Vondy

Re: base 5 point stats? problems with that? I'm with Markdoc on this one. I think it cuts too much to the quick. Of course, its subjective and if people are having fun you aren't doing it right. This just wouldn't be my cup of tea. On the other hand I did run a game with base 8 primary characteristics (ordinary joes) and 25 +25 for base/disads. It produced interesting characters and it made for a fun arc (it was a multi-session adventure rather than a campaign).

Re: Toolkitting: Relative versus Absolute I would never do what I'm about to suggest (because its silly), but you could build batman with a multiform that activates when he goes into JLA mode. It provides the requisite control and dichotomy. But then, you could just have two write-ups that you use based on modality of genre.

Re: What does a "20 Comeliness" look like to YOU? Opportunity for "celebrity selection" and requisite pulchritude are mutually exclusive. As for my gut check: 1:100 conservative; 1:50 more likely.

Re: What does a "20 Comeliness" look like to YOU? You both know the math doesn't work. Even if celebrities of the pultchritudinous class are selected for their striking appearance, and I agree they are, the number of people possessing that fundamental qualification in the population far, and I mean by orders of magnitude, outstrips the people who have the both the desire and luck to be chosen for the big media fake-over that malforms our perceptions. Let's say only the top 1 percent of the overall population meets the appearance threshold. In America alone that is THREE MILLION people. Hollywood, fashion, and sundry other beautiful public figure jobs, don't even scratch that number. That celebrities are chosen from a pool of potential candidates the average person, or even pretty person, does not fit into does not change that celebrities themselves only constitute a fraction of the people with that creme de le creme caliber of comeliness. It may be popular culture heresy, but there are at least A 1.5 MILLION women in America alone qualified to give the "famed beauties" some competition. That there are 150 millions more or less ordinary shlumps competing for those women doesn't change the fundamental equation. Celebrities aren't any better looking than than the pool of suitable raw material (non-celebrities with requisite looks) they are drawn from. The idea that they are is hype and nonsense. The only reason a woman is ever voted sexiest woman alive is that she had a celebrity profile for people to notice in the first place. The same goes for men. Even with the 1:1000 figure the premise holds true. Sexiest should be translated "Most noticed of 150,000+ (potentially far more) equally sexy women." I'm not buying it.

Re: What does a "20 Comeliness" look like to YOU?

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Re: Religions in SF settings.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings I was reading a (US) military protocol guide (don't ask me why) and I noted it said civilians may shorten a warrant officer's rank and call them Mr. or Ms. and an officers rank and call them Sir or Ma'am. May? Indeed. Has the military forgotten not everyone is in it? A civilian doesn't even have to call the President of the United States "Mr." or "Sir" if they don't want to. A good old, I refuse the right to serve anyone and that includes you "W"/"Big O" is your God given right. Its polite, and apropos for many situations to use formal address, and I'd generally do it on custom in America, but really, the civilian population is under no specific obligation to observe military formalities. If an military officer were to make an issue of being called "sir" or "general" or whatever I'd remind them I wasn't under military discipline and punctuate it with their personal name ("That's the fact, Jack"). Its good to be polite, but may? Somebody forgot themselves and overstepped when they wrote that one.

Re: Religions in SF settings. I find Gene Roddenberry style visions of man-of-tomorrow which embraces John Lenon's "Imagine" as the suddenly accepted utopian ideal unrealistic in terms of human history, nature, and variation. It also disenfranchises a vast segment of the population who would otherwise buy in and maybe take something away from intelligent story-telling while closing the door on interesting, valid story concepts. The new Age of Aquarius isn't that interesting, folks.

Re: Religions in SF settings. Since con-games are pot luck in terms of players, its prudent to file the serial numbers off, or omit, sensitive topics like religion. But for a group you game with regularly in private its probably not necessary insofar as you have a good handle on them and they have the requisite maturity, sensitivity, etcetera to handle it.

Re: Best Martial Art for a Bodyguard? I'm glad you said this, because Gun-Fu with fast draw and a home-brew "Gun Retention" maneuver is probably the best tactical option.

Re: Best Martial Art for a Bodyguard? Its a question of philosophy. Anything that allows close in disarms, locks, breaks, throws, and pain-response techniques would be suitable. On the other hand, Death Blow: 5d6 KA would also be good... A body guard generally has a split second or two to disable a would be attacker or spirit their charge away. Duking it out is not tactically appropriate.

Re: Best Martial Art for a Bodyguard?

Re: Mad Skills It is hero system! Its just streamlined by using the OCV/DCV system for both characteristic rolls, skills and combat, and expressing characteristics as their actual play value rather than a number that value is extrapolated from. It was a thought experiment, though I kind of like the way it feels.

Re: (5th Edition) Social Limitation: Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex Unless romance is a major plot-point in the character's stories its probably worth nothing. I just write tropes as 0 pointers on sheets for fluff, but I also allow for small roll modifiers when they come into play.

Re: Mad Skills Warning: This post contains Mossad Protagonists. Don't be a Pink. If you hate the "dastardly" Mossad the NGD fora awaits you... The attached characters were constructed using the method on 6E1-57 "Toolkitting: Changing How Skill Rolls Work" for both skill rolls and primary characteristic rolls as a means of streamlining the system for a stricly heroic baseline, character-narrative driven "stale beer in a martini glass" espionage game. The guiding principles can be found in Post #25 of this very thread. Some genre references are: Covert Affairs (TV), Little Drummer Girl (Book), Mack Bolan #39 onward (Books), Ronin (Film), Rubicon (TV), and Spooks (TV). Because my design philosophy is "Slack," No mental combat values, which are superfluous genre-wise. No End, which can be modelled with con rolls where dramatically apropos. PD and ED are "Tough." Equipment would still be expressed as PD/ED as needed. OCV and DCV are "Combat." Differing values could be expressed as "Attack" and "Defend." I have Complications and Tropes on the sheets. They overlap, but tropes are fluff. Hebrew for "Top Secret" is "Sodi-Beyoter," which translates "Most Secret." The male protagonist is basically an Israeli Mack Bolan knock-off, as evinced by his pirated cover; The female protagonist is an amalgam of guille spy heroines, more or less. She's more Annie Walker than Sydney Bristow or Nikita.

Re: Mad Skills Active Value vs. Resistance Value, which is basically "skill-talk" for OCV vs. DCV. Its not wholly my idea. Its a extrapolation of the tool-kitting option at the bottom of the last column on 6E1-57. I whipped out two characters last night, but they are on my home computer and the internet connection there is being worked on. I'll post them when I can.

Re: Mad Skills The OP got me working on a "bare essentials" tool-kitted Hero I thought of some time ago, but never really worked up. This is just a fast and loose brainstorm extrapolating from 6e1-57 "Toolkitting: Changing The Way Skill Rolls Work." Its less granular, and I have not worked out cost structures, but it fits a character-narrative style of "real world" or "television drama" heroic play. I'm dubious about whether it would scale well for higher levels play, but it might. Using the AV/RV dichotomy which mirrors the CV system everthing except damage/defenses is streamlined into a single mechanic. All primary characteristics have a base of AV 3 and can be bought up to the predetermined limit. Lets assume 8 (24/3=8) is the "heroic threshold," with 9 and 10 being "legendary." Alternatively, you could purchase the characteristics normally and merely convert the characteristic roll using the AV/RV system. Lifting as a strength roll with the RV set by the weight being lifted. HTH Base Damage would need a chart, but could be extrapolated from here: 3 = 2d6, 4=2.5d6, 5 = 3d6, 6 = 3.5d6, etc. Grabs as Strength AV modified by skill levels or maneuver bonuses (maneuver added strenth/5 equals modifier) vs. opponents ST as RV (modified by the same factors, of course). Initiative can be handled via numerous systems. One would be highest DX + LR with 1d6 tie-breakers. I use a playing card based system. Handle presence attacks as presence rolls modified by relevant levels. The RV can be presence or ego, also modified by relevant skill levels, resistance, etc. Stunning, Option 1: simply use the character's Body score in lieu of Constitution. Stunning, Option 2: if the stun exceeds the character's Body score require a Consitution roll to avoid stunning. Movement Option: you purchase "Athletics," a skill that might have sub-categories for running, jumping, swimming, etc to exceed base values with penalties the higher you go. Chase option: abstract chases using opposed rolls or an NPCs athletics value as the RV. "I need to get far enough ahead of him to knock a trashcan into his path as I go over the fence..." Poisons, drugs, disease and the like can be given an AV that works against Con or Ego (depending on which is relevant) as the RV. Or you could make Con rolls against the poisons value as the RV. Skills would theoretically be open ended value wise, but to simplify assigning difficulty and modifiers, skill values should probably use similar ranges as CVs. In general, an AV5 = 12-, AV6 = 13-, AV7 = 14-, AV8 = 15-, etc. A 20- roughly equates to AV 13. Everyman 8- skills translate to AV2 and would include "athletics." I'm working up some characters based on the above principes.

Re: Mad Skills Of course, it occurs to me, if combat and skill resolution are going to use the same system, one could shunt the four combat values into the skill system, just with different costs. The everyman skill value for them could be "3." Or, if you wanted to be a little radical, leave the base values for the everyman version at 3, but turn weapon familiarities into actual skills with active values to roll against... it does raise the issue of the defensive value not being active due to limited numbers of skills in play at a given time, but you could hand-wave the problem and say people are always defending. Or, you could be super-radical, do away with combat values, and go with maneuvers and skill levels for both. Then players would have to actually consider using defensive combat levels or maneuvers that provided a bonus if they wanted to model evasive combat moves. The base combat values are essentially levels anyways and the disparity with skill levels (combat values are always on) can be handled by telling players to slap the correct modifiers (persistent, trigger, etc) on the levels in question. Which is what should happen in a cost-balanced system, anyways.

Re: Rolling for initiative A riff on the playing card technique (that probably only works for smaller groups and heroic speed levels). Deal as many cards as characters have points of speed at the beginning of each turn. They can then play one card per turn going in order of card value from highest to lowest. Ties can be resolved by suit.

Re: Mad Skills 6e1-57 Toolkitting: Changing The Way Skill Rolls Work Last Item in the second column. Edit: The only issue with using it is getting used to gauging appropriate DVs.

Re: Anyone using 1 pt per Dex in 6E? You are not alone.

Re: Anyone using 1 pt per Dex in 6E? I still use PD/ED separately where needed. But for the heroic games I run, characters generally don't need both.

Re: Anyone using 1 pt per Dex in 6E? I parsed them out after I did away with END and combined PD and ED into "Tough" (for most purposes). So I still ended up with one less.