Steve

Re: Traveller Hero: Traders of the Spinward Marches I forgot to copy in my my house rule in this campaign for Comeliness. It is taken from this thread a while back in the Hero System Discussion forum.

Re: Iconic Villains I think I'd add Green Dragon to the list.

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

At long last, my Traveller Hero campaign has finally begun. Here is the campaign document, although much of it was cribbed from AlHazred's post here for his Flight of a Thousand Years campaign (and I hope he doesn't mind): What the characters didn't know at the time was that the Fifth Frontier War was about to begin, pitting the Sword Worlds, Zhodani and Vargr against the Third Imperium. The characters were drafted into the naval auxillary in District 268 of the Spinward Marches. Coming up next... the crew of the Far Trader Arcadia. EDIT: Wow! This is my 1000th post.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Some bits from the first regular session of my new Traveller Hero campaign, "Traders of the Spinward Marches." I will be posting more details on the campaign in the Star Hero forum. The campaign opens in the middle of the Fifth Frontier War. The crew of the Arcadia, an aging rustbucket Far Trader, consists of four human males (PCs), a female replicant (NPC), and a male Vargr (PC). They've been recruited as naval auxillaries, and their first assignment is to shuttle supplies and a couple of Imperial marine fire teams to an outpost about a dozen parsecs away. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Female Imperial marine upon first seeing the ship: "It's a piece of junk!" Lupo (PC-Vargr Pilot): "Hey! She's made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs." More Star Wars riffs quickly followed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another Imperial marine "Is there any entertainment on this ship?" Benington (PC-Ship's Doctor): "We've got a Vargr." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The ship's engineer does some maintenance work a few jumps out and promptly rolls an 18 on his Mechanics check. GM (Me): "It looks like the air scrubbers are burned out." Owens (PC-Mechanic): "It's not my fault! The navy techs pulled out all my mods when they retrofitted the ship. You know the Vargr sheds."

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See? Is there a possibility that a PA "alternate future" for the Champions Universe could be included? I remember one being mentioned in the back of the VIPER sourcebook "VIPERS in the Dust" I think was the name. Maybe that could be expanded a little bit and included here?

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See? Sorry, I meant to say characteristic levels. Grittier settings seem to fit better with lower primary characteristics in the 8-18 range. The wilder the setting, the higher the characteristics. Using skills, "fighting tricks" and super-skills instead of Powers should also get some mention in the lower-powered settings.

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See? Character Creation: Please include discussions on how point levels should fit into the various genres. For example, a grittier, more realistic PAH setting I would like to see follow along the lines suggested in Valdorian Age (ie primary characteristics starting at 8 and more skill-based talents and fighting tricks instead of powers). A wilder, Gamma World-style setting could go into low-end superhumans (maybe with characteristic maximas set at 30 or 25 instead of 20). Settings: You must include at least one homage to the "Planet of the Apes" somewhere among the various settings.

Re: test. The OP is now showing up as "A jewel in the rough" on his rep rating, but his rep score still shows 0. Why is that?

Re: Beowulf-class Type-A Free Trader Deckplans Let me second the request for an HDC on a Far Trader.

Should the Deadly Blow Talent be taken into account when figuring the costs of Naked Advantages affecting weapons? Several of the Super-Skills in Dark Champions use an assumed Active Point value of the weapon involved to figure the cost of the Super-Skill, such as Double-Tap or Quick Fire. Should Deadly Blow add to the Active Point value of attacks to figure the costs of those Super-Skills?

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Digging through old D&D campaign notes: Said to a lawful evil cleric by the party's chaotic good cleric: "I find your acts of faith... disturbing." From my old Talislanta notes (run with 1st Edition Fantasy Hero! and 50 base + 50 disad heroes): The party's wizard to the rest of the party after acquiring a shiny gold ring from an ancient tomb: "Don't worry, I can control it." (said in a very haughty tone)

Re: Regrettable Disads This reminds me of someone I knew who played a wookie in a Star Wars game. Since few humans speak that language, all communication had to be routed through his partner.

Re: test. I agree. Pile the rep on him!

Re: Questions On Expert I thought Expert was only to be used with Knowledge Skills, Languages, Professional Skills and Science Skills only? Did I misread that section in TUS?

Re: Hero's game design secrecy I've always found you to be pretty candid answering questions on the game, but my curiosity at your reluctance to answer 'why?' questions finally got the better of me after all these years. My question was not meant to be insulting, and my use of the word 'secrecy' was because I couldn't think of a better term to describe what I've seen on this particular issue.

Maybe this belongs in Company Questions, but I guess it's also a Hero System Discussion question. Something I've been occasionally curious about is the reasoning behind the answer Steve Long gives to anyone who asks a "why" sort of question regarding the Hero System. "Why is X like this?" It's always answered with something to the effect, "I'm sorry, but I don't answer game design questions." It's like there's this big secret known only to Steve Long that can't be shared with the masses, a black box of reasoning that explains why Hero 5th is written the way it is. Can anyone tell me why this is? What's with all the secrecy? Is it an intellectual property issue? Did someone upset him in the past by questioning the reasoning behind a game mechanic? Does he find questions on design philosophy annoying? Can anyone confirm or deny my guesses as to why such questions are never answered?

Re: HCPD - The 13th District (Campaign Idea) I would like to read about your game, but the link is not working.

Re: Foxbat....Where can I find Him?

Re: Attack of the 150-point Housewife Maybe something like Desperate Housewives, I suppose.

Re: Attack of the 150-point Housewife How would you modify a housewife for different eras or regions? The write-up that Weldun did suffices for 20th century America. Would there be regional differences? Would a Japanese housewife be any different than an American one? How would a 25th century housewife be different? Or a 5th century one?

Re: Attack of the 150-point Housewife Weldun's certainly done an interesting write-up. Repped! I might add in a short-range "vanishing" teleport power to her, so she can show up suddenly.

Re: Attack of the 150-point Housewife Ninja housewives fighting battles with each other on the rooftops while their husbands are at work?

Re: Armageddon 1946 I hope it's going to be a Hero product. Or were you going to do it as a d20 project?

Re: HCPD - The 13th District (Campaign Idea) Unfortunately, the game never got going. I wrote up notes and some NPCs in preparation for pitching it, but I got enthused for doing a Traveller Hero campaign in the meantime. That's what I'm running now that my Xcrawl campaign has concluded. I agree on not going the elite route, especially after my re-reading Delta Green. I feel it's better and more in keeping with the X-Files/Delta Green feel I'd like to have for it be a conspiracy of sorts amidst the HCPD.