StGrimblefig

Re: HERO 5th LARP? First of all, I have to ask what the focus of the game is going to be. Certain genres and types of stories lend themselves better to the LARP concept than others. It is my belief that a LARP is best used for games that are more about playing roles and interaction between player characters, not action or combat. For example, the MET (old WoD) combat rules are slow, inefficient, and somewhat arbitrary, but they never changed them through the life of the system. I claim that they were designed that way for a simple reason -- combat in LARPs is something to be avoided if possible. (Of course, this doesn't apply to "foam weapon" type LARPs, but if you want to use the HERO system for the rules base, this is probably not that kind of LARP.) Second, what I have learned from playing and helping run LARPs is that the more things that you ask the players to carry, the more they detract from the in-character atmosphere. So, keeping damage and END on the character sheet is not a problem -- the player will probably have to pull out their character sheet to do that anyway, but using dice for skills and/or combat is not good. For the same reason, damage will probably need to use the Standard Effect rules or (like Dust Raven suggested) abstracted to DCs. If I were to make a suggestion for task resolution (i.e. skill use and combat), I would say that it should be relatively simple and direct. Something like, if the normal skill target (9+CHAR/5), plus and/or minus any situational modifiers, exceeds a static target number, they succeed. Combat works similarly, with the opponent's DCV acting as a negative modifier, and combat maneuver OCVs adding / DCVs subtracting as appropriate. The GM should liberally apply situational modifiers for difficulty, local conditions, etc. Of course, these are just my opinions.

Re: Tell me of your Hero Point/Dramatic Editing mechanics If I ever get the time and the players, I am planning on using a variant of the old Plot Points system by Sean Patrick Fannon. However, instead of using an artificially added stat (in a game that some think already has too many stats), I was thinking of paying the costs with Experience Points. I view it as the characters using what they have learned to help them out of a jam. Yes, this system will likely slow down character development, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. It has always bothered me that RPG characters have backgrounds that have them getting to the game's starting point over 18 years or more, slowly gaining their attributes, skills and abilities up to a "starting character" level, but then, when the game starts, they double or triple in capabilities in six months of game time. The thing that may be difficult to balance is making sure the players do not forsake character development in favor of instant gratification.

Re: Gps Oh, I see. Well, for you and me, that works fine. We have the equipment to do that. However, some are stubborn. For example, the navys of the world stand on a lot of tradition, and they navigate quite often by headings, which were in olden days based off of magnetic compass angles (no offense intended to navy men who may be reading -- I am quite stubborn myself). I do not know if flight plans are written using headings or absolute locations. The only explanation I can think of for including it in modern GPS receivers is to give the option of using that kind of navigation, even if it is not the best choice. It could make an interesting twist in a game scenario ... players find a map, giving directions to an uncharted island where pirate treasure is buried. The directions say something like, "start from Black Monkey Cove, and make yer heading 067 for 250 nautical miles, then 092 for 100 more." If they follow those directions literally today, how far off will they be from the buried treasure? What was the magvar in that area when the map was created?

Re: Gps Pretty easy, actually (assuming you find 3d trigonometry easy). You don't really need the compass to do it, even. The earth's magnetic field is a pretty well-known mathematical model, and even though it is changing, it is doing so predictably. If you have a compass feeding data to the receiver, it may be able to refine its local model. That having been said, if there is smoething causing a localized magnetic anomaly, this model calculation will not be able to predict that. I know that all of the military GPS receivers have had a magnetic variation (magvar) calculation for a long time, but I have been away from it too long to know about the commercial receivers. You may be able to choose a north reference (magnetic or true) for display of heading and/or bearing angles -- that would tell you if it had it.

Re: Gps

Re: Gps This is, imho, the right way to do it. All GPS receivers are basically a computer with 2 main components: The GPS "sensor" that does nothing but determine current position (detect position on the earth) Software to do something with that information (Navigation skill, probably also AK Earth, but more likely a more limited map module of a smaller area) Note that the GPS sensor cannot determine a compass heading by itself (unless a separate compass sensor is included, as above). If the receiver is moving, the software can compare its last position with its current position to determine what direction it is moving. Note also that, internally, the GPS sensor represents your position as an x,y,z coordinate with its origin at the center of the earth (what is called Earth Centered Earth Fixed, or ECEF coordinates). The lat/long/alt that you see displayed on the screen is just a conversion from that. It could just as easily display MGRS. Isn't Bump of Direction as a Talent merely a "small Power?" Would it be better to use the Power definition here as opposed to the Talent? There should probably be some kind of limitation(s) on the GPS sensor to show that it cannot track satellites underwater, and that the position solution will degrade if the receiver does not have a clear view of the sky. I am not sure if a single limitation would cover it, or if two separate ones are needed. *Wrote software for GPS receivers for ~5 years*

Re: Gps This is compounded by the fact that the GPS signal has a power level below that of background noise. The GPS receivers have to play math games to pull the signal out of the noise. GPS is not receivable underwater at any meaningful depth. Now if you have a floating antenna with a long cable . . . you get the position of the antenna. *Wrote software for GPS receivers for ~5 years*

Re: Star Fleet Battles If you want to do large-scale engagements, I think the mention of converting FH's Mass Combat rules is probably the way to go. You would lose the detail of setting each ship's power allocation, shield configuration, etc., but you would gain a lot more time to enjoy the game. If you want to roleplay a crew of a single ship in combat, perhaps see if you can find a copy of the old Star Trek: Starship Tactical Combat Simulator (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3040 and/or http://members.w-link.net/~subodeon/ststcsolda/) and convert it to HERO.

Re: Another Standard Effect Idea What if you made the advantage/limitation applicable per die of effect? Then the 4d6 NND AE(1hex) w/ SE 6 costs: 65 Active * (1 + 4*(3/4)) = 65 * (1+3) = 65 * 4 = 260 real points which is prohibitively expensive. But also it makes the whole idea less useful. Besides, who would ever want to take SE 1?

Re: Comics you loved...but apparently no one else did Haywire (DC) - an anti-hero with MPD, one of whose personalities (the one he blacks out during, of course) is psychicly linked to an experimental powered armor suit that teleports from its hiding place in a bus terminal locker. Of course, the secret organization that built the armor wants it back, but he is the only test subject that successfully bonded with the armor and can use it. Some odd twists at the end of the mini-series.

Re: Your personal comic book origins Oddly enough, the earliest comics I remember are Tintin books -- none of which I own. My parents were big on going to the library every Sunday afternoon, and I sat in the children's section looking at books even before I could read them. Later, of course, I enjoyed the far-future Legion of Super Heroes (you have to admire them for actually coming up with something for Matter Eater Lad to do) and a lot of the mid-70s Marvel. Sadly, I enjoyed them so much that they are not in decent shape now.

Re: Evil Organizaitons One that I have had in the back of my mind for some time is entirely mundane in ability, but far-reaching in scope. After a period of vicious gang-warfare between the area's three main criminal organizations (The Cagliani Mafia "family", the Chiang Triad, and the Vasquez Drug Cartel), there is a (relatively) sudden cease-fire. There are still skirmishes between lower-level minions, but for the most part, there is no more open warfare. The general populace does not know why things quieted down, but they are extremely happy about it. Popular rumors include the speculation that the "old guard" leadership died and the new leaders saw no profit in continuing their predecessor's vendettas, wondering whether the three still had enough membership left to conduct their "normal" criminal activities and the imminent threat of military intervention. What is not generally known, even to their own membership, is that the three joined forces to create one large crime syndicate. The leaders meet in secret, divide up the city's criminal activities between them, and plot to ensure that no law enforcement entity gets in their way. This is the situation that the players enter into as the first new supers in a world that has been without them for 35-40 years.

Re: Battletech Hex = Hero Hex (mph/kph) SPD & Mvnt Um, km/hr * 1000 = m/hr m/hr / 3600 = m/sec m/sec / 2 = hex/sec hex/sec * 12 = hex/turn hex/turn / SPD = inches of movement iirc running speed is 1.5 times walking speed, so 21.5 km/hr walking gives 32.25 km/hr for running speed. so, using your example: 32.25 km/hr * 1000 = 32250 m/hr 32250 m/hr / 3600 = 8.9583 m/sec 8.9583 m/sec / 2 = 4.4792 hex/sec 4.4792 hex/sec * 12 = 54 hex/turn (rounded up from 53.75) 54 hex/turn / SPD = 27 inches of movement at SPD 2 = 18 inches of movement at SPD 3 = 14 inches of movement at SPD 4 (rounded up from 13.5) Even though it looks like you are buying less movement at higher SPDs, remember that the vehicle still moves the same distance over the 12-second turn, so in the long run you are moving the same amount, just more often.

Re: The “Unofficial†Ultimate Mentalist Project (Fan Version “What Do *You* Want To S So, to be Braced when using a mental power, do you have to rest your head on something solid? Or someone who is mentally stable? The implications of having a mental power that needs to be aimed (and thus are affected by range mods) are many. Traditionally, mental powers don't "miss." They may be resisted, or even reflected back to the attacker, but as long as the attacker can sense the target, the attack gets to where it is going. In most literature, the "mental space" is dimensionless. Distance is nonexistent -- a person known to the psychic may often be contacted mentally no matter where they are in the world. To say that a mental power is affected by range is to pull it down into the physical world. Since it must be aimed, it must traverse the space between attacker and target, its accuracy can be affected by partial cover, it can be dodged, and it can hit something/someone unintended. Of course, this is all just my opinion. I would love to hear other interpretations of the implications of mental powers being affected by RMod. Now Set, on the other hand, is just calming yourself. For mental powers, call it "centering" or somesuch if you must.

Re: The “Unofficial†Ultimate Mentalist Project (Fan Version “What Do *You* Want To S

Re: The “Unofficial†Ultimate Mentalist Project (Fan Version “What Do *You* Want To S

Re: How 30plus RPGs Define the GM's Role Welcome, Martin! I posted the link here because the Hero massmind always has some interesting opinions on gaming in general, and especially comparisons between Hero and other systems. You caught me. I spoke up without knowing the full story. I do not own Burning Wheel, but perhaps I should have asked what was missing.

Re: How 30plus RPGs Define the GM's Role I am amazed that he holds it up as a good example of "most useful information in the least amount of space — a great balance," when there are two sets of ellipsis (...) in the middle of the quoted passage. That means that there is at least one extraneous sentence in the middle of that definition at each of those places -- doesn't really look like the easiest to read or smallest space to me.

Re: How 30plus RPGs Define the GM's Role I tend to agree. Although I do like the earlier VtM definition listed, that included,"The Storyteller’s primary duty is to make sure the other players have a good time." It reminds us that the goal is for everyone to have fun. That is the main thing that I think is missing in most of the definitions.

Re: How 30plus RPGs Define the GM's Role As I understood the article, the author sees the definition of GM as more for a new player to get a feel for what the GM's role is in that particular game. I suspect that a game that doesn't include a "what is roleplaying" section (e.g. HERO) assumes that their target audience already has a good idea of the GM's role, and doesn't need a detailed breakdown.

Here is an interesting article about how different RPGs define the role of the GM. I am not sure I agree as to the importance of this definition to a new player reading the rules, but it is interesting, nonetheless. Of course, he incorrectly stated that the Hero System had no definition, so I posted a correction.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game As a hero, the most annoying villain build I have seen is a Stalker with Teleport Foe. This has been done to my electric/electric flying blaster more than once: TP Foe/Sneak Attack/other attack. Since it happend during one of my attacks with a long-ish animation, I was defeated before I had any chance to respond.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game

Re: Re-envisioning (after a quick scan through the "Sci-Fi Channel Encyclopedia of TV Science Fiction") Space 1999, in which everyone that isn't killed by the initial nuclear explosion on the moon either dies slowly of radiation sickness or quickly when the moon falls into the sun. Quark, starring Jon Stewart as Adam Quark. Salvage-1, in which the first commercial mission to the moon, sent to salvage the equipment left behind by NASA, finds the REAL purpose of the moon landings... (insert appropriate X-Files music).

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game You mean your characters are so dependent upon the specific mechanics of the game that every one of these changes completely breaks your character concept? To each his own, I guess. As for me, I have three characters that I have been playing since launch (and a couple more that have been added since), and I have never used any respec (either free or earned). Sure, how I play the characters has changed a little, but then I have to do that as I increase in level and take on new villain groups anyway. It is true that I am not a "hardcore" player -- my highest character is only level 33 -- but I am enjoying the game. I will adapt to these new changes and move on. However, I will not do anything until I see for myself how much this change actually affects how my characters play. Just my two cents, among the dollars of "the sky is falling."