Xiawarr

Re: Potential Flavor Source Material: "Storm Hawks" Looks very cool from the link provided!

Re: Artifacts of the Rodent Wars Very cool!

Re: Monster Slayers Archtypes Two non-Hero sourcebooks I have found very valuable as resources are GURPS BlackOps and GURPS Cabal. BlackOps describes an agency, similar to MIB, but very skill heavy and militaristic. Lots of good background for military and monster-hunting/slaying. Cabal describes the bad guys and is a very good source of an organized supernatural agency.

Re: Fantasy Hero / Star Hero .... SpellJammer? Loved that movie. Great take on an alternate way to deal with Science Fantasy - instead of Star Wars. Reminded me of Spelljammer, as well.

Re: Ringworld, Stargate and Apocalypse... oh my! I know I'm going to get stoned for this (in the biblical sense, not the altered state-sense)... But I have not read any of Larry Niven's Known World universe stuff. Probably need to remedy that based on Curufea's post. Sounds like there may be more involved than what I can glean from the rpg. Although, I have to admit my preferred style of play is pulp, cinematic with lots of combat - rather than puzzle solving. I stopped playing COC because of that - oh, and the fact that your characters would go insane and die!

Re: Ringworld, Stargate and Apocalypse - Oh My!

Re: Fantasy Hero / Star Hero .... SpellJammer? I tried this years ago in 4th edition. Not sure where my notes are now. I seem to recall that we made the Helm an END Battery that posered FTL and required a magic skill roll to use. I didn't like the fact that riding a helm left the mages helpless. Most of the rest can be pulled directly from Fantasy Hero or Ninja Hero.

Re: Ringworld, Stargate and Apocalypse... oh my! Yep! That's what appeals to me. It's big enough that you can port over almost any setting. And, if memory serves, Ringworld was a big "atlas" or some such, where entire worlds were recreated "in flat" inside the ring. Who says they all have to be sci-fi worlds? At one time I thought about a campaign in a dysan sphere, then I did a little looking on the net and found out just how big one really is. Now that is FREAKING HUGE!

Note: Links in this post go to E-Bay and Amazon. I'm also cross-posting to the Other Genres forum. Finally got a copy of Ringworld off of E-Bay and now I want to use it for a game, however, not using the Basic Role-Playing (BRP) system. I’ve been a Hero system fan for years and years. I thought I might do something a little different and combine the Ringworld with the following settings/elements: Stargate SG1 – If the “creators†can create the ringworld, I’m sure they can create a stargate system as well. Lords of Madness – I’ve always enjoyed the Illithid/Mind Flayers, Aboleths, Neogi and Beholders. And, I dig the whole Aberrations/Far Realms concept that d20 has going. Mythos goodness, without the Lovecraftian canon. D20 Apocalypse – Especially, the Plague World setting. Use the Lords of Madness aberrations as the invading force, keep the bio-tech/nanotech slant. Replace magic with “extra-dimensional, non-euclidian science†and/or psionics. Don’t have a solid concept yet – but something along the lines of the discovery of the ringworld, either via starship (as in the Larry Niven novels) or via a stargate (a la SG1). However, it’s not the great zoo/museum seen in Niven’s vision, but a blasted apocalypse with stargates linking to the Far Realm(s). Would this be an interesting setting/campaign? Is it too much kit/genre bashing? How would you enhance the idea? Suggestions and comments welcome. Thanks in advance for your input.

Note: Links in this post go to E-Bay and Amazon. I'm also cross-posting to the Star Hero forum. Finally got a copy of Ringworld off of E-Bay and now I want to use it for a game, however, not using the Basic Role-Playing (BRP) system. I’ve been a Hero system fan for years and years. I thought I might do something a little different and combine the Ringworld with the following settings/elements: Stargate SG1 – If the “creators†can create the ringworld, I’m sure they can create a stargate system as well. Lords of Madness – I’ve always enjoyed the Illithid/Mind Flayers, Aboleths, Neogi and Beholders. And, I dig the whole Aberrations/Far Realms concept that d20 has going. Mythos goodness, without the Lovecraftian canon. D20 Apocalypse – Especially, the Plague World setting. Use the Lords of Madness aberrations as the invading force, keep the bio-tech/nanotech slant. Replace magic with “extra-dimensional, non-euclidian science†and/or psionics. Don’t have a solid concept yet – but something along the lines of the discovery of the ringworld, either via starship (as in the Larry Niven novels) or via a stargate (a la SG1). However, it’s not the great zoo/museum seen in Niven’s vision, but a blasted apocalypse with stargates linking to the Far Realm(s). Would this be an interesting setting/campaign? Is it too much kit/genre bashing? How would you enhance the idea? Suggestions and comments welcome. Thanks in advance for your input.

Re: Points or $ I ran into a similar problem... Here is how I decided to solve it: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=306 It might suit your needs.

Re: Horror Hero rant Read the "Atrocity Archives" by Charles Stross - makes for a great setting for a Dark Champions, action-horror setting, complete with a very british agency (the Laundry). Fun and creepy - and the main character is an IT-guy cum field agent. A different take on the cthulhu mythos. Penalty for over-use of the word "setting" in my original post.

Re: If Champions didn't exist... Superworld...definitely. My early gaming group evolved out of a love for Runequest and COC. Superworld seemed like the obvious choice. I owned both 1st Edition and 2nd Edition Champs, but really did make full use of it until 4th Edition (Big Blue Book). That was when I fully converted to HERO goodness.

Re: Holy Poker Card Shuriken! Mythbusters did a show on card throwing recently - even created a machine that could throw cards. Adam Savage, one of the hosts, has a pretty good arm. I think this is either on Discovery Channel or History Channel if you want to try to catch the rerun.

Re: The Incredibles Well my wife and I are both 40, both play Hero, saw it yesterday and loved it! Definitely will purchase on DVD!

Re: Need Urgent Help!!!! Or, if you have HeroDesigner 2.0, I believe the Online Store has the Conquerors, Killers and Crooks Character Pack for $7.00 bucks...

Re: Folklore resource Looks like fun! Thanks for the link.

Re: Dungeon World I found my original write-ups. Thought you might find them useful. Keep in mind that I never actually ran this. Their in MS Word format...and looks like I originally wrote them back in 1992! I hope you can find some use for them. Looking through the two attachments, they maybe variations on the same file...

Re: Clockpunk Incarnate Bump! Thanks Ultrarob! I like steampunk/clockwork punk stuff and have always been a big fan of Phil Foglio. Could make for an interesting Fantasy Hero setting.

Re: Post-apocalyptic fantasy When I first read this thread, I thought you were trying to explore either a fantasy world with an apocalyptic cataclysm or a fantasy-trope caused apocalypse (e.g. DOOM, Call of Cthulhu or Diablo II invasions) similar to Rifts Chaos-Earth. This would allow you to do something similar to either Rifts (not my favorite) or Deadlands Wasted West (you've got magic in my post-apocalypse; you've go post-apocalypse in my magic...) I also recommend Savage Earth by Keith Curtis. Other fantasy-like post-apocalypse type settings (some already mentioned; some stretching the definition a bit) include: Thundarr the Barbarian, The Herculoids, Mike Grell's Warlord comic, or less so, Thundercats and He-Man. Final Fantasy 7 could also be argued to be a post-apocalypse setting. I actually have picked up the latest Gamma World d20 stuff from White Wolf... overall, very good ideas. I've been a life long fan of Gamma World, especially all of the cool mutant abilities. Very easy to do in Hero, with a little work, especially now that Dark Champions and Star Hero are out for a good list of pre-cursor "artifacts"!

Re: godless fantasy Actually in both Runequest (3rd Edition, I believe) and Shadowrun, there are good examples of magic without gods. In Runequest, you have sorcery (similar to classic D&D wizards) and Spirit Magic (read: Shamans) who control and summon spirits to create spells. Runequest, also had divine magic, but I remember in the "A Shaman's View of Glorantha" that the Shaman telling his young apprentice, that divine magic users were duped by powerful spirits... they weren't gods, just tricky and very powerful spirits! In shadowrun, similar dichotomy: Hermetic magic, requiring rituals, incantations, objects of power; and Shamanism, which requires a journey to the spirit world and association with a particular totem spirit. One last source of interesting non-divine magic: Al-Quadim. There was a sorceror class (I forget the actual term), which used summoning of genies to retrieve spells on their behalf. I hope this is helpful.

Re: Help with campaing fleshing!

Re: Dungeon World Years ago, I had a similar thought but never developed it beyond a summary description. However, I can direct you to some source material that might help you out. There are a series of novels written by John Dechancie that starts with "Castle Perilous" and "Castle for Rent". From what I recall the basic premise of the series was that this castle had a series of doors and windows that opened onto other dimensions (many of them pocket-dimensions). Here is a description from Amazon.com, "Imagine life in an ironically magical world where 144,000 doors separate fiction from reality. A place that can hypnotize even the most grounded philosophy major and deliver a fantastical rhyme to his reason. A place where a best buddy resembles a shaggy carpet, and adventures surpass a boy's dreams?welcome to Castle Perilous." I also seem to remember one of the Conan stories by Robert E. Howard ("Red Nails", I believe), where Conan spent the entire story in an underground city/dungeon complex. Although I personally have not read it, I remember that in the original Fantasy Hero, there was mention of the Ghormenghast trilogy. And don't forget all of the AD&D underdark/dungeon stuff: Menzoberranzan, Underdark, City of the Spider Queen, Night Below, Return to the Tomb of Horrors, The Rod of Seven Parts, Bleak House (death of Van Richten), Castle Forlorn... I'm sure there are many more. From Hero, my best recommendation is to look through the filmography and bibliography sections of the current and old versions of Fantasy Hero and see what might inspire you further. Good luck with this! I'd be interested to hear more.

Re: Paying Points for Equipment... Sbarron, Here is a thread that I started a while back that you might find useful. http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=306&highlight=xiawarr I have always had my players pay points for everything, that way I am assured that the characters are fairly balanced against one another. What has always appealed to me about the Hero System is its use of a balanced point system. I usually use 75+75 for skills and characteristics and a 50-100 point pool for equipment, powers (martial arts, mutant, psionic) and/or magic. It allows players flexibility to get what they want and still maintain balance. I have mostly used this in a gamma world-esque post-apocalypse setting. The players seem to be pleased with the results.

Re: If magic cost full price... Mark, I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one that has come to that same conclusion.