Barwickian

Re: 1912 British Police Guide Heh. I just got an email from Marcus about this, and was going to post the link myself.

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares How about some buddy movie nightmares... Bill & Ted's Fantastic Voyage Citizen Kane & Lynch Easy Driders

Re: Steve Long, Thank you

Re: Realistic Monetary Systems in FH

Re: Realistic Monetary Systems in FH You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Lawnmower Boy again. I have to admit, it took me three reads to understand your post, and my degree is in economics (needless to say, currencies and currency trading were NOT my speciality). But that is very, very good material - lots of potential for setting up a scenario in there.

Re: HERO Dice App for Android - know one? How odd. I certainly didn't create a link, nor can I see one when I look at my post. I can see it looks like a link in the quote you posted, but it doesn't work as one for me (it's just blue underlined text). Do you have an add-on which will make this happen?

Re: More space news! Style issue. Many newspapers (my own included) now use upper case for acronyms that are spelt out when spoken (such as USA or UK) and Upper/lower for acronyms that are spoken as words in their own right (such as Nasa and Nato). And yes, I suspect that eventually they will become proper nouns. Not there yet, but they're heading that way.

Re: Realistic Monetary Systems in FH A brief rundown on old English LSD money in the middle ages (ie, I won't be considering renaissance-era coins like the silver shilling). The units are Librum (£) - pound; sestercius (s) - shilling; and denarius (d) - penny. Up until the 13th century, only the penny was a minted coin. The other units existed only for accounting purposes, alongside other units such as the mark (see below), which have not survived into modern usage. The penny was made of relatively pure silver, and weighed about 1.5g. The usual format was the name and image of the reigning monarch on the obverse and a cross on the reverse. The cross aided in cutting the coin into pieces. Pieces? Yes. Originally, a half-penny was just that - half a penny. No half-penny coin was minted. A quarter of a penny was termed a farthing. The accounting values were (as others have noted) £1 = 20s = 240d. Other accounting units were the silver mark, worth 13s 4d, or 160d (2/3 of a pound) and the rarer gold mark (the value of that escapes me). A reference to just a mark, without specifying the metal, will almost certainly refer to the silver mark. Merchants who wanted higher-value coins used Arabic or Byzantine gold coins. In 1216, the regents of the young king Henry III introduced the gold penny, with a value of 20d (1s 8d). It was not popular and fell into disuse by the 1260s. It's thought the gold content was actually worth more than the value of the coin (about 24d), and most of them were melted down for profit. No other gold coins were introduced until the 14th century. In the reign of Edward I (1272-1307), the first silver farthings were minted. The farthing didn't become a copper coin until the early modern period (early 1600s). Also during Edward I's reign the silver groat was issued. It was worth 4d, though it weighed less than four pennies (and its weight was progressively reduced until it only weighed three pennyweights). That does us for English medieval silver coinage: penny (1d), farthing (1/4d) and groat (4d). With the exception of the failed gold penny, no gold coins were issued until 1344. In that year came the florin, also known as a double-leopard, a gold coin weighing 7 grams and worth 6s (72d). It was based on (and named after) coins from Florence. The gold used was overvalued and the coin was withdrawn from use within months. The same fate befell the half-florin (3s) and quarter-florin (1s 6d), introduced at the same time. The noble, issued a few months after the florin and half-florin (many of the unpopular florins were melted down to make it) was worth 6s 8d (80d, £1/3). It weighed 9g. It was the first widely-circulating gold coin. In 1464, in the face of high gold prices, the value of the noble was increased to 8s 4d (100d) and the weight reduced to prevent the coins being sold abroad for their gold value, but the change proved unpopular and the coin was withdrawn in the 1470s. The older noble coin was replaced in 1465 with the lighter gold Angel, with a value of 6s 8d, which proved popular. The Half-Angel, introduced in 1472, was worth 3s 4d. In 1489 the first Sovereign was issued by Henry VII, with a value of £1 (20s, 240d). It weighs 15.5g. No value was pressed into the coin; it was treated as bullion. That about wraps us up with English medieval gold coins. Recap: 12d = 1s. 240d = 20s = £1. Silver coins Coin Value Weight Period Penny 1d 1.5g throughout Farthing 1/4d 0.44g 1270s+ Groat 4d 5.8g 1270s+ Gold Coins Coin Value Weight Period Gold Penny 20d ? 1216-1260s Quarter-florin 18d ? 1344 Half-florin 36d ? 1344 Florin 72d 5.9g 1344 Noble 80d 9g 1344-1464 Noble (reissue) 100d 7.8g 1464-1470s Angel 80d 5.1g 1465+ Half-Angel 40d 2.6g 1472+ Sovereign 240d 15.5g 1489+ OK, that's the history. How do we apply that to an RPG? First off, there's nothing wrong with keeping a vaguely metric system of copper, silver and gold coins. It's fantasy convention. But if you do want more, I'd suggest either a 12th-century model (only silver pennies are available - Harn uses this), a late-13th-century model (farthings, pennies and groats are minted, all silver), or a late-14th-century model (silver farthings, pennies and groats, and the 80d gold Noble). What of the other coins? They can represent older coins, foreign coins or - as they were in history, failed coins. Addendum: For those using the encumbrance rules, 1kg of silver pennies is 667d; 1kg of the earlier gold nobles is worth 8,889d (£37 9d); 1kg of the gold Angel is 15,686d (£65 7s 2.25d).

Re: HERO Dice App for Android - know one? Alas, not compatible with my Android phone.

Re: Why I prefer HERO System over Pathfinder/OGL/D&D for fantasy Let me actually get the Kamarinthin setting (and other settings) and I'll see (couple of days - I'm making a point of ordering Hero stuff through the Hero store every payday). My concern, however, is maximising utility. I want to do something aimed at broad appeal, and do it for free. Aimed at noobs, perhaps no more than "of interest" to experienced herophiles. If the old models still hold firm, then core rules are the maximum target pool. Settings are a subset. I'm figuring on maximising the pool by aiming at the core rules (actually, aiming at the basic rules, but core expands on those). Anything I make should have the setting as an optional extra - if you want to extend the campaign, you should have the setting, but if you want just what's in the pack istelf, you don't need the setting. IN some ways, it's both a how-to and a teaser.

Re: Why I prefer HERO System over Pathfinder/OGL/D&D for fantasy

Re: Why I prefer HERO System over Pathfinder/OGL/D&D for fantasy I'd buy that. And I'd Kickstarter support it.

Re: Aiding Hero: FH adventure book freebie Will do. Cheers, Steve.

I'm currently running a once-a-month campaign with a couple of new-to-HERO players. It's occurred to me that it could make a decent introductory campaign. Given the number of posts about what we can do for Hero System/Games by bringing in new players, I think I'll go ahead and try to write it up as a sourcebook, probably under a creative commons attribution licence (got to talk to Jason about whether it would need anything more formal). It could be hosted on the Hero website, my website or anywhere else, so long as nobody charges for it. Here's my thoughts on how to proceed. 1) Should require only the Hero System Basic Rulebook to use. Elements may be built from the full 6e, but would need explaining. 2) Should have lots of advice for new GMs, especially on grading and approving characters as appropriate for the campaign (Tasha has posted an excellent article on these boards and her blog about this, which I'd use as a basis with her permission). Also should emphasise and advise on tactical flexibility in combat, and Hero uniqueness such as presence attacks. MUST, MUST, MUST encourage people to come to these boards and join the community. 3) High Fantasy setting. I think Hero's association with superhero gaming is strong enough that people playing superhero games have a reason they're NOT using Hero and won't really be convinced by a giveaway. Besides, I don't play superheroes, so I'm hardly qualified to write such a book. Fantasy, and high fantasy in particular, seems to be one of the (if not THE) favourite genre in gaming, so let's shamelessly go populist. 4) Integration with existing Hero products. My game's set in the Turakian Age, but in a blank area of the map. I can file off serial numbers but advise on TA integration (or any other suitable high fantasy gameworld - Greyhawk, anyone?). Advise on extending your Hero range beyond HSBasic: full rules, Fantasy Hero, Grimoire, Martial Arts, Bestiary, other genres, Hero Designer. 5) Pregen characters for those who don't want to create their own. Fantasy gaming archetypes (fighter, mage, cleric, rogue, with a few others to demonstrate Hero coolness - light fighter, archer, warrior-mage, holy warrior). Maybe a few package deals for those who want a modular approach to creating their own characters. Stock fantasy races: humans, elves, dwarves. Advice on creating custom characters from scratch. Beyond those requirements, I have some ideas about the kind of thing I'd like to create. This little campaign area started by me reminiscing about the first adventure I ever GMed: the Keep on the Borderlands. When I reread it, I took the basic idea of a frontier keep as a base and ran with it. I'm still in the process of developing the area, but... a) Sandbox style. The keep is at the heart of a wilderness area the characters can explore as they will. There are several adventure sites (caves, bandit camp, old ruined tower, standing stones - so far I've used the bandit camp and am rough-drafting the others today and tomorrow in time for the next session) and will, when they're written, be several pre-prepped 'wandering encounters' as well (these may not be actually wondering monsters, but things like a hunter's camp you could encounter anywhere). Well-developed base. PCs will be spending a fair bit of time in the keep and its associated town, so it should have some flavour and memorable NPCs with mission/adventure possibilities as well as being a place to resupply, rest up and heal. c) Rumours, job offers and adventure hooks. d) Equipment list: what's available for sale in which shops. (Yes, I am planning on having magic potions for sale, and the weaponsmith might be able to create fine weapons.) e) NPCs. Friends, allies, enemies, shopkeepers, rivals. Not all need stats. e) Adventure kernels - suggestions for creating your own adventures. Beyond the map (the bigger world - your own, Turakian Age or another high fantasy world.) If all of this sounds a little CRPG, it is. I enjoy games like Baldur's Gate, NWN and Skyrim, and I think it's easy for new players to engage with this kind of thing. Issues: Would need Jason's permission to use published Hero builds for combat encounters, spells, magic items, etc, or all of these would have to be built from scratch. Time. Always at a premium. It's a lot harder to write up this kind of thing for another group to use than it is to do it for your own group - you keep many notes in your head. I'm a fair writer, decent cartographer with CC3, I can make reasonable Poser art and I have layout skillz, Quark Xpress and a decent non-Adobe pro PDF maker. I think I can do a fair job of it. As a PDF, page count isn't really limited, but it it starts getting too big, elements can be hived off into freebie supplements. Of course, if other people care to help, life will be much easier (hey, and I get some prep assistance for my campaign), and I haven't worked a collaborative gaming project for several years. Characters, adventure site ideas, write-ups, advice for noobs... What about it folks? Does it sound like the kind of thing you'd be up for assisting with?

Re: Recommended Book for Fantasy GMs William Marshal's active tourneying days, the ones that began his legend, were probably in the 1170s, maybe late 1160s (I'm going from memory here, so am being a little vague). By the 1180s he'd made his name, become the Marshal and been rewarded with the hand of a widow in marriage. I'm just in the process of creating a border castle/town as a base for my FH campaign. I'm using the Marshal's castle of Striguil (Chepstow) as my inspiration.

Re: Why I prefer HERO System over Pathfinder/OGL/D&D for fantasy For me, there are a number of reasons. The primary ones are: 1) Creative flexibility. You can build what you want, the way you want. 2) Tactical interest. Hero combat has a lot of options for players. My players like combats. Cool stuff like presence attacks adds things they'd never even thought about before. 3) Learn one set of rules. Apply optional rules for specific genres. Disadvantages of Hero are: 1) Fairly steep learning curve. Until players really get to grips with it, you have to hold their hands through character creation. On the upside, there is usually a way to get them what they want out of a character. 2) The flexibility comes at a price: you have to create your own game elements (such as magic). You can use a published system (TA/Grimoire for high fantasy magic, Valdorian Age for demonic magic, etc), if they fit your vision, though. And creation isn't too hard once you grok powers and modifiers. 3) A little graininess (pixelation?) at Heroic scale. Not a major issue, really. There's so many different ways to build flavour. But I do currently have three PCs with SPD 4, despite advising that there are other ways to be cool in combat. I am currently running a high fantasy Hero game. I've used many, many game systems for fantasy over the years. Holmes D&D, Moldvay Basic D&D, AD&D, Runequest II & III, Chivalry & Sorcery 2, 3 & 4, MERP I and MERP II, Rolemaster Classic and RMSS/RMFRP, HarnMaster I and Gold, GURPS 3. HarnMaster definitely does gritty, moody fantasy better than Hero. It's what it was designed for, and it has a very distinctive feel in play. It has issues scaling up, though, and isn't ideally suited to the kind of dungeon-crawling my current group prefer. It's very much a sim game. If I want what it does best, I'll use it over Hero any day. GURPS was my go-to system for many genres before I found Hero. It has a constrained flexibility about it, by which I mean it's flexible up to a certain point. It's scaled a little better for realistic/heroic games, but it still has quite a liimited range of stats. A few days ago, I created a GURPS character for old times'sake, and I was surprised by how limiting I found it. A distinct bonus, however, is that when you have the right genre books, equipment and the like is built for you. I do like picking equipment from a list and having it laid out nice and separate from powers (thank you GURPS Character Builder). A big plus for my most rules-dedicated player is that he hasn't yet found a way to break Hero. We tried several systems before I let him loose on this one. MERP he broke straight away ("Can I try to shoot the crossbow from his hand? No? Oh."). EABA he found too complex and characters to be glass cannons in combat. D&D3.5 we still use for one-offs, but we were looking for something to replace that for a campaign. When Cameo Mo first tried Hero, I gave him Drudaryon (FH, 5ER version) as a character and set him up against half a dozen orcs. He immediately set about trying to break the system with unusual actions. "I want to charge them and bash into one of them." "No problem - that's a Move Through... and, yeah, solid hit with your shoulder, low and hard. He's down and winded." "I want to pick one up and throw him at the others." "No problem... give me a moment ... Yeah, you throw him into one of the others, they're both down in a tangled heap." "I roar 'Who's next?'" (Mo getting into it there). "OK, that's a presence attack. Violent, in combat... Roll 6d6." "What's a presence attack?" "You might scare them." "I was just, you know, roleplaying. There's a rule for this?" "Yup. Roll the bones. Ok, the one on the left, he hesitates for a moment. The two in front of you drop their swords and run. The other one sees that and flees as well. You have the field." "I didn't even use a weapon." "Yes, you did. You used your wits, bravado, your presence and ferocity, and your body." "I LOVE THIS GAME!" Without Mo bringing the other players on board, we'd probably still be using 3.5 for fantasy, because that's what they're familiar with. Last session we used hit locations for the first time. Mo, reluctant to add more complexity at first, agreed afterwards it really brought something cool to the game. Mo's often round my place. Every once in a while I knock up a couple of genre characters, and we have at it, arena style, on the battleboard. Keeps us fresh, lets us try new rules, new ideas. Hero works quite well as a boardgame as well as an RPG.

Re: Destroy Your Geek Cred!! I think this thread is more interesting for what people consider geeky (for example, I would not consider using Twitter/Facebook geeky - that's mainstream). And I'm hard-pressed to think of anything I do/don't do that would get me kicked out of the Geek Club; if anything I'd move further into Geek Elite - I gave up on Trek during TNG (TOS is still the best); I choose Howard, Leiber and Le Guin over tat like Robert Jordan, Tad Williams and David Eddings. My computer cost more than my car. I didn't give up on Tolkien books until after The Book of Lost Tales 2. I could, I suppose, trash my geek cred by playing to non-geek stereotypes of us: I'm a journalist, and have therefore built a career out of having excellent communication skills. What else? I've never watched past episode 3 of Babylon 5, though I have DVDs sitting there waiting for when I have the time. I don't watch the Stargate TV series (the film was good, though). I've never really got into manga or anime. I never really read American comic books, except at mates houses when bored (give me Judge Dredd and the Strontium Dog), though I've started to pick up some of the classics: Killing Joke, Dark Knight, Sin City, Watchmen.

Re: Free Stuff! Valdorian Age Maps on PDF Sweet. I'm running a Turakian Age game purely because I have the PDF on my phone and can refer to it whenever I have a moment or two spare. If the VA PDF was available, I'd definitely be running a VA game instead. I love the setting, and especialyl the magic system. Yes, I know there are issues with converting it into PDF. I know it may never happen. But it doesn't stop me wanting (and shall I mention Terran Empire as well?)

Re: Possible HERO System Supplement Kickstarters From Steve -- What Interests You? Mythic Hero I'd definitely be in for $25 for the PDF. If the rest of the kickstarters are similar to the Book of the Empress, I have an issue with putting more up front: $50 gets the physical book, but there's $50 postage as well! I like having both books and PDFs, but I'd be more likely to put up for the PDF in advance and order the physical book through the Hero store. $50 for postage is truly excessive. If the postage came down to a reasonable rate (say $10), I'd be far more likely to invest at the $50 level. Cyber Hero Again, I'm interested and would put up $25, hoping to get the physical book later. Dark Champions for 6E Less bothered with this. The 5e version seems pretty comprehensive. But I do like having the current edition, so I'd probably join the kickstarter at $25 if it happened. STORMlords Not hugely interested in this, but I'd probably join the kickstarter at $25 to help out. It may be one of those books I just stick with the PDF, though. Other stuff I'd back/buy without hesitation Ultimate Vehicle 6e version - I know this was on the old 2012 release schedule, and I'd still love to see it happen. I regard vehicles as core, so I'd want PDF and print versions, with HD files as well. HD files for the Grimoire (surely this can be done fairly easily - would it even need a kickstarter?)

Re: Jokes Must spread rep...

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares The Wabash Cannonball Run Smokey and the Time Bandits The Sixth Sense and Sensibility Who Will Love My Children of the Corn Scott Pilgriim vs the World of Darkness The Wichita Lion-Man Driving Miss Daisy Duke

Re: Jokes Fixed that for you. Repped, of course. Can't rep Pariah again yet... but at least we made the play-offs, even if only by the skin of our teeth. Thank you, Raiders; we couldn't have done it without you. .

Re: Jokes As Titian was mixing rose madder His model was perched on a ladder Her position, to Titian, Suggested coition So he climbed up the ladder and 'ad 'er. OK, a limerick rather than joke, but I think it's funny.

Re: Bushido Hero A couple of awesome systemless sourcebooks for any historical or quasi-historical RPG are Tadashi Ehara's (yes, he of Different Worlds fame) Japan game guides: http://www.diffworlds.com/samurai.htm Also, there's some maps of Hida province (a heavily fictionalised version of which was used as the setting for Bushido's Valley of the Mists adventure, IIRC) and central Honshu on my blog. This post links to all my resources. I never did get the Chrysanthemum War game off the ground - Ramadan proved far too busy for anything that wasn't work - but I'll get round to it some day. I'd second the recommendation for Markdoc's Hero/Sengoku resources. He sent me a link while I was soliciting ideas for the Chrysanthemum War, and they are superb.

Re: After-action report: Turakian Age/Borderlands