devlin1

Re: BSG Hero Update

Fracking awesome. I've been thinking about running a BSG one-shot in April, but have been undecided on the system. Naturally, I want HERO, but not everyone else feels the same way. Now I have a little more leverage. Thanks!

Re: The Invisible World

Well, if you want a 'scientific' solution, it all depends on the Pineal Gland.

 

What? No one else saw "From Beyond"?

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091083/

 

Basically, in this film (I haven't read the original story)

This is only slightly off-topic*, but the Lovecraft story is significantly different from the book. First off, it doesn't have the film's weird overtones of BDSM and sex. Disappointing, I know, but I'm not sure I'd want to read a graphic Lovecraftian description of sex. Second off, it's a much "smaller" story, involving only the protagonist, the crazy guy, and a household servant or two instead of a whole cadre of sacrificial extras.

In any event, the story's classic Lovecraft, so if you're into that kinda thing (and I am), it's worth reading.

We now return you to your dead horse(s).

Re: My Cool Color Hudson City Map

Not necessarily -- there are technical and logistical considerations involved in using Cafe Press. It's one of the things we're looking into.

Have you considered putting it on a mug? Or on greeting cards?

I kid, I kid. I'm out of ideas, so jokes are all I have left.

Re: My Cool Color Hudson City Map

See? I knew there was a reason. Well, keep reachin' for that rainbow, full-color-Hudson-City-map-wanters, and keep hope alive.

Re: The Invisible World

This discussion (the actual discussion-- not the "HERO is not just Champions!" discussion) reminds me of Neverwhere, in which much was made about the idea that most people in London Above simply don't notice anyone from London Below. In that scenario, I'd say nothing has to be done with the PCs or anyone else who's aware. It's the common ignorant rabble who have the Psych Lim. After all, it's not a limitation to know more than the average citizen, but it is a limitation to be ignorant of some aspect of the world around you. In Neverwhere terms, this lack of awareness would've been bought at the Strong level, IMO. If forced, someone from London Above (the protagonist's fiancee or coworker, for example) could acknowledge a visitor from London Below, but only briefly, and even then there was a total lack of recognition, as if Richard had never existed.

The tidy part about this solution is that for the PCs, it's mechanically invisible! So there: you need mechanics for it, you got mechanics for it, but in the meantime, only the GM will ever have to worry about it.

Re: My Cool Color Hudson City Map

This seems so obvious to me that I'm sure there's a good reason why it hasn't been suggested yet, but....

You already have some products available through CafePress, and they do posters. Couldn't you just do it through there? Charge $20 a poster and you're making a marginal profit for almost no extra effort on your part.

Re: Yin-Yang Dice (or The Continuation of That Alternate Dice Pool Mechanic Thing)

Gahhh! Duplicate threads! Please see my comment on the other.

Ditto!

Re: Variation on Game Mechanics: Dice Pool

I think this is an awesome idea. I would suggest two minor modifications:

 

1.) Instead of giving a character with Luck his/her own individual pool, have Luck Buckets. Every character contributes one die to the Luck 0 bucket, every character with a Luck of 1 or higher contributes a die to the Luck 1 bucket, every character with a Luck of 2 or higher contributes a die to the Luck 2 bucket, etc. A character can only use dice from buckets numbered less than or equal to their Luck rating (so a Luck 2 character can use buckets 0, 1 and 2, but not bucket 3). At any time a character accesses the buckets, (s)he may also swap two dice between any of the buckets to which (s)he has access (e.g. I swap a rolled 2 for a bucket-die of 4; my Luck is 3 so I may now swap a die in bucket 3 with a die in bucket 0 so my less lucky teammate can use it later).

This is a logical and interesting alternative, although from what I saw of the Yin-Yang Dice in practice, it would've overly complicated things with my players. Granted, almost all of them were HERO neophytes, and my somewhat simpler version slowed things down a bit. I'm sure a more experienced group wouldn't have a problem with this variation.

2.) Instead of completely removing a die (which penalizes the entire team) from the pool if it is used for various purposes (e.g. adding dice to damage)' date=' simply reduce that character's Luck by one for a like duration (don't change the buckets; this would only affect which buckets the character can access, etc.). This may result in a negative Luck, which should reduce the frequency at which the character can access the buckets (maybe a character with -x Luck can only use the buckets every x+1 Turn/Phases, for example; a character with -1 Luck could only access the Luck 0 bucket every 2 Turn/Phases instead of every Turn/Phase). Refresh the character's Luck at the same rate you would have returned dice to the pool.[/quote']

Actually, penalizing the entire team by removing dice is exactly what I had in mind. Yes, you can take a die out and survive that attack-- but it means fewer resources for everyone if you do so. That's one of the advantages of having Luck: you have your own pool of dice that no one else can take. Theoretically, by having enough life-threatening situations and by giving out enough Yang Points (qv), things would balance out nicely. Unfortunately, in my one-shot I was too preoccupied with other things to include either.

 

For a bit on how this ended up working out in the game, see my other post.

 

And thanks for the feedback!

Re: Yin-Yang Dice (or The Continuation of That Alternate Dice Pool Mechanic Thing)

Must he obtain a more favourable result? This reduces manipulation. If you want a more manipulable pool' date=' you might want to allow them to obtain a worse result, if desired (ie "I'll hit the mook with the 4 I rolled, or with a 9 - I'll swap this 1 into the Yang Pool for that 6, since the Yang dice are trending very high").[/quote']

Sorry-- no, it doesn't have to be a more favorable die. It was a combination of an assumption and a turn of phrase. There were a couple times when a player did just what you suggested for that very reason. Slipped my mind.

 

A thought for options which permanently remove dice. These would be even less desirable if they were not removed, but added to the other pool (ie you use a Yang die to enhance damage inflicted, which removes a die from the Yang pool and adds one to the Yin pool).

This I like. Good call.

This is an update/report regarding a wacky little dice mechanic I mentioned in another thread. I tried it out for the first time last night, and it went pretty well. Since it was for a Wuxia HERO game, and because one of my players insisted I come up with a name appropriate to the genre, I've taken to calling

it Yin-Yang Dice.

A lot of Herophiles had great suggestions in that other thread. Here's what I ended up with.

YANG DICE

The Yang Dice are a pool of dice which can be used by the entire party in a few different ways. The initial number of Yang Dice is equal to the number of PCs in the party. For every 5 points of Luck a PC has, he gains a die in his Personal Yang Dice (PCs without Luck don't have Personal Yang Dice); Personal Yang Dice can only be used by the PC to which they belong.

The ways in which the Yang Dice can be used are as follows:

1. Once per Turn, anytime a player rolls dice for anything (attack rolls, damage rolls, skill rolls, etc.), he may exchange one of the dice he's rolled with one of the Yang Dice to obtain a more favorable result. E.g., if his attack roll of 6, 6, and 2 would miss, and the Yang Dice are 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6, he may swap one of his 6s for the 1, giving him a final attack roll of 6, 2, and 1, or 9, which hits (hopefully, anyway). The reverse could be done for damage by another player that Turn (i.e., trade a low damage die for a high Yang Die). Note that this can only take place once per Turn for each PC, which means a player is unable to get rid of a high attack die and then trade it for a high damage die.

2. Once per Turn, anytime a PC would take damage, his player can take one of the Yang Dice, roll it, and subtract that amount from the damage the PC would've taken. The type of damage, either BODY or STUN, is chosen by the player. However, once a Yang Die is used for this purpose, it is permanently

removed from the Yang Dice.

3. Once per Turn, anytime a PC would deal damage, his player can take one (or more) of the Yang Dice, roll it, and add that amount to the damage dealt. The type of damage is determined by the type of attack: STUN for Normal Attacks, BODY for Killing Attacks. However, once a Yang Die is used for this purpose, it is permanently removed from the Yang Dice.

4. A PC with Luck may use either his Personal Yang Dice or the party's Yang Dice at will, but if a die is used in a manner which removes it from the game, as in the two items above, he must use his Personal Yang Dice first. This replaces the standard version of Luck.

5. When a PC takes an action which the GM deems heroic, in character, or simply amusing to the group as a whole (or even attempts to, in some circumstances), the GM may award that PC a Yang Point. This happens on the spot, unlike Experience Points. For every five Yang Points a PC has accumulated, he may buy a Yang Die to be added either to his Personal Yang Dice or the party's Yang Dice. He may buy this Yang Die at any time, and it is immediately added to the appropriate pool. For example, if the 8 BODY damage a PC is about to take will kill him, and he has five Yang Points, he can buy a Personal Yang Die, roll it, subtract that amount from the damage he'd take, and remove the die from the game, all before any damage is taken.

6. If a PC commits actions which are out of character, the GM has the option of penalizing the player by taking away some or all of any previously awarded Yang Points or Yang Dice, by adding a Yin Die (see below), or by permanently raising the cost of a Yang Die for that player. If the entire party behaves this way, he may do the same to the party's Yang Dice. If the players continue to behave out of character or contrary to the genre, stop the game altogether. Something's wrong.

YIN DICE

The PCs aren't the only ones with fate on their side. Important NPCs receive the same benefits in the same manner: one Yin Die per important NPC, and one die per level of Luck. Rank-and-file mooks don't get to use the Yin Dice-- only the NPCs you expect/want to stick around. Yin Dice can be used as in Options 1-4, above.

HOW IT WENT

The short version: Very well. It wasn't terribly unbalancing and the players had fun with it.

The longer version: First of all, only one of my five players was experienced with the HERO System, so when it comes to testing just how abusive the Yin/Yang Dice can, this wasn't the ideal group. However, they're all experienced gamers able to min/max with the best of them, so I think that makes up for their ignorance of the rules.

Second, I used the Hit Location Table for Killing Attacks to determine the STUN Multiplier (normally I'd use a straight x3, but I wanted the extra flavor-- things were cut off from time to time), but because I was the one making the rolls, the Yang Dice couldn't be used to modify Hit Location. Not that it

mattered much: there were several Chest and Stomach hits, a few Vitals, two severed arms (both left), and a successful Called Shot to the neck.

On more than one occasion, a player would swap for Yang Dice early in the turn and visibly chafe for the chance to do it again for damage. To me, this meant that its availability was perfect: more than once per Turn and it'd lose its allure; less than that and it wouldn't have been as fun for them. Everyone appreciated the opportunity to succeed when it mattered most, and they used Yang Dice for everything from attack rolls to PER Checks (which really reveals these guys as true gamers: "If he's asking me to make a PER Roll, it must be important!"). It also helped that it was a skill-intensive genre. PCs were routinely rolling for Acrobatics, KSs, Fast Draw, etc., and the fear that failing any one of these could put them in a tight spot (or make the difference between leaping from a tree to a rooftop and falling 30 feet) had them using it pretty casually in the beginning and carefully considering the consequences of every use later on.

It was interesting to me to track the variations in the Yang Dice. At the start of the game, we had a nice range: 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6. After that, it was all over the place. Sometimes it was all 6s and 1s; other times, 3s and 4s. It didn't prove to be the instant kingmaker I'd thought it might be, as there

were a few times when a player with a lousy roll found himself unable to improve his lot via the Yang Dice.

Only one PC had an Autofire attack, and that was only AF 2, so the instant killerness of AF attacks using Yang Dice wasn't fully tested. However, it's worth noting that there were times when that AF attack missed completely due to a preponderence of high Yang Dice (and Personal Yang Dice-- that PC had 10 points of Luck, but his dice were 4 and 5 for quite a while). Another PC used a Sweep maneuver (using a statue to take out a couple guys in one go), but the beauty part of that was that while each attack suffered a penalty, only one of them could benefit from the Yang Dice.

I had two NPCs that deserved Yin Dice-- Snake-Fist Lo and Shang Qung-Fa, his right-hand man-- and used one Yin Die to reduce damage to the former. Not that it mattered in the long run: Lo was a Chinese vampire and Desolidified when the going got tough, but the fact that I could use the Yin Dice to keep him alive heightened the drama for the players (at least, it seemed that way) and gave me a very "fair" way to keep him around for a little while longer.

If I could do it again, I'd power up the OCV and DCV of just about every enemy the PCs faced. Given the high-damage attacks and low defenses inherent in the genre, I did the sensible thing and made the average mook powerful enough to be a threat, but not enough of one to seriously injure the PCs on a regular basis. I realized later that making them stronger would've encouraged using the Yang Dice to reduce damage, thus making every remaining Yang Die that much more important.

Overall, a fun, gamist addition to the standard HERO System mechanics. It worked out very well and was especially fitting for the wuxia genre. Two thumbs up.

Thanks again to all who helped with suggestions!

Re: Ability: "Check Enemy" - does this writeup work?

It seems to me the only thing that doesn't work about this is the Instant aspect. A Suppressed Power or Characteristic only stays Suppressed for as long as the Suppressor pays END (or otherwise keeps the Suppress up), so if it's changed from Continuous to Instant, it seems to me it'd have no effect at all-- even if the Power is used directly before the target would act, even on the same Phase, I'd think the Suppress would take effect and expire before it could do anything.

IMO, a more foolproof way to do this would be with Uncontrolled, and only feed one Segment's worth of END into it.

Re: Who would you recreate?

I'd revamp Dr. Light, so that instead of a villain he's a periodontist.

Re: Variation on Game Mechanics: Dice Pool

Have you considered some way for the players to lose dice from this system (Villain having Luck of his own or heroes acting unheroically?

Well, I had the idea that if the players wanted to add or subtract damage, as appropriate, using the pool dice, they could do that, but it'd mean permanently removing those dice from the pool. But I like the idea of removing dice as a penalty or via the actions of a powerful NPC, too.

All in all, a lot of really good ideas so far. I'm going to go see King Kong now, but in the next day or two I'll post a revised mechanic that takes advantage of all this great feedback.

Re: Variation on Game Mechanics: Dice Pool

I don't have any specific comments on the suggested rules' date=' but in playing Shadowrun I have noted that the "Karma Pool" rules for PC groups really seem to create a "team spirit" and sometimes even encourage game attendance. They have a good metagame effect regardless of what they do in-game. [/quote']

That's the kind of thing I'm really going for, actually. I like the gamist aspect of it. I expect the players to manipulate the pool in potentially imbalancing ways, but I also expect them to have fun with it.

Re: Variation on Game Mechanics: Dice Pool

I sense a flood of stun lottery wins' date=' head shots and groin hits in your future.[/quote']

Yeah, I can accept that. Heroes in wuxia films win a lot of STUN lotteries, and Chinese filmmakers are second only to Americans when it comes to a love of groin hits. USA! USA!

 

Autofire = death.

I don't see what the problem would be here. It's just--

 

Oh. Right.

 

Yeah, that's definitely something to consider. Therefore, I'll consider it.

Re: Character Challenge: Write up Bizarro-Apache Chief

Indeed.

 

But i always thought it was "E nuk chuk"

Yes. I believe that's part of the joke.

If Inukchuk --> Growth ~ Phallic Symbol = Masculinity, then

Eunuch = Loss of Masculinity ~ Shrinking <-- Eunuchchuck

Re: Variation on Game Mechanics: Dice Pool

I had thought of the game-breaking potential of swapping out your own high attack die with a low die from the pool to guarantee success, then taking that high die back for your damage. However, I think that limiting the die-swapping to once per Turn, or even once per Phase, would put the kaibosh on that.

And yeah, maybe keeping the die added from Luck exclusive to the character who paid for the luck would be good. He'd have his own supplemental pool of dice.

I don't mind some of the more "abusive" aspects of this, like changing the STUN Multiplier for a KA or manipulating the Hit Location, because I'm considering it for a pretty wacky game in which the PCs are supposed to pull off some pretty wacky moves.

Alright, I don't post much around here-- not lately, anyway-- but I was thinking of running a Wuxia HERO one-shot in the next couple weeks, and I had an idea that I think is pretty nifty. I'm hoping someone can give me some feedback and/or tell me why it wouldn't work.

The idea is a collective Dice Pool (Action Pool? Chi Pool? Fate Pool?) shared by all PCs. For each PC in the party, one die is added to the pool. For each level of Luck present in the party, another die is added. So if you had four PCs and a total of 10 points of Luck between them, that'd be six dice in the pool (note: this is now the only function of Luck). Simple enough.

What the pool is good for:

1. Anytime a player rolls dice, he may exchange one of the dice he's just rolled for one of the dice in the pool. That is, if the pool contains dice of 6, 4, 3, and 2, and the player just rolled two 6s and a 2 to hit, he can take out one of the 6s and trade it for the 2. Now the pool contains 6, 6, 4, and 3. Another example: the next player absolutely needs this RKA to take down the guard in one shot, but he only rolled a 1 and a 3. Trade the 1 for a 6, and now the pool contains 6, 4, 3, and 1. Only one die may be exchanged per Phase (Turn?). Or maybe not.

2. A player may take dice from the pool to add an extra die of damage to an attack-- but the dice are removed permanently. The player actually rolls these bonus dice to determine how much extra damage is dealt.

3. Likewise, a player may take a die from the pool to reduce damage he's taken by an amount equal to that which he rolls on the die. Alternately, think of it as an amount of additional Resistant Defense equal to the die roll. E.g.: The 8 BODY a PC has just taken has put him down for the count. He takes a die from the pool, rolls it, and gets a 4. Now he's only taken 4 BODY.

4. This is the one that will probably meet with the most raised eyebrows. The GM gives out XP a little more generously. Or a lot. And he does it as the session progresses instead of waiting until the end. These mid-scenario XP are called Action Points (Fate Points? Ch'i Points? I dunno), and when a PC has acquired five Action Points, he can immediately spend them to buy a level of Luck-- and add a die to the pool. If he doesn't spend them, they turn into XP at the end of the session/scenario, and can be spent normally.

5. The GM can have his own dice pool as well, although most of the NPCs, being mooks, can't take advantage of it. It's reserved for the major enemies of the campaign/scenario. In addition, to prevent things getting out of hand, the GM's dice pool should be limited to something like 2-4 dice, depending on the number and strength of the primary antagonists.

This is very much geared towards cinematic, not-so-realistic games, obviously, but that's why it occurred to me while considering my wuxia game. But I figure most games tend towards cinematicism and wild action anyway, so I thought I'd throw this out there for consideration. I do see some of the weaknesses of this idea (time spent trying to decide whether or not to use the pool could be spent on the next PC's Phase, the dice pool could get quite large over time, it greatly favors the PCs, etc.), but I also don't consider any of them to be all that problematic for my own game(s).

Thoughts? Comments? Tar/feathers?

Re: RFC: Sharing the Cost of Powers

Using this method, it *is* a larger "Limitation" (although that isn't how it works mechanically). If you've got a 90 point power that only requires two people working in tandem, then each is paying 45 points for it. If the same power requires nine people working in tandem, then each is only paying 10 points for it.

 

The power as a whole isn't getting less expensive, but the cost to each member of the company is going down.

True, but that's part of the tradeoff. It's more convenient to get that one dude to show up than it is to coordinate schedules between those other eight jerks.

Re: RFC: Sharing the Cost of Powers

Hey hey. Occasional lurker, infrequent poster.

I too like the idea. Just to quantify things, if this were my game and more than one character were sharing a VPP, I'd have them each pay individual Control Costs in full, and split the Pool Cost. This way each can have different Limitations applied to reflect different methods of using the Pool.

Part of me wants to apply no Limitation at all for the sharing aspect, regardless of the specifics (e.g., framework or no framework). PCs don't split the cost for Vehicles/Bases, but then again, they don't all have to get together for one of them to take the team's supercar out for a spin. That makes another part of me want to scale it with the number of people involved. A Power that can only be used by nine people working in tandem should get a larger Limitation, IMO, than one that's only divided between two. But that's splitting hairs, really.

Re: Quark!

Y'know, I don't really post around here, but when I saw this thread I had to reply. Though I was but a wee lad at the time, I loved Quark in its original run. I'll be in line for the DVDs when (I'm an optimist) they come out.

Re: CHAR: Zelig

I read it, and it's awesome. I'm doing the Chameleon as we speak.

(I know that sounds dirty, but it's not.)

Re: Lil' Slugger Question

Interesting series but I prefer the creators earlier work Perfect Blue. A being like Lil' Slugger could be interesting but I don't how much of the feeling you would lose by taking him out of the over plot. All I can say the series makes a bold statement about escapism.

Well... not to derail this thread too much with NGD nonsense (hey, there's a whole separate board for that crap!), but while I liked Perfect Blue, I found the plot to be a little familiar and worn. The Split Personality premise (either variation: you think it's two people but it's not, or you think it's one person but it's two) is right up there with the Messiah premise ("So... the prophecy is true!") as one of the most overused in the past, say, ten years. Gorgeous look to it, even if I find the idea of a Japanese girl pop band in tafetta babydoll dresses laughable (even though I'm sure that's plausible in Japan-- whatever, I'm laughing).

But anyway.

If I were to make Li'l Slugger as an NPC, I wouldn't bother giving him the Enhanced Senses/Mind Scan/Clairsentience necessary to figure out who to attack and where. As a viewer, I still don't know how he finds his victims, so as a GM I'd be reluctant to just make stuff up. For all I know, someone's directing his actions.

However, if he were a PC... okay, there's the game!

Re: Lil' Slugger Question

Does anyone here watch Paranoia Agent on cartoon network's toonami?? I think having a character based off Lil' Slugger would be a interesting plot hook or just a random encounter for a dark champions game.

Yeah, that'd be a great non-standard Normals game, if you can find a way to shift the focus away from the people who are being attacked and onto those who are investigating the crime. I mean, it can't just be running from one crime scene to another without getting anywhere, which is pretty much what the cops on the show do, and it can't be an episodic series of introspective vignettes with a constantly-changing roster of solo PCs, either.

However, I feel I should point out that it's not on Toonami; it's on the Saturday night Adult Swim Action Block. Unless it's on at another time, as well-- my knowledge of CN is pretty much limited to Adult Swim.

But anyway, the important bits:

+Running, OIF: Rollerblades

+HA, OAF: Golden Bat

Lots of Stealth

+STR, Only To Do Damage, Only Against Unaware Target, RSR: Stealth

Teleport, Must Pass Through Intervening Space (he does just seem to show up out of nowhere....)

Re: Anyone get DC: TAS yet?

I have to say that, as a guy who did a detailed, anal-retentive test read on the playtest copy of DC:TAS, it's a little disappointing to hear about these typos. I caught them all, dammit! I caught them all!

However, I do like the content regardless, despite the fact that it's nearly all characters and almost no "guidance." At first glance, several of the villains struck me as a little on the corny side, but a few tweaks here and there and suddenly they were worthy adversaries for my group.