Steve

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... In my old gaming group, anytime someone rolled an 18, they'd say "I'm starting a D&D character!" Which reminds me of an old friend's comment on Hero System that he made Many Years Ago: "If you don't pay the points, you can't hit the toilet."

Re: Australia in the current CU

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so Something like that worked in "The Lord of the Rings."

Re: Realism vs cynicism The world's reactions to superhumans One explanation for why the world might react less cynically to the appearance of superheroes can be taken from the CU's notion that magic allows superhumans to exist by adjusting the baseline universe to make superpowers possible. That same ambient magic causes a subtle mind control effect to make humans more accepting of the existence of superhumans. Humans thus have more of a sense of wonder concerning them, not fear. In the real world, a superhuman would give every government agency in the world fits of concern. Given the right powers, a superhuman is a WMD in human form. In the real world, fear of superhumans would be a more likely reaction.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so

Re: Order of the Stick It seems to be female rogue-types that are affected by the bard's charisma, not just ninja. Of course, this could be a setup for a catfight between a certain rogue in the party and a ninja girl.

Re: Rinse and repeat One-trick ponies tend to be self-correcting in my experience. If other characters are spending experience points to expand their capabilities to do "cool things" in combat, one-trick types tend to get boring for the player of the one-trick pony.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so I don't recall if this was mentioned. Characters are built around a core of random dice rolls to determine their abilities. You are limited in your selection of abilities and classes and have to conceptualize around what the dice give you. Corollary: That being said, most characters tend to be as thinly written as the sheets they are written on.

Re: Players wish to emulate dnd's sense motive. I suppose Deduction might work for this. You could also use a Detect ability to create this.

Re: Underworld Enemies I agree with the praises for Underworld Enemies, and his other titles. New Bedlam Asylum is a favorite of mine, but I've never had the opportunity to incorporate it into a campaign. I'd love to see a Fells Point supplement. Maybe we can start a petition to Chris? Of course, after his computer game successes, maybe he's too much of a gaming rock star now to write a Hero book.

Re: Urban Fantasy Recommendations For movies, I know "Cast a Deadly Spell" has been mentioned, but I second the nomination. Fred Ward playing PI Phil Lovecraft in a world where everyone uses magic? A great film for the genre. Some book & author suggestions: Simon Green(one of my favorite authors) The Secret History series: The Man with the Golden Torc, Demons are Forever, and The Spy Who Haunted Me The Nightside Series Orson Scott Card - Enchantment Mike Resnick - Stalking the Unicorn (great book)

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel The Creepy TV As the PC is channel surfing on the TV in their room, they come across a station showing "The Shining" on a continuous loop. It's not listed on the worn directory card in the room, and it appears to be the only TV in the hotel that does this.

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel Hmmm... it would be cool to name a hotel like this with something subtly lifted from a horror source. I would suggest "The Stanley Hotel."

How would you write up the ability to cause heart failure in someone? An NND RKA is my first thought, but I'm wondering how else it could be done.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so I scanned back through the list, and I don't recall seeing this one. 62) Despite being an evil, treacherous and homicidal race, Drow are kewl to many gamers (and to at least one author many of us can probably name).

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so These three issues were partly what drove me to try out Xcrawl. Why is this dungeon here? Why are these monsters here? Why is the treasure here? Answer: The PCs are celebrity adventurers, playing in worldwide televised deathmatches against various DJs (Dungeon Judges) over the course of their careers, exploring staged dungeons and fighting monsters hired or captured to fight against the PCs. All in front of a live studio audience. And if they die? They die! It was one of my more successful campaigns, expecially once the players got into the spirit of the thing, playing their characters like a mix between action movie stars and wrestling heroes.

Re: Random Pondering: Istvatha V'han This whole discussion reminds me of the various versions of Kang that populate Marvel's infinite alternate timelines.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so Drow... Word... Hmmm. I suddenly have this image of dark elf punks and punkettes hanging around a street corner.

Re: Watchers of the Dragon vs. Ninja Hero

Re: Macbeth -- in Tuala Morn

Re: Nova Blast (sanity check, please) A couple of questions occur to me. 1) Could this power construct be Haymakered to bring it up even further in dice of effect? 2) Could a separate Aid affecting the Jumbo Nova Blast add-on ratchet up the damage even more? I'm picturing a build up for several phases, then KABOOM!!!

Re: Magic systems, Magic costs to much? If you do a search of the forums for the term "magic system" you should find plenty of suggestions to add on to what is presented in the Fantasy Hero book. After that, feel free to come back and ask questions. Youl'll likely get a blizzard of responses.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so I'd expand on this to say that a wizard's function is to be a glass cannon. They can deal out the damage, but they can't take it.

Re: Ps238 I'm very excited to hear this news of a PS238 book,and I think it will do a couple of things that Hero fans have been asking for. 1) Provide a self-contained introductory game to the Hero System that will bring in new players who might be intimidated by the Fifth Edition main book and all the supplemental genre/support books. 2) License a comic book that is moderately well-known and popular without requiring the expense to Hero that going to Marvel/DC/Image would require. I plan to buy it as soon as it becomes available, so write fast!

Re: The Ultimate Roleplayer That's a good one!