Nolgroth

Re: Tesunden Isles [ATTACH=CONFIG]36958[/ATTACH] Overview: The Tesunden Isles are part of a larger Tesunden Archipelago. The largest island in the chain is called Tesunde and is home to Port Haven, a large port city that sees a vast amount of sea trade pass through. This map scale is 40 miles on a side. A Tour of the Islands: Port Haven Port Haven is a large city of around 25k souls that sees a large number of ships pass through its harbor each and every day. Trade is brisk and an entire economy has grown around the entertainment of guests passing through. Most of this trade is strictly regulated by the Merchants' Guild. Another guild has taken root within the city. The Thieves Guild, though small, is one of the most successful operations within 100 miles of Port Haven. Port Haven itself is famous for the dwarven stonework that went into fashioning it. Most of the buildings are at least three stories above ground and many reach as high as five stories. Many also have basement and sub-basement levels as well. Port Hume Located at the very end of the Finger Channel, Port Hume does not see near the traffic of Port Haven. Its location on the western shore combined with treacherous sandbars have made Port Hume a home to black market traders and less than scrupulous merchants. Port Hume does share dwarven engineering with its larger sister city. Stormwatch The third and last of the dwarven built cities, Stormwatch serves as both a testament of will and the seat of the Blodwache Navy in the Tesunden Archipelago. It is actually a larger city than Port Hume, but is less populated due to the lack of usable farm land along the storm wracked western shore. Nook The only lumbering town on the whole island of Tesunde would be unremarkable save for its distinction of being the retirement home of Mabonne Maboni, a wizard of some repute in the south. Master Maboni was credited as telling his colleagues that he was going to find some inconspicious nook to settle down in. Hence the town got its name. Since that time, Nook occasionally gets inundated with would-be apprentices. Maboni is very particular about who he trains, so most have left disappointed. Dulacere Named after a family from the south Dulacere is a fishing village. Unlike most other fishermen on the island, they fish for the freshwater variety in the Twin Lakes. Boarshead Named for the prominent trophy in the Boarspear Tavern, Boarshead is sort of a central farmers' market for all of the Upper Farmlands (the Lower Farmlands take their goods to Port Haven primarily). Gloomwood A misnomer if there ever was. Aside from a few spots, the Gloomwood is actually a peaceful place where song birds call out and the ferocious storms coming from the west are reduced to soothing breezes and gentle rains. Gloomwood is the home of the elves on Tesunde. Forever the wardens of the woods, the elves have maintained a steady peace with the dwarves for centuries. The coming of the humans about a century past caused them some concern, but the three cultures have somehow blended together in a united front. All of them call the small island home and they all seem to see the benefits of cooperation. Boar Wood The Boar Wood is almost unanimously considered haunted. Even the elves won't walk under its eaves and the dwarves avoid the mountain in the center of the wood. Wild boar wander the forest paths and western shores to the south of the wood. The Fragments Mostly unpopulated save by transient bands of pirates, smugglers and whalers. Behind the ScenesThis is considered what AK: Tesunden Isles 8- gets your character. Since this is an Everyman skill for the campaign, everybody has this knowledge.

Re: Tesunden Isles Reserved for additional content- Character writeups

Re: Tesunden Isles Reserved for additional content - Hero Designer Campaign Rules File

Campaign Guidelines Recruiting Status: Closed Start Date: Thursday August 26, 2010 Game Time: 5 PM - 9 PM Pacific Time. Hours will adjust for Daylight Savings Time transitions. Base Points: 300 Complications: 25 Characteristics: 10-20* Speed: 3-4** Combat Value: 10 Damage Class: 12 Active Points: 60 Skill Points: 30-80*** Skill Roll: 8-14**** Defenses/ Resistant Defenses: 12-24***** /6-12 (*)Normal Characteristic Maxima in use as listed on Page 20 of Hero System Basic Rulebook. Characteristic Maxima is adjusted by Racial Template bonuses. Racial Template characteristic bonuses must be listed separately on the character sheet and added to the final stats. All Racial Templates must be approved by the Game Master. (**)Speed cannot exceed 4 even with Racial Templates. Due to the constraints of online gaming, high speed his often cumbersome to try to implement. (***)This is a suggested range only. Character concept is the ultimate guide as to how many skill points are spent. (****)These are the average Skill Roll ranges. Each character may designate two (2) skills that he is an Expert at. Those skills can be bought up to 15-. In addition, each character may designate one (1) skill that he is a Master at. Master skills can be bought to 16-. (*****)Total with Resistant Defense added. Equipment Starting Money: 500 Silver Pieces Equipment is generally purchased with coin. Specialized equipment and magical items are also allowed but must be purchased with points. Magical item treasure does not cost points but is not considered an essential part of the character and may be lost, stolen or otherwise removed due to the evolution of play. Magical items that the character pays points for will (almost) always be considered an essential part of the character and may be replaced if story evolution would otherwise indicate that the item is lost. Sometimes, replacing a lost magical item requires a certain amount of "in-story" expense and trouble. It will usually be quite easy to replace an item, but common dramatic sense indicates that a lost sword will need to be replaced by a newly forged magical sword. Example: Dwinden Steelhammer has purchased a mighty Hammer of Thunder with his starting character points. No matter what, the GM will make sure that Dwinden can replace the Hammer if it is lost or stolen. During the campaign, Dwinden picks up a magical shield. It does not cost any points for him to use the shield. Sometime later, the shield is knocked over the edge of a cliff and into the Bottomless Trench of Terror. Dwinden has lost the shield forever. Missing his magical shield, Dwinden starts to save Experience. When he gets enough saved, his player asks the GM if he can forge a new shield to replace the old one. After the requisite materials are found and the shield is constructed, Dwinden now has a shiny new magical shield that will always be considered his. If it is lost, stolen or destroyed, Dwinden can make a replacement. If a character is replacing an essential item and has the Experience Points, he may add to the item's abilities providing that the additions are approved by the GM. Generally, if the additions do not violate the campaign guidelines then they will likely be improved. Powers Powers can generally be bought within the Campaign Guidelines. Typical special effects are Divine Spells, Arcane Spells, Poisons and Potions, Mystical Abilities, Martial Abilities, Enchanted Items, or similar. The Special Effect of each power should be clearly marked on the character sheet. As always, the GM has final say on if a power will work or not. Some additional guidelines: Resistant Protection should be bought with the Resistant Protection power, not by buying normal defenses and applying the Resistant advantage to them. Powers are all bought individually, meaning they cannot be included into a general Power Framework. For example, a Wizard would buy all of his Spells as individual powers. He may not buy them as a Variable Power Pool or Multipower. Some Power constructs can be bought as Power Frameworks, but each Framework must be for a specific thing. For example, a Magic Shield would be bought as a Multipower with a slot for additional DCV and a slot for Hand to Hand Attack. There are no cost breaks for Powers. Magic Specific Rules Some guidelines for creating spells; Long-distance Teleportation and Extra-Dimensional Movement must be done through Gates. Also, the Gate must open onto a Fixed/Floating Fixed location. All Gates must take the Extra Time: 1 Turn (or longer) Limitation. In the case of EDM, the Fixed location is determined by the GM. Only in rare cases (and not for starting characters) would an EDM allow instant access to a major planar NPC. See 6E1 page 301 for details on how Gates work. Short-range Teleportation works as described in 6E1 except where it directly conflicts with the rule above. Short-range is defined as anything within the character's visual range up to a range mod of -8. Vision with the Telescopic Adder (natural, mechanical or magical) can extend the visual range of the character but not the amount of Teleportation. FTL Travel is not allowed for obvious reasons. Megascale is only allowed for Long Distance Teleporation. No other movement mode is allowed to have Megascale. Precognition and Postcognition, if allowed, must take the Vague and Unclear Limitation. All spells must take the Spell (-½) and Unified Power (-¼) Limitations. In addition, each spell must take up to (-1) worth of Limitation from the following list: Concentrate -½ DCV, Extra-Time, Gestures, Incantations, Increased END Cost, and Requires a Roll Priest spells must take the Limitation Divine Gift. The value of the Limitation is anywhere between -¼ and -1 depending upon how strict the deity in question is. If the character violates the specific ethos of the deity in question, the spell is denied. Priest spells typically eschew END costs for Charges per day. This is NOT a requirement. Other Campaign Settings The following additional settings will be used; Knockdown is standard. Does Knockback and Double Knockback may be purchased to upgrade. End Cost for Strength is 1 for every 10 Strength used. Hit Locations will be used. Powers that cannot be targeted will use the 1d3 Stun Multiple. The Immunity option for Life Support has been revised as follows. For each increment of damage caused by a Disease or Poison based attack, the character rolls a CON check. For each point that the CON Check succeeds by, the damage caused is reduced by 1. This accounts for both RKA and Drain damage. Poisons and Disease are bought as AVAD [appropriate Immunity] instead of NND. If the character's CON score is reduced (Drained) by the Poison/Disease, they get the first CON check at full value. Subsequent CON checks are modified by the effects of the Poison/Disease. Literacy is free only for the character's Native Language. Additional languages must have Literacy purchased separately.

In the Bestiary and Fantasy HERO, some of the poisons are written up as NND RKAs with Damage Over Time, NND (appropriate immunity), and Defense Only Applies Once. Does this mean that the Immunity only protects versus the first Increment or is this just an unnecessary addition to the write-up? Thank you for any assistance.

Re: House Rules For my campaigns, I designate a normal Skill Maximum. Usually that is either 13- or 14-. I then allow each player to designate two Expert skills and one Master skill for his character. Once designated, the Expert skills can be purchased at 1 point higher than the normal Skill Maximum. The Master skill can be purchased at 2 points higher than the normal Skill Maximum.

Re: FRED Question Depends on the special effect. If the Flash is some sort of bright light, then I would say that the Darkness "wins" (though it hardly matters since the person is inside of a Darkness field anyway). If the special effect is chemical (Pepper Spray) or some sort of physical attack (Poke in the Eye), then sure. Again, it hardly matters if the Darkness field is in effect. Same net result. If the Flash were AoE, I would say that it fires, but would only have an affect if it were larger than the the Darkness field and then only on those between the edge of the Darkness and the edge of the Flash AoE.

Re: How To Build: +1 or more OCV on a real weapon In the Powers list is one called Compound Power. Click on that and then Edit it. You will see the option to Add other powers. [ATTACH=CONFIG]36942[/ATTACH]

Re: "Neat" Pictures Me too. And I typed it.

Re: "Neat" Pictures [ATTACH=CONFIG]36932[/ATTACH] Battlecruiser Operational!

Re: "Space" music recommendation! Soundtrack for Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 are both pretty good for sci fi stuff. I don't have it yet, but the soundtrack for Starcraft 2 sounds pretty awesome in game. I really want the Protoss music from the second or third "crystal" mission.

Re: Hero System Books Have Way too many Typos Sorry to say that the Fuzion LARP was recently overtaken by people too mopey for even the V:tM LARPers to tolerate. Enjoy your time in Hell.

Re: ...Ok, now I'm confused. Where's Constant? Wouldn't that be under Duration Advantages?

Re: Ideas for a Star Hero solo campaign You could go the Mass Effect route with the PC being in charge of a small ship of unique commando "hero" NPCs and a support staff. Depending on the era you wish to run your game in, you could work for the Empire, a rebel faction, corporation, or even an alien government. Figure out if there is going to be a metaplot to tie the whole campaign together and how prominent that metaplot is. To continue with the Mass Effect analogy, the metaplot can be a constant, in-your-face kind of thing. It could also be like Burn Notice where the metaplot is certainly present from episode to episode but does not necessarily take front stage. Starship combat can take a looonnnng time as you whittle shields down and whatnot. ghost-angel made up a Starship combat tracker for that purpose. I thought I had it handy, but I will have to go look through old archive DVDs. Maybe g-a will have it readily available and can point you to it. Decide early on things like psi powers (whether or not they exist and at what level). By default, they do exist in Terran Empire. Also take a look at how to do technological based powers like cybernetic implants/replacements. Having a good grasp of what you want to allow with those is a good idea. If you need ideas for a ship deckplan, I would suggest the Future Armada series. Each installment is around $5 and some of them come with up to 3 different ships. There are also two space stations that you can use. If you don't have the cash to spare, try the Cartographers' Guild (http://www.cartographersguild.com) to see if they have any ship maps in the forum there. For the recent space opera campaign I ran, my opening adventure was to have the space station the characters were staying on get rammed by a spacecraft coming out of hyperspace. There was little in the way of combat, but there was still the challenge of getting to the escape mechanism (lifepods or whatever). Turn up the dramatic descriptions of systems failing and all of that as the character makes his way through the station. I also threw in a shadow ops team that was looking for something that my PCs found first. They didn't even know what it was at first. Some sort of Top Secret Plans to Something as I recall. The characters had to engage them at least to a degree. It was sort of a merry, slow-motion chase through sections of the station that were habitable, some that had lost life support and some that had actually been breached and exposed to hard vacuum. In the end, the characters made a fighting retreat to the CnC of the station and made off with the Captain's yacht. The shadow ops team withdrew to their own ship and escaped. The characters were then basically hired on as expendable asset operatives to track down the few clues that they had. From there, madness ensued. The campaign ran on and off for about three years with a whole slew of interesting events. It grew way beyond what I had pictured for it and we had a great deal of fun. Hopefully something I typed will spark an idea. Good luck.

Re: how much BODY damage is typically accrued? Also consider Stun in this process. If you are using a Flat Rate Stun Multiplier of 1d3, the character may take a little more Stun on some attacks and be Stunned. If you use Hit Locations, then the Stun Multiplier is built in. Some shots may also hit unprotected areas and do pretty significant Body and Stun. For example if he is not wearing a helmet and takes a Head shot, he could take up to 14 Body and (35-7 PD = ) 28 Stun from one blow. Probably will end up taking much less (say 8 Body and 13 Stun on average but I like to illustrate the extremes). So depending on how you want to run it, there are many variations. I find having a Max DC = Max Resistant Defense is a pretty good mix. Sometimes the character will take a fair bit of damage and other times he may take none at all. One other thing I noted is that even slightly tweaking these two settings can have a tremendous impact on how much damage is delivered. My suggestion is to build a couple of characters within a set of guidelines. Say Max DC = 9 and Max rPD/rED = 10. Set the max CV at 8 for both offensive and defensive. Now run it straight (no worries about STR or Hit Locations). Once you get a feel for that, increase the Max DC to 10 and see how much different it is with all the other settings the same. Tinker with those numbers for a little bit to find that "just right" balance. Just remember that Killing Attacks have some sort of Stun Multiplier. Without Hit Locations, the standard is 1d3 x Body Damage. The Hit Location table shows the amount of StunX for each location.

Re: Companions of an Uncertain Fate I did not mean to stop playing. I just meant this specific campaign. Losing two players and all the gaps, combined with my focus elsewhere and I think this campaign is suffering. I am thinking something a little more D&D-ish in style. See my blog for a couple of example characters.

Re: Fantasy Hero 6E - initial impressions Honestly, I would say not. As much as I want to be a company shill, unless you really want the 6E template (package) updates, new magic systems, want to be a completist, or just want something a little more colorful, I have to say no. Most of the text content is lifted directly from the 5E version. For the newly arrived HERO player it is a fantastic resource. For the veteran with the 5E version, I just don't see the point. In fact, as I was working on a project the last few days I pulled down the 5E version to have a hard copy version in addition to the PDF 6E version. I was looking up multiple references and the conversion was minimal.

Re: Fantasy Hero 6E - initial impressions It is an excellent resource for any fantasy-based game. Don't let my earlier comments about the relative "new-ness" detract from the book. The 5th edition version was one of my top 5 books. The 6th edition version is virtually a reprint with some updates and extra stuff in it. And yes, there is a PDF available.

Re: Traveling in your typical modern day sewer: what rolls for illness? I don't know as I would roll unless there was an explicit Complication that addressed the issue. On the other hand, if a player was going to be absent for a session soon after the sewer adventure, then I have grounds to say that the player contracted some sort of fever. Point back to the sewer as a probable cause. Used the same gimmick for other scenarios too (really bad sea-sickness etc).

Re: Fantasy Hero 6E - initial impressions There is a lot of reprinted material from the 5th edition version. A lot. I would say most of it. Some new magic system samples and a few other bits. Most of the other stuff is just updates to 6E standards. For example, weapon DEF is now rPD/rED. That sort of thing. It is much better organized, but if you have the 5th edition version, I doubt you will find a whole lot that is new. For those that do not have that resource, it is an awesome product and near necessary purchase. There are not a lot of spells. Most of them are example spells for the sample magic systems. It seems that, where possible, the same spell was written up for each magic system to demonstrate how it would look translated over. Sorry but the Grimoire is your best bet for spells.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Started watching Covert Affair and Haven. The first is run of the mill prime time television saved only by the fact that lead actress is both hot and cute (in way she portrays herself). I would daresay that the CIA portrayed in this show has about as much in common with the real agency as chicken feed. Haven really wants to be X-Files. Still, I rather enjoy watching it. Well except for the food spoilage episode. Also went to the movies yesterday and saw The Expendables. That was an action movie that started out with action, had the action kick in at about 5 minutes after that and was liberally seasoned with more action. I rather enjoyed it.

Re: Companions of an Uncertain Fate Hey no problem. JD and Hardesty were locked in a box and shipped off to Timbuktu. They should be arriving in about a week. There, the voracious, cannibal natives are awaiting on arrival of the package before starting their dinner festival. On a serious note, no problem. I have been thinking of putting this campaign out of its misery and moving on. All of my energy is elsewhere and honestly I think we would have a better game by just moving on. Let me know what you, all of you, think.

Re: 6E books question... bit confused on what to buy... I tend to answer questions. Even though the answer is there somewhere, I know I don't like searching all over the place for the answers. It doesn't hurt me to answer a question.

Re: Companions of an Uncertain Fate Thanks.

Re: Why would I want an Accurate AoE? Accurate was introduced so that Magic Missile effects could be generated. Instead of hitting the Hex, you are hitting somebody in the hex for the same DCV as hitting a Hex. Magic Missile: Killing Attack - Ranged 1/2d6, Line Of Sight (+1/2), Area Of Effect Accurate (1m Radius; +1/2), Attack Versus Alternate Defense (Power Defense; +1/2), Does BODY (+1), Autofire (3 shots; +1 1/4) (47 Active Points); Cannot Use Targeting (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) Real Cost: 23 As an aside, rather amusing that in D&D, Magic Missile is a tiny little 1st Level spell. In HERO it is a pretty fearsome build. Even at the 1/2d6 level, that spell there would tear through a person in just a couple of applications. And since it has AoE: Accurate that person is at DCV 3 so hitting them is going to be child's play. The target can still Dive for Cover, but that is about it. EDIT: Forgot to add Does Body Advantage build.