Xavier

Re: Custom Universes: Getting On The Same Page Well, I'm a gm and I generally only use custom universes. I handle situations like the one you describe by telling them what the tech level is. The scenario you describe with the whole seatbelt thing, I would typically handle it in the following way. Hm...this maneuver will send the crew members flying about in the cabin. Hm...is it possible that if such a thing is possible then maybe there are seatbelts built-in? Did the pilot mention to the crew that he was about to do something...unpleasant. If common sense would suggest that certain things make sense then I go with that. If you live in a universe where the the ships routinely get shaken around like Shakira's ass, and there are no seat belts, then IMO that's just dumb. I know it's a for instance, but that's how I approach almost everything in terms of setting differences in perception. I know it's kinda fast and loose for some purists out there, but this keeps things like dustups to a minimum. And to be honest sometimes I completely snarf up a ruling on something. My players will protest and if they are right I rescind the ruling apolgized for being dumb and keep on playing. It works for us.

Re: Need help creating an alien bad guys. The idea of the parasite being small never occurred to me and I generally regard it as immaterial since outside the host body it is insubstantial and able to assume any shape it wants. As for taking over the hosts CNS...My notion here is that the parasite doesn't need anything but the shell once it's "read" everything that it needs from the host brain. It effectively "downloads" everything from the hosts mind memories, skills, knowledge...etc and then discards the rest in favor of being able to exist in the hosts body comfortably. Like the Clairsentience idea. I'll use it. If they effectively kill the host when they take over the host then a mind control for controlling the host is unnecessary. The mind control they do have is for them to control others without having to take them over. This sort of gives them minions they can control to do things they can't do for themselves. I am thinking this is something where they "infect" those around them with a spore or some such that allows them to control their mind without destroying their mind. I'm thinking that in it's natural from in it's home dimension it does not need a host, but then again for them that may be just plain boring so they travel. Any languages the parasite needs at least with regard to communicating with other members of the same species as it's host it will learn from the host. Already covered. The way I envision this is that the parasite in it's natural form is a cloudy, smoke-like mass floating about (oops, guess they can fly) looking for a host. They are relatively slow so it is possible to out run them, but once they corner a victim it's pretty much a done deal unless the victim is in something that provides containment or the parasite is in containment. It does not cause stomach wounds first. It invades the host takes over then removes the insides to make space. I'm thinking that this may be a human specific kind of thing. They may not need to do this with other species. It kills the host after it has taken over by removing the internal organs. The parasite is not actually connected in any way to the nervous system of the host. That would make death for the host a truly incomprehensible horror. The parasite would make the host body do it, but it wouldn't feel it. It only needs the outer shell. A Gradual Effect HKA, NND Does Body, with the Body Damage only causing Disabling Wound Effects (Stomach location), seems appropriate. I'll consider it. I think this is brilliant. I'll use it. I've recently decided to use hit locations. I hadn't previously because I though they made the game a little more deadly than I liked. I have since reconsidered. The parasite whether in host or out cannot abide energy based attacks. Physical attacks on the host destroy the host form, but do not hurt the parasite. Energy attacks however, hurt the host and the parasite. Would the parasite want armor? Probably. Not an issue. The parasite does not get to choose. It occupies the host anyway it can. This is the price it pays for invading human space. This can change from one species to another as noted in the answer to 6. I want it so that it MUST move from host to host. I'm running a heroic level campaign. If they could stay in a host indefinitely that would make them too powerful I think. You have forced me to think very carefully about my bad guy(s)! (And I'll have to copy this entire thread for reference) Thanks for the well thought out points. I really appreciate it. Keep the suggestions coming.

Re: Need help creating an alien bad guys. Good point. I hadn't thought of that. I would probably pick something like 2 or 3 days. This way the Spectres are motivated (very motivated) to get to an area with a large preferrably dense population. It's something to think about. Makes 'em that much more fearsome. Can you imagine what ONE of these creatures could do if they ran amok on a someones homeworld.

Re: Need help creating an alien bad guys. You are so right. I already started making them and the work up is kinda scary. I'm calling them Spectres Here is what I have so far: Spectre form: Desolidification Sight + Hearing sense groups: Images HKA 3D6 NND:Spacesuits, Containment suits and the like Spectre Psionics: Multipower (Still tweaking the point total) -FF -Mental Illusions -Mind Control -Mind Scan -Telekinesis -Telepathy Cumulative, Linked to HKA This will be the basic design I think, I just have to work out the power level. The characters are on the high side of normal so I have to be kinda careful.

Re: Miniaturized Manufacturing Units?

Re: Need help creating an alien bad guys. Get them shooting at each other? I hadn't considered that. Unfortunately one of the crew is a telepath. I'd have to find a way to shut him down without it looking like I was shutting him down. I will consider keeping them hidden. Of course now that I think about it. Who says they couldn't make their mind look normal to a 'path. I could force him to have to do a deep scan in order to determine if it is a human anymore or not. McCoy, I like it. I like it a lot! Thanks for the help.

Re: Miniaturized Manufacturing Units? I must concur. It would seem a machine that turns raw material into finished goods is the way to go. The only stipulation would be that there would need to be the necessary raw materials for machine to provide whatever is needed. It might be a good idea to put some restrictions on this as it can get out of hand in a hurry. The book covers this type of transform quite well in the Creating Objects section of the Transform power description.

Re: Need help creating an alien bad guys. I was thinking that the acquistion of info from the host could be one heck of an enormous telepathy kinda thing. I'm also thinking that what would make them particularly frightening is if they kept the skill from their previous hosts. Of course now that I think about that it seems a bit much. Some strategic jumping of hosts and you would have a virtually unstoppable monster on your hands. Not quite what I was going for. I like the NND idea. Make it versus containment suit or some such and go from there. They will have a other powers some tech based, some innate. I haven't decided if they are able to hide or not. I hadn't quite finished working out their personality quirks yet. I was thinking though that the hosts will be pretty easy to spot. No eyes, just a creepy blue glow where their eyes should be and the same creepy blue glow when they open their mouths. If this is the case then it might make disguise/mimicry superfluous.

Okay, I know that creating aliens in and of itself is not so hard, but I'm a little rusty and could use some insight from the brilliant folks here on the hero boards. Basically what I want is this: The alien in my star hero campaign is from an alternate dimension. They do not have corporeal bodies as we do and are capable of taking over the bodies of humans. Their bodies are more like smoke and they can go just about anywhere that is not hermetically sealed. This also serves as their typical method of taking over the bodies of humans. They just enter the human through the various "openings" and basically set up shop. After entering the alien strips the brain of any useful information. I thought in a particularly grizzly twist that they can't abide the internal organs because they do actually take up space, so they simply reach up dislocate the jaw and pull them out leaving it all in a pile somewhere. The creature stays behind animating the now disembowled body. I know it's sick, but my players are feeling pretty sure of themselves lately and I need to put some fear back into them. I know that the "smoke" from is a basic, desolidification and that's not really a problem. I can't quite work out how to do the taking over the host thing. It it a transform?

Re: Interstellar communications Actually that was the route that we have taken in my campaign. The telepaths are genetically engineered to send and receive (NOT think and have free will) and do so at very high levels. They were then scattered throughout human controlled space. As it turns out in my campaign it is one of the single most highly guarded secrets as the telepaths are effectively slaves. This is hidden from the general populance and the vast majority of telepaths. Naturally a secret like this can only be kept by other telepaths who happen to run the program. Hey it works for us.

Re: Generic Star Hero Galactic Map Just a heads up to all interested parties. I tried the AstroSynthesis program and in my estimation it is...ok. Just ok. It's not great. The program will generate systems, sectors. You can create trade routes and/or separate systems by political affiliation. You can build systems manually or randomly (I didn't build any manually myself so I can't speak to the programs ability regarding those features.). I will say that this thing will build lots and lots of systems if you tell it to. I had it building (sorta by accident) something on the order of 96,000 or 97,000 systems (each with planets and such), but the program crashed before it finished (too bad really, I was curious). Like I said it's okay. I found it to be a bit clunky, but that was just me and it is Version 1 so I suppose one could see what will happen with the program over time. I would suggest anyone who feels this could be the answer to their system generation issues to download the trial version and test it out. Here's the link. http://www.nbos.com/download/download-trial.htm

Re: Campaigning for Supervillain PCs... Hmm...? This strangely is an idea that never occured to me. It is however compelling in that as was stated by Hawksmoor, it should probably be approached as an exploration of character interaction. By my way of thinking the equation that has always existed: "Good vs Evil; Good triumphs over evil(one way or another), Evil slinks away to come back another day..." Doesn't seem to work quite the same way in the opposite direction where evil wins over good. I'll see if I can say this without confusing myself. One of the underlying general precepts of "Good" is that it is alturistic, and thus heroes are willing to persistently peruse that which is "Good", because it is beneficial to everyone, including the villains. I'm having some difficulty trying to envision a playable game that isn't a one shot type campaign where the PC villains are irredeemably evil. This might just be my failure of imagination, but is seems to me that in such an environment there is only so far such a situation can progress. For example: If the evil PC's decide to carry out their fiendish plot to destroy X landmark and all the people within the vicinity of X landmark, unless such and such condition is met and they manage to overcome the heroes sent to bring them to justice they would be forced to carry out their plan. They would either (A) get what they want or ( destroy X landmark and adjacent vicinity thus proving they are not a force to be trifled with. Now if they are truly evil would they stop there? No...they would keep going ad infinitum until they have through the use of one plot or another dominated what...the world? The galaxy? The universe? On second thought this might work... maybe if they were sort of altruistically evil... Dang it...I confused myself...forget it man...what the hell do I know? Your plan sound sorta cool to me now. Okay so the only thing I can definitely caution against is "freewheeling evilness". Too much backstabbing and the game can disintergrate...swiftly. It's hard enough for bad guys to work as a team. There has to be some overall structure to allow for team interaction.

Re: Generic Star Hero Galactic Map I took a look at the program from NBOS. It looks like it has potential. Thanks for the tip.

Re: Generic Star Hero Galactic Map Adam thank you. The map is perfect. Exactly what I was looking for. Drakkenkin Thanx for the tip on Celestia. I kinda like it better than It's Full Of Stars. Btw Sourceforge is very cool.

I was just wondering if anyone had any idea where one could get a galactic map (much like the one in the Free Stuff for the TE Galactic Map) that would allow you draw in any empires that were suitable for your own campaigns? I kinda thought it would be useful.

Cool! I just read the article. It looks almost like it's in the bag. Thanks Kzinbane, you've given me hope!

I must say. I wholeheartedly concur with the general feeling about Firefly. When I first watched the show I didn't quite know what to expect, but It worked. Thankfully I had problems catching it on television, so I saw everything in sequence on DVD. I think it would make a great setting for Star Hero, which I just purchased. I don't know what to say about the sci fi channel. Unfortunately (with rare exception) in the area of science fiction programming you get what you pay for, and all sci fi wants is generally crappy CHEAP programming: can we say Code Name Eternity? And what's with this seasons new line up? I thought they did the humor/pornography thing with LEXX. Now we have Mad Mad House (or some such) and Tripping the Rift. I'm just disgusted. And like it or not the best show sci fi channel has right now is Stargate and I think they are getting ready to switch over to a spinoff that probably won't make it if sci fi is controlling the purse strings. No offense to those who like those shows, but I detest them I do like Stargate though. I suppose they are trying to appeal to their demographic, but I think it strange when I'm in their demographic too. Ah well what can you do. Unfortunately they are the only all sci fi (Did I say all? I mean't "mostly") and it's all we have. Thank God for DVD's. Hmm...seems I launched off on a bit of a tirade. Sorry folks sci fi channel gets my blood boiling. I don't think I forgiven them for cancelling Farscape.

And the accolades keep coming... Ah...you're the one! I salute you sir! Your website is a credit to you and your country.

I know I should be ashamed, but honestly I think I read Hyperion probably two years after it was first published. I remember reading it, but it has been quite a while and things are a bit hazy. I keep getting little details of it mixed up with the Exordium series. Now that was a rocking piece of good sci fi space opera. It had everything.

Eodin, Thanks. I was able to download without incident. It was slow, but it worked. I appreciate your help. Dan Simmons was the author of Hyperion. I must concur with zarglif69, it was excellent. If you get Hyperion, don't forget Fall of Hyperion. I can't remember if I read it or not, been too many years There is also Endymion and Rise of Endymion.

And you are on this thread why?? No one is on this thread because they "believe in" Star Trek. We're here because it's entertaining. And just to be clear, understand that your particular position on Star Trek has been argued (quite literally) for decades. So you are not exactly making a new point.

Dude!! Most excellent! Thank you. For the next several hours you are my favorite human. I am gazing at the files in beatific joy.

Thanks for the quick response Eodin Hmm, well the test was no problem. Naturally it didn't take too long. I'm currently using the full version of Acrobat 5. Unfortunately multiple versions of acrobat don't seem to want to play nice with each other, so I have decided to go with my full version instead of the newest downloadable version. Do you think there is any way the file can be broken down into several smaller files that are easier to download for the two or three of us ludites who are still confined (by cost or location) to dial-up? If not it's cool, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

Hi all, I'm new around here. I have recently been lurking here and noted the Star Trek book and though Cool, but I too have been having problems downloading. I got an I/O error, then my connection timed out. I assumed it was because I was on dail-up. Is this a bandwidth issue?