rolled max on the die and get to roll another to add to your total. This is the terminology used in the Deadlands game which I play. May not be universal...

Originally posted by zornwil

One thing that's hard but fun to retain is the open-ended rule. It's definitely unbalancing but a big part of the unpredictable fun of Deadlands. I wonder if allowing chips to be spent to open-end damage would be viable in HERO? It'd have to be red or maybe even blue, something that couldn't be used often but when it did it would be dramatic.

Maybe let them reroll some ones with a white chip while the use of red, blue or legend chips allows a certain number of sixes to be be treated as aces?

Originally posted by Captain Obvious

I agree. What's odd to me is how Deadlands, with such an interesting and colorful system all its own, would get translated into so many other systems that are less interesting overall.

 

Of course, translating it to Hero while keeping the chips and cards is no big deal....

The system is colorful and interesting. And VERY unbalanced, IMO. Hucksters for example. From what little I have seen, they can wield enormous power with a lucky draw of the cards. I have also heard, from Lamrok, that many of the books give far too powerful abilities to the players. Maybe Lamrok will elaborate...

I just think it would be nice to translate it into a system like Hero, where I can maintain a little control over the power levels, yet keep the flavor.

Gurps Deadlands

Has anyone ever considered using Gurps Deadlands as a stepping stone in converting Deadlands to Hero? Since Gurps and Hero are very similar in many regards, I have found some of the Gurps books to be one of the more useful sources from different systems.

UltraRob,

Your cinematic suggestion is interesting. How has it worked thus far? Any attempted abuse?

Lamrok, old bean!

Put that super-powered noodle of yours in high gear and get to convertin'!

deadlands conversion

Herolover,

I respect your opinion about not converting Deadlands, but I disagree. I think it will be a challenge, but the game that results from the best system on Earth merging with the fantastic source material known as Deadlands would be worth the effort IMO.

That being said, I have decided to start work on this enterprise in my usual slow, percolating fashion. I welcome suggestions on how to handle various aspects like - the Harrowed, the Huckster, the Mad Scientist, the Blessed, etc...

Originally posted by zornwil

Yeah, I would take it as a "I just looked like I went down after I tripped" or some-such. As you, I'm still thinking about it, so not sure how far I'll go. Where I really want to see chips used is in the epic battles with the big bad at the higher gaming levels, where it gets harder (at least for me) as a GM to make villains that don't one-punch the heroes and for which a little "extra" may be in order. I think chips could add some spirit to those battles and I won't mind if those last longer, as they should be pretty significant "issue-long" happenings.

Good point! An excellent use for the chip system is making it easier for the good guys to last a little longer against that big bad guy.

How about this? Chips give you a one time AID to STUN or BODY or the choice to use the optional healing rule. Bigger the chip, bigger the D6 in AID...

That way a player that needs just a little stun can choose the pure STUN, a player bleeding to death can select the BODY and a player that has taken a little of both can select the O.H.R.? Might make the difference between a character that is up and one that goes down...

Deadlanders, correct me if I am in error, but that game system has few situations whereby they let you increase damage with chips. The primary purpose of the chips is to increase Traits/aptitudes permanently, mitigate damage, and make aptitude rolls more frequently.

I think a great deal of caution should be exercised if you let someone chip up their damage in Hero. I, as a fledgling GM am constantly worried that I have stumbled headfirst into the incorrect balance of offense (AP) vs defenses. Nobody wants fights to last 10 full turns or less than one full turn...

Zornwil, chipping the stun in your fashion sounds pretty good. However, I understand a hero getting his second wind, but to come back from GM discretion with one legend chip sounds powerful and hard to explain in genre...

Originally posted by zornwil

Bozimus, keep us posted on how this goes, I'm very interested. I am going to be adding a chip system at the higher reputation levels but haven't worked it out yet, so was keen on seeing this thread.

Some thoughts on chips and Hero....

You gotta be careful when tinkering. I told my players that rolling a natural 3 meant full damage from the dice (champs game, standard superhero level). What happens? Inexperienced Brick grabs super villain and knocks him out. Since the villain shows signs of becoming conscious again, brick decides to put him down for the count by pushing him face first through a nearby wall.

The experienced player grimaces, knowing what could occur. Newbie brick rolls a "3" with 60 STR. Does 24 body, 72 stun to a guy with 7 PD defenses, 15 body (forcefield shut down after getting clocked the first time). Now the brick's reward for rolling a critical success is to spend the majority of the remaining combat trying to keep this guy from dying.

Groan....

So, my goal is to create a chip system that rewards the players for good roleplaying, without destabilizing the combat system. I also want something that can keep a player from dying from one incredibly bad roll.

Deadlands has four chip levels - white, red, blue, and legend. In ascending order of power. I have tinkered (mentally, not in game) with having a white chip give the player a chance to re-roll one of the three dice used.

Example, Blobbo the brick has a 6 OCV and he is trying to hit an evil martial artist DCV of 9. He needs an 8 or less to hit. He rolls 5-3-3 for an 11. A miss normally. He decides to use a white chip and reroll that 5. He really needs to clock this martial artist. Odds are still against him, since he needs a 1 or a 2 on the D6 to get a hit. But he has a chance that didn't exist before...

Not sure how the red, blue, or legend chip would work but having a blue or legend chip force a complete re-roll of damage that would normally kill or KO a hero might not be a bad idea.

Oh yeah, the GM would get some chips (fewer than the players) that he can use in similar fashion to keep a favorite villain from dying as well...

Originally posted by Captain Obvious

I've mentioned before on the boards that you could keep the huckster's poker hand in Hero if you defined it as an Activation roll. With 5 cards, you get one pair or better about 50% of the time, so pretty much all spells get an 11- activation. You can build spells in increments with each increment having a higher hand (or activation roll), so that a spell that gets 6d6N damage on one pair gets 8d6 on two pair, and 10d6 on three of a kind. Of course, once you get higher up in the rankings, you kind of have to make up your own limitation levels for the activation rolls, since Hero system doesn't really support the miniscule chances of a straight flush....

 

Here's a thread where I worked up Soul Blast in Hero terms:

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2980

Wow! That thread was very informative! That gives me much to consider. Thanks, Capt. Obvious.