keithcurtis

Re: Grey Goo Just as a nitpicky aside that anyone is free to ignore. "Nanite" is treknobabble. "Nanomachines or nanorobots are the prefered terms. "Nanite" just makes my skin crawl like listening to someone try to solve a physics problem by invoking "subspace". Of course, I know what people mean when the say "Nanite", it's just a personal thing. Keith "Please return to your cool writeup" Curtis

Re: Valdorian Age world map (dear Mr Curtis...) Get me a go ahead from Darren or Steve then. Keith "too durn lazy" Curtis

Re: Valdorian Age world map (dear Mr Curtis...) Thanks for thinking of me guys, but seriously, I am swamped with stuff to do, and probably shouldn't even be taking time to cruise the Hero Boards. With Hero Games' permission, I can post a grayscale copy of the map in fairly high resolution, but I honestly don't have time to colorize it (it was painted in grayscale). Keith "boxes, boxes, everywhere" Curtis

Re: Futurama Hero That's a pretty hefty perk in the Futurama Universe! Keith "Sweet Georgia" Curtis

Re: What setting does your campaign use? I use Hero specifically because I enjoy homebrewing. Too many other systems are so intimately tied to their settings that it's nigh impossible to do something different. For generic systems, I have run both Hero and GURPS, but settled on Hero because even GURPS cannot shake an adherence to an official mechanic. With Hero I can envision the world first, and then adapt the rules to fit my vision. Very few compromises. In point of fact, almost any time I have contemplated an off-the-shelf world, I have failed to summon up the level of interest necessary to hold me till the end of the book. I can't even find the passion for adapting an existing property (Serenity, Farscape, etc.) My enjoyment as GM comes from creating. Keith "YMMV" Curtis

Re: Myths about the Middle Ages

Re: Recommend a fantasy world map? See if there's anything interesting here: http://www.KACurtis.com/Map_Samples/ As long as they're for private use, I can't see how anyone would complain. Keith "I have contacts for any of the actual owners of the maps" Curtis

Re: Questions for the Canadian HEROBoard members In all fairness, I did say, "PS. In all seriousness, this is an interesting thread, since Susan and I while shortly live a short ferry ride away from our northern neighbors." I have corrected my execrable grammar. Keith "will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will will" Curtis 100 times

Re: DragonLance Setting Conversion

Re: Vancouver Island City

Re: Questions for the Canadian HEROBoard members I use this one. http://savageearth.net/Merikia.jpg Keith "hee-hee-hee" Curtis PS. In all seriousness, this is an interesting thread, since Susan and I will shortly live a short ferry ride away from our northern neighbors.

Re: Magic and Mechanics, to you Well, since the genre being discussed is Fantasy Hero, and not Champions, I have to disagree a bit. While superhero comics do tend to use a chaotic hodge-podge of origins, systems, rules and styles, most fantasy novels do tend to have unified systems, or at least a commonality, even if the rules are never overtly stated. As a point of curiosity, why does a unified system put you off? To me, it's a definite plus. Also, by allowing your players to define the system organically, it removes the control over theme and scope from the GM. In the example I gave above, the Savage Earth could not exist as a setting without a GM-imposed "top-down" approach. If I had allowed the players to impose the system, the whole society couldn't function in a believable sense. I realize this probably comes down to YMMV, but it's funny. Your approach is totally foreign to me. Keith "unless we're talking about Champions" Curtis

Re: Vancouver Island City Alberton? To go with Victoria? Keith "Alberta was taken" Curtis

Re: No damage from falling

Re: No damage from falling

Re: History of the HERO System Thanks for the concise history, Derek! Keith "Gave away his 2nd edition" Curtis

Re: No damage from falling I think the assumption is that a purchased power automatically grants the ability to ignore it's direct effects. Buying supersonic flight shouldn't require you to buy life support-no need to breathe. Punching someone using 60 STR shouldn't break your fist because you haven't bought 30 PD. Keith "QED" Curtis

Re: No damage from falling The problem with the gliding power as written is that it requires the character to be conscious. The flight power had the necessary advantages to ensure never falling. None of this address the problem I have always had with Hero falling chart. I've posted it many times before, but no one seems to care. The chart states that you fall 5 inches (10 meters) in your first segment (second). Someone obviously saw 10m/s/s and said, ah-ha! you fall ten meters in your first second. No. You have a velocity of 10m/s. But you started with a velocity of 0 m/s. You accelerated evenly throughout the second and only fell the average of your velocity: 5 meters or 2.5 game inches. This error is propagated throughout the chart. The velocities are correct, but the distance fallen is incorrect and it has been in every edition. Every time I have brought this up, the reaction has been, "meh. It works for me." Keith "lone voice howling in the wilderness" Curtis

Re: Artificial Gravity Calculator AC Clarke used 6 RPM for 2001, with a diameter of 35 feet. This generally held to be unrealistic, for the reasons stated above. The set for the movie was built slightly larger apparently, 38 feet in diameter. It weighed nearly 40 tons, and rotated on its axis at a variable speed of up to 3 mph. (1.34 m/s) Plugging that into the spreadsheet shows that if the movie set were to be used as an actual rotational spin gravity compartment, it would provide about 1/64g, too low for comfort. Keith "but it would look cool." Curtis

Re: The King who Doesn't Know It Knurdness is the opposite of being drunk; not sober, but as far from sober as drunkenness, except in the opposite direction. It strips away all the illusion, all the comforting pink fog in which people normally spend their lives, and lets them see and think clearly for the first time ever. This, needless to say, is a very traumatic experience and sometimes leads to important discoveries. Those seeking to treat drunkenness by having the sufferer drink Klatchian coffee should take care, lest they send him too far the other way - through sobriety and out the other side. Also, Samuel Vimes, one of the Discworld's most notable characters, is sometimes referred to as being constantly knurd and two drinks short of actual sobriety, which at least partially accounts for his depressive nature and tendency towards alcoholism—he started out looking for a cure to knurdness. Keith "From Wikipedia, not memory" Curtis

Re: Artificial Gravity Calculator Cool. I wish I had had this when I did the Solar Colonies. It would have saved me building my own. All my ships and stations used spin gravity or gravity from acceleration. Keith "gravity being a loosely-used term" Curtis

Re: Talent List and Descriptions? Perhaps an index of the talents, since you have most of the books. HD usually has page references, but probably doesn't have every published talent. Keith "or does it?" Curtis

Re: Magic and Mechanics, to you From the Designer Notes for Savage Earth: To see the details of the system, go here. Keith "writes too much" Curtis

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities

Re: Martian Manhunter Question and other oddities For a long time during the early Silver Age, "super" was a term to refer to the entire suite of superman's powers. If Lois became "super", she could fly, use heat visions, etc. Superchief had Superman's powers, so did Vartoxx, and a host of others. If they got the power of super stretching (like Elastic Lad), they would be described has having a super power. But if someone was just plain "super" that was shorthand for "has powers identical to Superman's". Martian Manhunter was likely powered up during this period. "He's from outer space? Gosh! He's super!" Here's a good article on J'onn's history. Keith "gosh!" Curtis