Steve

Re: The First Hurdle: Creating a *gulp* Magic System Thia, I've been thinking over some suggestions for your magic system. Please forgive me if I am rehashing old terrain. 1) One of the most basic decisions to make is whether you are going to have spells purchased and paid for individually by characters, or if you are going to go with some sort of power framework to do this, presumably one that will let you swap out spells like a VPP or a VPP-like Talent (explained later). The spells themselves will be recorded off the sheet, so to speak. To purchase each spell individually, you write up the spell as a Power with Advantages and Limitations, and then you can make the PC pay that cost, or take an additional math step and use a cost divider to get to the cost for the character: 1/2, 1/3, etc. By using Delayed Effect and Trigger in the spell's build, you can charge the spell for release at the beginning of the day. You can then choose one of two ways to provide the power: Charges (1 or more, each one representing a casting of the spell and would be part of the Limitations affecting the cost of the spell) or an END Reserve (which I suppose you could pre-assign 1 or more castings worth of END to each spell, but it is an unorthodox approach). You can also purchase each spell as a type of Skill Roll: Fireball 13-, Detect Magic 12-, etc. The costs to the player will be similar to the method just above. The spells are written up off the character sheet, and the caster's success at casting them is determined by rolling the Skill Roll for the known spell, modified by the Active Points of the spell writeup or as an unmodified roll. You can purchase a pool of points that can be assigned to spells, which is then allocated at the beginning of the day (or whenever the caster changes his spell list). The straight rules would be to do this by a type of VPP, but you are limited by the RAW to a maximum Active Points in a spell of the pool points in the VPP. By building each spell as a 1 Charge slot in the VPP, it reduces the amount of points it takes from the pool. If you desire to cast the spell more than once, simply change to 2 or more Charges and recalculate how many points memorizing it would take from the pool. An alternative to a VPP is a spell Talent (which works like a VPP in that it is a floating pool of points). This can be as simple as a single pool (Magic) or several pools that are limited to certain schools (a pool for Divination Magic and a separate one for Elemental Magic, for example). By using a cost divider (as mentioned above), it extends the pool points a bit. Each pool of points could run off a single Magic skill, or they could have a corresponding skill (ie a Necromantic Talent for the spell points and a Necromantic Magic skill roll). You can power the spells by means of an END Reserve as well, and pre-assign 1 or more castings worth of END to a spell. 2) Once you have made the choice of purchased spells or a floating pool that can be changed, then the choice is magic as a learned skill or a type of superpower. By choosing magic as a skill, one that can be learned like baking, then there is a chance for a skill failure. Spells would be written up with RSR. BY choosing the superpower route, magic is an inherent gift. Clerical magic could be written up this way, and instead of RSR, a cleric could have a Limitation on their magic like "Limited by god's purposes"

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... A d20 reference? For shame. You should be expressing it in Hero power terms. Something like Image, but I'm not sure how you would write it up since it it is created by words sent over the Internet.

Re: The First Hurdle: Creating a *gulp* Magic System Another way to approach the VPP option is to use something like a VPP but isn't. Fantasy Hero introduced the concept of buying a Talent that works like a VPP, but it reflects a pool of points that can be allocated to cover the Real Cost of a spell. One of the example systems came up with the notion of Arcana, which reminds me of how D&D does the various schools of magic: Divination, Evocation, etc. What spells the character knows are reflected off the sheet in a separate list of spell write-ups. So say a character only wants to learn Divination magic, then buying a full blown VPP is a bit of overkill. Instead, they have a Talent called Divination which represents their ability to wield spells of the Divination school. That Talent could represent the pure real cost of spells, or the cost with a spell divisor figured in (such as all spells costing a character 1/3 or 1/5 what they cost under standard rules). All the spells normally have Requires A Skill Roll to work. Wizards can purchase all the Arcana spheres they want to learn spells in. Sorcerers may be more limited (max 4 Arcana, their INT/5 or whatever limit you choose). However, the tradeoff that Sorcerers get is that they can purchase a separate Talent (perhaps once for each Arcana) that 'buys off' the Requires A Skill Roll Limitation instead of being able to purchase more Arcana. Wizards have more breadth, but Sorcerers are more focused and don't have to worry about their spells fizzling from a failed skill roll. Wizards could also have the requirement that they have to memorize (and thus allocate) their arcana pools to show what they know for that day. Sorcerers can wield their smaller spell lists in whatever way they like, since they wield magic by sheer force of will, not learning them from books. Clerics could be somewhere in between. Combine that with an END Reserve to show how much mana (or whatever you choose to call the energy that powers magic spells) a spellcaster can channel in a given day, and you have a spellcaster ready to face the world. END Reserves can also have fun Limitations built into them to reflect the spellcasting philosophy. An example would be a Cleric that can only use the REC on their END Reserve by praying (and making Faith skill rolls). A wizard could simply require a spellbook and some reading time (a Focus requirement). A sorcerer could rip the power from their environment by sheer force of will and save it for later use (Requires an EGO-Roll).

Re: The First Hurdle: Creating a *gulp* Magic System

Re: The First Hurdle: Creating a *gulp* Magic System I agree with KS on this. Forget about the rules for a few minutes and figure out what feel you are going for. Then once you have that mental framework in mind, take a look at the Hero System main book (with Fantasy Hero adding more options to your tookit) and see how you can use them to make magic work as you want it to work. I would suggest posting that list to this thread or making a new thread for it, maybe broken down by spellcaster types, and then ask for commentary on how to accomplish it. Don't do it with an eye on rules, just go for a general description of effect. Then it's just a matter of reasoning backwards from effect to get a system that works within Hero.

Re: The First Hurdle: Creating a *gulp* Magic System

Re: The First Hurdle: Creating a *gulp* Magic System Well, one thing you can try to show this would be to require Wizard spells to have a Requires Skill Roll Limitation in addition to all others, but Sorcerers don't have this Limitation. It makes their spells a little more expensive. You could also employ different magic systems for each caster type. Maybe Wizards use individual spells bought by a spell skill system (see Fantasy Hero pg 261), and Sorcerers use something like the Chaos Blades idea (Fantasy Hero pg 262). There is no requirement that every type of caster use the exact same system, unless you prefer uniformity. You can do arcane magic and faith-based magic by as simple a change as the name of the skill roll required: "Faith" instead of magic. I really think you're trying to drag too many of D&D's metagaming concepts into Hero, but it's your campaign. It can really be satisifying to strike out and craft your own magic system for your world from the ground up.

Re: [Character] White Phoenix - Ninja Hero/Teen Champions I was wondering when you'd notice this thread. I was actually thinking about doing a thread on the Other Genres board to populate the King of the Streetfighting Warriors world after I get done with some other projects I'm working on. Another option I was thinking about with the original version of White Phoenix was to give her the ability to Summon other characters from the Streetfighting Warriors universe and call it something like Here Comes A New Challenger. By giving it an Activation Roll and a Side Effect, I could have Friendly characters show up when the roll succeeds, but fail the roll and the character that showed up would be an Antagonistic one, and would want to fight Qi Yin instead.

Re: A supernatural hot spot

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel It sounds like it would be staffed by Belldandy and Kasumi Tendo.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From a recent game. The characters came across a mime, complete with the face paint look, costume and everything. The kicker is that it's actually a curse, but one that you can get rid of by passing it along by touching someone else. Needless to say, it would be a really bad thing to have happen to a spellcaster. The dwarf in the party, a surly warrior type got the touch. One comment stuck with me: "Dude, you got mimed." The player who was now playing a dwarf mime, who's a really good sport about such things, said nothing but promptly flashed the other player a rude hand gesture.

Re: [Character] White Phoenix - Ninja Hero/Teen Champions Yeah, I've read that comic, too. A shame it's not being updated very often. I've attached the .hdc file to my original post.

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel It could also be weird if there is a 13th floor button, but it only shows up at night or maybe even only at midnight, if a character gets in the elevator at that time. The rest of the time, it's not there.

Re: A supernatural hot spot I guess another way to do it would be to populate the house with one or more spots of Extra-Dimensional Movement (from Spirit World) to act as gates (weak spots in the dimensional barrier). Give them a very low Activation Roll (or probably better, No Conscious Control), Immobile Focus, and Extra Time between openings occurring, and that would also eliminate the need for a Summon power. By using Aid and Suppress or Drain, you could also model how friendly/unfriendly a place is to supernatural presences. A spooky old house would have an Aid, but a high-tech scientific laboratory would work as a Suppress or Drain, maybe also a Change Environment as well. I could imagine a character with spirit-sensing powers would get quite a tingle in a place with an Aid and Change Environment both running.

Re: A supernatural hot spot Hmmm, except it doesn't quite replicate the feel of a place that could be spiritually quiet for years or decades and then something triggers a haunting, even as innocuous as moving a book. The Change Environment idea is an interesting one. No Conscious Control is a Limitation I should have mentioned, since the house or whatever is not consciously bringing spirits over. A really spooky place could also act as an Aid to ghostly powers or maybe a PC with necromantic abilities. With a spirit Summon, an Aid to ghostly powers, and a Change Environment to make the place feel creepy, it could make quite a haunted house.

This idea was suggested to me by a recent episode of Supernatural. An instance of supernatural activity in the main characters' old house caused it to become a magnet for other supernatural entities to come and set up residence. There are stories of buildings and places which seem to be "hot spots" for supernatural activity, even after cleansed of whatever is currently there by ghost hunter types. In thinking about how to model this, Summon seems to be the ideal power, with Trigger to show that it can happen on its own or due to some cause. Maybe an old house isn't currently being haunted, but if someone spills some blood in it, even by just cutting themselves by accident in the kitchen, or they move a book in the library, or even have it blessed by a priest (Amityville Horror anyone?), it awakens something and a ghost appears, or maybe more than one. Built with such Limitations as Antagonistic, Strong-Willed, Extra Time, an Immobile, Obvious Accessible Focus, and maybe Arrives Under Own Power, it could make for a wild place. I'm not sure how to model the Summon power to allow for varying power levels of spooks to show up. Maybe one triggering of the Summon calls up a weak spook, but the next time it is triggered, it calls up a more nasty one.

In the James Hogan novel Thrice Upon A Time and the Dennis Quaid movie Frequency, there is a plot device that allows messages to be sent into the past. I'm wondering which is the better way to model it: to take an Enhanced sense like Radio Perception/Transmission and give it the Dimensional Adder, or does it need the Transdimensional Advantage instead? I'm thinking that it just needs the Dimensional Adder, but I was curious as to what others might feel.

Re: [Character] White Phoenix - Adult Version Thank you. I was just surprised that no one had any suggestions or noticed anything missing in the build.

Re: [Character] White Phoenix - Adult Version Ouch. That stings a bit. Oh well.

Re: [Character] White Phoenix - Adult Version Hmm, not a single comment from anyone. Was it too weird a concept?

When playing in a Dark Champions campaign, where have you had your most memorable battles? Shooting it out with a mafia hood in a dingy hotel room? Fighting an enemy military unit in the midst of a bombed out cityscape? Jumping from rooftop to rooftop as you chase a costumed criminal? What made this battle so memorable?

Re: Happy Thanksgiving! Thia, I am certain you will add new energy to the discussions going on around the boards, as well as starting up others. I have enjoyed reading your postings, and I look forward to seeing you branch out beyond the Fantasy Hero board to the other genres available. And a Happy Thanksgiving to all of my fellow Heroes!

Re: Fixin' what's broken - switching from d20 to HERO Fantasy Hero gives a large number of options for designing a magic system from the ground up, based on how you (as GM) want magic to work, and reasons why you might use one option over another as well as advantages and drawbacks. And once you've digested how to do a magic system, the example spell systems a little later on in the book show how to put it into practice. Several of them are really quite clever.

Re: Let's talk about Combat Luck