bluesguy

Re: Swords and Sorcery Setting Sword and Sorcery movies

Re: The Chain Sword/Sword Whip You mean there was more than one ...

Re: Swords and Sorcery Setting Book Series: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Thieves World And here is an article with a list of Sword & Sorcery movies

Re: Looking For Input On Potential New Fantasy Product I can create a character just the way I want that character to be. I don't have to rely on random dice rolls to determine if I have a character that I want to play. If I want a character who is as complex as Vlad Taltos (see Stephen Brust's books) he can be created using Hero - without any trouble. Try creating him in D&D or Pathfinder?! Ick. Fantasy Hero Game System lets me create a campaign world that simulates any fantasy setting I can imagine. If I want to simulate a world from any fantasy novel or series it is possible without bending the rules. Non-combat skills are just as important as combat skills (maybe more important) and this encourages role playing.

Re: Looking For Input On Potential New Fantasy Product I have a recent experience with getting a group up and running with the Hero Game system. For my children and wife I could just give them access to the PDFs or Books that I bought so they could read them. But I have people who are not part of my family and while I will loan them physical books, I will not give them PDFs (too easy to copy and not pay for). I would like to point them to a single book that is the "player's guide" to playing in a Fantasy Hero style game which they could buy. Said book could be either physical or PDF that doesn't matter. As for a game master and group that wants to make a wholesale change to "Fantasy" Hero from D&D (and the variants) I think using FH 6e as the basis for a new book would be a good idea, with the following changes: General comment - get rid of all of the quotes from 'source material' Cut out almost all of the art unless it is very tasteful Chapter 1 - Drop! This is basically 'fluff' IMO and not needed Chapter 2 - Must have! Chapter 3 - Keep everything except for Mass Combat (not needed in a 'basic book') Chapter 4 - I would suggest condensing this material to a couple of commonly 'known' magic systems (Jack Vance, Brust's approach witchcraft vs. sorcery as found in Vlad Taltos books, etc). As for Magic Items I would provide a few rules/suggestions and some basic (classic) magic items to start out with. Chapter 5 - Instead of the background material on how to create a world, provide a place. A small town and surrounding area. Provide enough information so that a GM could use it as a starting point for any campaign they want to run. Condense it down to 10 to 20 pages. Include a GM and player map of the area. Chapter 6 - I am torn about this chapter because it has a lot of useful information. I think having a set of steps on how to create a character would be helpful. Example character 'archetypes' would also be very important. Must have a small set of standard fantasy opponents - guards, bandits, thieves, assassins, orcs/goblins, ogres, giants, giant snake/spider, etc. Opportunities for further products from Hero by following the above approach: Mass combat - PDF supplement Magic Systems book - Basically cover a whole bunch of magic systems and example spells for each system. Expand on Chapter 5 with a bigger and more detailed campaign. I have no idea how Columbia Games does with it's Harn World material but having a 'place' like that to play in that has been tailored for Hero would be awesome.

Re: Parry. A third defense option. Back when I was young, skinny and fast I use to fence. I was an ok fencer. I will say that parry and block are different. Blocking is just an attempt to keep the blade of your opponent from hitting you. A well executed parry actually sets you up to make an attack on your opponent because you have put their blade in a bad position for blocking your next move.

Re: Looking to buy Champions RPG 6th Edition. Save the trees and go PDF....

Re: Hit Locations, too high or just right? Series of comments: I think the adjustments are just fine - especially in a heroic game setting where there is killing attacks tend to be more common. Vitals : I have always thought of this as being hit in the kidneys, belly, under the rib cage, and even certain spots on your thighs where you might bleed out in a minute or two. Penalty/Combat Skill Levels: One of the characters in my fantasy game is an archer. When she uses her 'martial archery accurate shot' + penalty skill levels for placed shots + penalty skill levels to offset range + her combat levels she can regularly (75%) hit a 'minion' in the head from 1/2 way across the game table. She can also take head shots against major villains and hit somewhat regularly (50%). That is ok - some of the villains have learned about this and are now buying special helmets (25% rPD damage reduction ) - too expensive for minions. Others are using ranged attacks back at her and she is often at 1/2 DCV

Re: How do GMs out there handle late arrivals My rule of thumb is new characters have a standard build and then 80% of the average XP for the whole party. It is a rule of thumb and I will adjust if necessary. It has worked well.

Re: Resistance is useless Where is that rule at? I don't remember reading it.

Re: "Elevator Pitch" your campaign I am the GM for two campaigns. The first one is a Silver Age Champions campaign set in our current time frame in the Twin Cities. The heroes came together by accident and are now govt. sponsored. There is Gigavolt - an energy blaster, who can 'fly' along metal items (rail lines, power lines, etc) and teleport from a large metal object to another. There is Azerath who is a mentalist/telekinetic. And there is Penthesilea - a homage to Wonder Woman. They have run into a couple of Marvel and Champions Villains. It is a very episodic campaign (on purpose). The main campaign is the Valdorian Age - Rising Power on the Frontier a gritty sword and sorcery world where magic is dangerous and rare; and a good blade or bow is a better bet for attacking your opponent. The players have come together to oppose a very powerful mage and his following that came to their continent after being kicked out of the kingdom he came from.

Re: Mega-damage, bit by bit I am running a pretty low magic campaign and have worked hard to 'manage' the power levels in my campaign. I 'codified' it for my players here. I do have a gritty campaign and so the potential for 'nasty' levels of killing damage is out there. Also the amount of resistant defense is capped at 6 rPD/rED that means characters can take a lot of damage quickly. We also use called shots but we don't use 'random' hit locations. Bad guys generally don't do called shots - but a few do and can.

Re: suggestions for maps, scenery? I have also purchased Game Mastery Flip mats and Map sets which are both excellent product lines.

Re: Resistance is useless Thank you for this thread because I didn't realize there had been a change to the way Killing Attacks & normal defenses, w/ regards to Stun, work. Although this has no impact on my fantasy campaign - everyone generally has some level of 'armor' on. But it does affect the program I have been working on.

Re: Bows, Brace, and DCV One of the characters in my campaign is a master archer. The 1/2 DCV issue rarely comes up because she often fires from cover or is very far away from the HtH combat (lots of penalty skill levels w/ range). The very rare times someone has shot back at her character they have missed by a mile. She also bought Archery Tricks and I think if it was an issue I would just have her try to make an Archery Tricks roll to remove the 1/2 DCV penalty.

Re: That Hellish Thing Awesome! More please.

Re: The Red Queen Effect and Superhumans

Re: Pre Attacks Sean ... Could you tell us what you really think? Don't hold back this time. .

Re: Pre Attacks My players use Presence Attacks quite a bit. I actually encourage it. The villains will do the same in return. PRE attacks & soliloquies are where the role-playing comes into the combat IMO.

Re: A spell that acts like a "lightning rod for magic" Thank you all... Deflection seems to be a good approach. Basically constant, end, side effect is that the Focus (Oak staff w/ ornate carvings/inlays of precious metals) takes the damage from the magic attack, and a couple of other things. This is perfect.

So I am looking at the Arcanomancy spells in the Grimoire II book and there is one spell that I think would be very useful to this type of mage. So a mage, George casts his Rod of Magic spell, which is a constant spell as long as he pays end. Then Tim the Evil Enchanter casts a Fireball at Mary but instead of the fireball flying towards Mary, the fireball turns direction and heads towards George, who has other spells up and running (walls, shields, absorption, suppress, etc) which keeps George from being fried. The Rod of Magic spell basically causes magic to be attracted to the Rod that George has in his hand. Any ideas?

Re: Wish List: Other Licensed Content There are a world of fantasy book series that would make great additions - Sanctuary and the entire Fafhrd & Gray Mouser series. Or Stephen Brust's Vlad series.

Re: Now taking suggestions - HERO System Combat in Two Pages I want to thank the person who mentioned that I should have asked permission to post that two page. BIG OOPS on my part.

Re: Detailed (mundane) armor I did play in a Fantasy game - a long time ago - where we went for realism on encumbrance and used sectional armor defenses. And then we also started using hit locations. It did change the dynamic of the game. Players would often target hands, lower legs, and feet - all of which were usually lightly armored - vs chest & head shots.

Re: I could use some ideas for a fantasy campaign. I could also see the Kronian lords decide that maybe the people who tried to invade might be better allies than enemies....