bluesguy

To get back to the OP here is my 2 cents.

 

Excellent post.

 

The verbatim definition is "Defensive Combat Value represents how difficult it is to hit a character in combat."   But what does that mean?  Does "to hit" mean hit at all or effectively hit?

Exactly.  And for some characters it means "Nah Nah Nah you can't hit me" and for other characters it means "Clang you just hit my shield and it didn't hurt one little bit".

Here are some tricks that I have developed over the years for running Hero Combat.  If you are running a 'sandbox' style game then you do have to do more preparation because you have to build up a 'bag of encounters/places' ahead of time.  But that would be true for any game system.

• Heroic level games - which should work for most Fantasy, Space, and Modern type game where the characters are basically highly skilled humans.
  • Have a set of generic bad guys I can whip out whenever I need them.  Using Hero Designer & many of the expansion packs available this is an easy process.
  • For instance in a fantasy campaign I will have varying kinds of bandits - easy to kill, kind of tough, and good for one on one or two on one fights with PCs.
  • I would do the same for varying kinds of monsters.
  • You can do the same thing for a space or modern game as well
• Superhero games
  • I can't help you as much here because I run very episodic Superhero games so there is a villain/event/encounter per adventure.  It isn't a sandbox at all.
  • But if I were to do that there is even more material for this because there are the three Champions Villains books, plus organization books as well.

One other thing that might help you as a GM (self promotion here) is Hero Combat Manager, which can be purchased from the Hero Store.  You can find a description about HCM at my site.

Very cool.

I would suggest http://rpgmapshare.com/

That said, I'm totally stealing the template from Bluesguy for my future designs.

I created a spreadsheet to help in developing the kingdoms.  It was a way to manage what I am doing and how far along I am.  So I took that spreadsheet and made it into a template.  You can find it here

In the world setting I am putting together there 17 specific kingdoms/empires and three races which don't have kingdoms/empires but do have civilizations.  Of the 17 specific kingdoms/empires there are 14 which are outgrowths of humans spreading across the world.  The other three are made up of humanoid races.  And the final three are not human or humanoid (well I guess the giants are).  The planet is significantly larger than our world (25%).

I expect the players will be playing in one general area but they may come from any one of the 17 specific kingdoms/empires.

I am a big believer in there are no pure "good/bad guy nations".  There are some nations that are more aggressive than other nations.

I am not detailing out each one of these kingdoms/empires/civilizations.  I have boiled it down to the following information for each one: 

• Race
• Nationality
• Nation name
• Name of Capital & Location
• Name of Major Cities & locations
• Religion(s)
• Form of Government
• Title of Ruler(s)
• Economic System
• Language
• Resources
• Known For
• Weapons Technology
• Transportation Technology
• Power Technology
• Brief history
• Kinds of Magic

I will detail out the one or two areas where I expect the players to start out at and then work on more detail as time goes on.

Communication is the key to dealing with lateness of any project.  Even communicating that you are running late and why is often enough to keep stakeholders from getting very mad. 

For instance I am backing a couple of Kickstarter projects and they are very late.  But the people doing them have been clear in communicating on occasion about what is going on.

Personally I would go with assigning certain weapons, maneuvers, and spells as having extra time - full phase, 1.5 phases, 1 turn, etc.

I am designing a new campaign setting and that also means a magic system.  I have three basic premises associated with the magic system.  The first is that the magic is specific to individual races and/or cultures.  Each culture has a 'power level' (maximum active points) for different types of spells (offensive, defensive, sensing, movement, etc.) The second is a character with a talent for magic (i.e. they pay for a talent) can get a VPP which allows them to have a wide variety of spells. The talent has to be part of the character creation process. For other characters it is possible to learn a spell or three - but they can't be bought in a framework and they have some extra limitations. 

My intention is to insure that there aren't generic magic users in this world and that there is plenty of people who have some minor magic as well.

If you want some humor with this read Villain and Able or listen to it Villain and Able.

Since my whole family games together we often find ourselves "Thinking in Hero".  This is especially true for my son and myself.

I would go with an cumulative EGO drain + Mind Control.

I use a chart with some random effects including:

 

I love this idea!

I think it would be interesting to create a character who had been a villain and was trying to reform himself.  His ugly past could keep popping up on occasion. 

My new system is going to be based on END lost.  So if they miss their spell roll by 1 to 3 then 2x END; 4 to 5 then 3x END; 6 or worse 5x END.  So blowing your roll really badly you will face a backlash and knock yourself out.

And since all the spells in my campaign have the -1 per 10 active points and max characteristic & skill roll rules (2x cost after a while) failure is a possibility.

This thread is for the very purpose of creating a system for making magic items.

 

However, and this is a fine hair, it is not a place to discuss systems of making magic items, nor a place to discuss various rules-constructs for making magic items.

 

In short, it is a specific thread, not a generic thread, and general magic system questions do not go here.

 

Edit: The tone of this post seems to maybe not be the way I meant it. I meant it solely to clarify the purpose of the thread.

Ah... I will stay more on topic :-)

Ok...so, based on previous, IMO I think, for the most part, we're pretty much In the "Same Book."  Maybe not all On the same "Sheet of Music," but In the "Same Book."  So, I'd like to ask some questions about how each of you would do things.

....

 

 

P.S.:  If we can get anything off the ground, I am offering my time, services, computer/softeware to put stuff together.  It doesn't have to be a complete world (Unless we're willing to try this early on...) -- it could be Adventures, Monster Books, Power/Magic Books, a "How to Play Hero Guide" or anything else.  Something simple would be best at first.  I want to grow and expand Hero!

Can I make a suggestion that a new thread be started based on the template you just posted?  It would help tighten up the discussion IMO.

I just wrapped up running a very successful campaign using the Valdorian Age (you can check it out).  The setting did I what I wanted to do.  I seriously considered running another campaign in the same setting but in a different time frame.  The setting provides that nice 'boutique' flavor IMO.  It is a low magic world with an interesting magic system - which I tossed because I didn't want to deal with the bookkeeping.  There are a unique set of gods and morality is very gray.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to setup a systematic way for mages to enchant items.  The Grimoire is fine for potion making.  I would like to hear how people are handling magic item But the method described in the Grimoire for Magic Item creation is less than satisfying.

Basically I would like to see a beginning apprentice enchanter have the ability to create minor/cheap magic items.  And then work up to the big stuff.  I have thought about using a VPP and then individual creation spells.

The controls on keeping the mages from becoming the "Ford Factory" of magic items would be time it takes to prepare (at least 1 week per 10 active points in the enchanted item - not the creation spell) and cost.

Maybe something that hooks into the Optional Money System, or otherwise uses descriptors rather than money amounts.  Dirt Cheap, Cheap, Moderately Affordable, Moderately Expensive, Expensive, Outrageous.  In fact, given the difference in money systems between worlds, I'm not sure we can do anything but this.  

I would suggest the following type of formula (Spellbook Games has/had a PDF with the cost to hire someone to do work for you)

Dirt Cheap = X * average daily wage for average person in the area

So lets say the average daily wage is 2 silver pieces.  And you have decided that the cheapest magic item is going to be a luxury for the average person then the X should be 100.  So the cheapest magic item would be 200 silver pieces.  For the average person they would never save up enough to buy a magic item.  But for an adventurer that is pretty common.

Then just scale up from Dirt Cheap -> Outrageous by changing the multiplier (X).

I really love DriveThruRPG.com as a place to find inexpensive but very useful items

• 100 Roadside Encounter Ideas
• 100 Locations & Rooms (I haven't used this as much - to dungeon crawling for my players)
• 650 Fantasy City Encounter Seeds & Hooks
• A Curse at the Old Inn
• A Village and some Problems
• GM Cookbooks ... (there are a few of these)
• Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters <=== Must have for any genre of RPG
• Masks: 1,000 Memorable NPCs for Any Roleplaying Game <=== Must have for any genre of RPG
• Knightvision Games has some good stuff

Glad to help out.

Some off the top of my head ideas:

• Early season snowstorm that traps them in a really bad location.  How do they survive?  Do they have survival skills?  What happens if the animals that are carrying their gear run off for some reason?  Bright shinny armor and weapons won't help you much.... Evil GM laugh
• Days of horrible rain and then one evening they see a cabin with light coming from it in the woods.  Maybe it is occupied by someone "friendly" but mischievous...  And maybe they are really lonely so that once you enter the cabin and sleep there you really don't want to leave.... Then the person(s) who is keeping the cabin can just talk their ears off... It should drive the players nuts but they just don't feel like leaving or harming the person(s) keeping the cabin.  I might even record some really annoying/boring small talk from people you know and then play it in the background - fingernails on the walk kind of thing :-).
• It is cliche but a Troll Bridge and the trolls are intelligent enough that they don't really want a fight - but a perfectly capable of putting serious harm on the PC - they just want to be paid for doing such a great job maintaining "their" bridge
• Traveling merchants who are looking for some company (if it makes sense) - protection

I like to have some adventures where the players can't solve the problem with combat.

I am setting up a Fantasy Hero campaign where there are essentially two 'levels' of magic.  If you are full blown mage you buy a VPP for your spells - the idea being a mage will be able to learn a lot of different kinds of magic and switch things up on the fly.  But someone who wants to learn a spell or two can - but they are less powerful, have side effects, etc.

But here comes the twist in connection with this conversation.  A bunch of the spells, for instance Runes and Potions being good examples, use Delayed Effect or Trigger or maybe Time Limit.  I was definitely going to limit the number available based on INT.

If the official ruling on VPP is that the real cost for a Rune lasts as long as that Rune could be used (i.e. I set up a Rune trap with a trigger to fire when the door opens) then the mages would be at a serious disadvantage.  After all a 'hedge mage' could learn one rune and cast it a bunch of different times (taking into account the INT rules).