bluesguy

Re: Football Fu

Funny thing about our HERO System. Ask anyone of us to write something up and your liable to get several different examples and they will be right.

I thought that was the best part about the HERO system

Looking at vehicles in my campaigns (and sometimes bases but not as much). Which of these two products will have plenty of examples to work from Hero System Vehicle Sourcebook or Ultimate Vehicles. I run either Fantasy or Superhero games. I have tried running Science Fiction & Pulp but that doesn't work for me, so I don't need vehicles in those areas (having them is a bonus). My main need is for vehicles in a Fantasy setting and then superhero setting. My fantasy setting I need ocean, river, and lake going vessels. This is a low magic world so flying ships are not all that useful (again a bonus).

So based on my requirements what is the group wisdom between those two books?

Re: Has anyone tried doing an Hyborian/Conan game using Fantasy Hero

So bluesguy what magic system are you using? When I was looking at running it I was giving serious thought to doing an "anti-magic" style campaign where basically anyone who was a sorceror was a villain...

 

Curious what you are doing

Basics are:

• There are 'two basic' levels of mastery when it comes to magic - apprentice/novice and master
  
• Requires either a successful Magic or Faith roll
  
• Incantation
  
• Gestures
  
• Knowledge Skill of 13- (INT based) is required for the school of magic that is studied
  
• If a spell exceed 40 active points, each 5 points above 40 costs an addition 1 point of END. For spells which exceed 80 active points each 5 points above 80 costs an additional 2 points of END. This cannot be reduced. It also cannot be made into charges.
  

Apprentices/Novice also have the following limitations

• Side Effects – all spells will have a side effect that affects the spell caster.
  
• Initially no spell can have more than 40 active points
  
• Only one school of magic is available at a time
  

And for mages (not characters that get their power from a divine entity) they get to track LTE. And I use the 'harsher' set of rules. This keeps mages from blasting everything in sight because they figure "Oh I blew my spell roll - that just costs me some more END." Now it has a long term impact on the character.

I have limited the schools of magic. There are two schools of magic that are universally considered evil - necromancy and black magic. Outside of those two it is dependent on how the person who has magical ability uses it.

There is more information at Valdorian Age Rising Power on the Frontier

The party consists of three 'magic users':

• Ranger with some interesting 'spells' (thank you Steve for the Ranger Magic book) which in some ways don't 'feel' like magic but rather special abilities.
  
• Priestess who has a pretty limited set of spells (her healing spell pretty much wipes her out because it has a 4d6 END drain (5pts recovered per hour). One time she used the spell 3x and slept for about 12 hours :-)
  
• Sorcerer - lots of mentalist spells.
  

Re: Has anyone tried doing an Hyborian/Conan game using Fantasy Hero

Last night I got this book out and read it. Honestly if you have a copy of Fantasy HERO and Valdorian Age you can do a very slick conan-style swords and sorcery game. Even if you don't use the setting from VA you can plug and play the city into your world (rename as necessary) or just use it as an idea mine.

I have been using it for over a year. The home base for the players is Elweir but they have been traveling all over the place. I made on major change in my campaign - I don't use the magic system in VA. I love the concept but I think 'managing' the whole favors thing would have become a major pain in the backside.

I have been 'slowly' growing the areas around Elweir. Some of the adventures that I think were very 'Conan' like were:

• Protecting a caravan from bandits. They 'scared' off the scouting party but then on the way home they were jumped by a larger number. And just like Conan can take on a bunch of 'bandits' at one time the party did the same thing (4 or 5 to 1 odds).
  
• When inspecting a building to turn into a tavern, they go into the basement only to find a Carrion Crawler the size of a bus (actually more like van) which they fight and kill.
  
• And now they are following a 'treasure map' to an ancient treasure trove ... hehehe.
  

Re: Grimoire: Elemental Earth spell - Create Tower

Thank you all for your help. I was able to create an build of a tower, with a moat, drawbridge and a few other items for the mage on the move :-).

This spell is written up as a summon:

Create Tower: Summon 300-point tower, Expanded Class of Beings (any type of stone tower or like structure; +1/4), Slavishly Devoted (+1) (135 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Hour, -3), OAF Expendable (Extremely Difficult to obtain new Focus; miniature gold tower, studded with gems; -2), Concentration, Must Concentrate throughout use of Constant Power (0 DCV; -1), Gestures, Requires Gestures throughout (-1/2), Incantations (Requires Incantations throughout; -1/2), Requires A Roll (Skill roll; Earth Magic; -1/2)

If it was summon demons/monsters/bunny rabbits I could look them up in a book and have some stats.

But a tower? How do you build a tower? Do you use the building base rules? If so that is one big tower!

Suggestions and help please.

Re: Has anyone tried doing an Hyborian/Conan game using Fantasy Hero

I am using the Valdorian Age. Yes the main part of the book is all about Elweir. But what I have done is continue to expand on the areas around Elweir. Plus there are hints of deep and dark dungeons and passages underneath Elweir as well :-)

Re: So: What Superpowers would your Parents get if they had a "Radiation Accident"

My dad was a rocket scientist (back in the early 60's), worked on lasers (helped build the USAF airborne laser lab), and he can build pretty much any electronic thing he can think up. So I am thinking a genius gadgeteer. As for his actual super powers - Reed Richards level INT; Positive reputation +4d6/+4 PRE skills (people just like dad); high Ego; and 'mind control' (causes people to laugh so hard they can hardly breathe after he tells a joke).

Mom... Well we called her the thermonuclear hand grenade while we were growing up. So I am thinking she would have an 'explosive' mental blast, something akin to 8d6 mental blast, and explosive AoE ~ 8". She would also have a high INT and Ego.

Re: Guide Lines for Campaigns

Hi,

When I started w/ my current group I had a ton of Hero experience and my wife had played in Hero games for a while. Everyone else was new. So I feel your pain. To help my players and myself I came up with some guidelines for building characters.

Check out

• Gaming Mechanics
  
• Characteristics and Skill Rules
  
• Experience Points
  

My campaign is 50/50 combat to role playing (the only dice roles are for skill rolls). Everyone has had fun with this. The combats range from encounters where the PCs wade into a fight against 'cannon fodder' and minions pretty easily - which is the way I wanted combat to be. But when they come up against major villains they really have to work at the combat to survive.

If you check out the armor 'rules' I have presented the reasons why people don't find plate armor in my world. The best resistant defense is ~5 PD/ED. Most PCs have 4 to 6 PD/ED. Many of them can dish out 2d6 KA and some have the skill levels to take placed shots. The fodder/minions usually can only dish out 1.5 KA (still nothing to sneeze at) - but never take placed shots. Major villains are right in line with the PCs. Usually they have some special ability/skill that makes the combat interesting.

Hope this helps

Re: New Fantasy Hero Stuff From Steve: ACID MAGIC and LIGHTNING MAGIC

Steve - wonderful news. Going to get those soon.

Re: Fantasy worlds you had to "rework" years later once you've grown up and knew bett

When I first started gaming it was D&D, ~1979 , and no one had a "campaign". We did dungeon crawling. Basically wander around, find monsters, kill monsters, take their stuff and then go to town to drop of the excessive stuff. After about a year of that I started to move the group away from dungeon crawling to more role playing. I had been reading the Thieves World series and there was some source material you could buy at that time. So I dropped Sanctuary where Albuquerque NM is at. I used the USA as the campaign world - which saved having to work up geography, weather and some other issues in creating your own world. I also found out I could get maps from the US Geology Service which were pretty cheap and made things more fun for everyone. The campaign world basically spread east from Sanctuary ("Albuquerque") thru west Texas, down to Houston and then back towards where the Texas/Mexico border is today. I found I was spending a lot of time trying to be consistent and fixing problems I had created during earlier gaming sessions.

I then found the Harn product line which was the best RPG world I have ever used as a GM. It was easy for me to create an epic campaign and lay that on top of the incredibly detailed Harn world products. I ended up selling that material.

When I came back to gaming, I looked at purchasing the Harn product line and decided that was too costly. So I bought the Valdorian Age which has served my purposes very well. Elweir is a very detailed city and the rest of the world has an adequate amount of information that it makes for a good background. There is plenty of room for detailing out places outside of Elweir. This allowed me to create a lot of city adventures and eventually detail areas around Elweir with more detail.

Re: Wealth and Super Heroes

In my campaign I have the players pay for enough 'wealth' that they can have jobs where they are upper middle class & have a profession that lets them run off and fight crime.

Re: Paladin Martial Art?

You want effective but not flashy? You want to do damage without taking it?

Actually I would expect a knight to take damage and keep on coming back. As opposed to a 'light fighter' - one good hit and they are down.

"Martial Arts" doesn't have to mean posing in the crane stance between roundhouse kicks and flying leap kicks. An armored paladin would be well served' date=' for instance, by taking Martial Strike, Offensive Strike, Defensive Strike, and Martial Block with shield and sword elements, and wouldn't bear any resemblance to Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee in a fight.[/quote']

 

Hmmm. I would think 10 points in CSL would be helpful as well (since 10pts of martial arts skills need to be bought to get the skills you describe).

 

Also if the combat takes place on horseback I would definitely buy all the skills necessary to be a terror on horseback.

Re: Why Your Heroes Shouldn't Kill

And I now return you back to the original topic

I am running a Silver Age style campaign right now. I basically told the players we would be playing in a Silver Age campaign and that my basic rules were : all heroes get "Code vs. Killing" which doesn't have to be total but they needed it. I also told them that as a general rule most supervillains don't try to kill either. They will kill but it is more a consequence of the massive amounts of power/damage being generated in a fight. I have even gone so far as to change some supervillains attacks from killing to normal attacks (maybe w/ penetrating) to lower the likelihood of 'killing' happening by accident.

There are some villains who will kill and do so at the drop of the hat.

I did all of this because I wanted the 'lightness' of a Silver Age style game. Everyone gets plenty of 'gray' in my fantasy game setting.

Re: Paladin Martial Art?

but 20 points spent wisely on CSLs instead of maneuvers' date=' produces a highly effective, if not very flashy, combatant.[/quote']

 

And if I am playing a 'medieval knight' type character (strong man in armor) then I am not interested in flashy combat style - I want a character who gets into a fight, dish out lots of damage and soak up lots of damage.

Re: 6E - Low Fantasy Hero - Game Balance Issues - Advice Requested

Usually I ask people to tell me their character's back story before we build their character. If the player just describes their characters combat skills I would make a note of that but I would ask them "Tell me about your character's family background. What did your parents do for a living? Does your character have family members? What kind of jobs did your character have along the way?" All of those kinds of questions will indicate what kinds of skills the character needs. I would also insist that those skills be bought first. Also if you have characters built using the packages that are in the Fantasy Hero game the players will end up with some skills.

When it comes to combat, I would ask what kind of combat style the player is looking for. I would let people know that because of the way Hero combat works it is important to decide what combat style the character is going to be. IMO that means in fantasy terms that means 'knight' (high strength, CON, Body, PD/ED, Stun, Low DEX, Low SPD), "fencer" (low strength, lower CON, standard Body, lower PD?ED, lower Stun, Higher DEX, Higher SPD), magic user types (low strength, lower CON, normal Body/PD/ED, probably Low DEX, Low SPD), etc.

Why do this:

Heavy fighters are going to do a bunch of damage when they hit. If they are capable of hitting a quick fighter easily & as often as a quick fighter that means the quick fighter is not a practical option. So if you want all the fighters to be heavy fighters then set no limits on STR, CON, BODY, PD, ED, etc. Everyone will end up buying STR, DEX, BODY, CON, STUN, PD/ED, etc to the Maximum level. UGLY.

I would suggest you look at this because I came up with some house rules which helps keep my campaign 'sane'.

Re: Coaching from other GMs: How do you describe the combat effects

All of you thank you very much. I don't have this problem when running Fantasy Hero because it is 'easier' to describe how an opponent is hurt when hit by a weapon. And getting cut by a sword or shot by an arrow can be described very graphically. "When you arrow hit him in the chest, you can see that the arrow penetrated his armor and blood is coming from the wound at a rapid rate."

But I was having a hard time doing the same thing for Champions (a silver age style campaign) without getting 'graphic'. Each of these posts have given me plenty of pointers.

I got some excellent feedback from my players after our last session. Basically the problem is that during combat they really can't tell if they are having any 'impact' on their opponents. So they pound and pound and pound on an opponent and the opponent keeps getting back up (he hasn't been stunned or knocked out) and then they give him another blow and he is out or stunned. Basically I didn't say much about how the opponent was affected by their attacks.

Everyone is very good at describing how an attack looks but as a GM how would you describe that the last attack from the PC did some stun to their opponent?

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Selling my Champions collection!

I am very interested in a number of these items. I can't wait to see your auctions go up.

Re: Hello

And buying the Hero Designer program along with some of the HD packs will save you a lot of time and pain.

Re: Hello

The Hero system neither encourages or discourages combat. I run a Sword and Sorcery campaign based on the Valdorian Age (a product sold by Hero). It is setup as a 50/50 (combat vs. Role Playing) type game style. That means we have had sessions - sometimes a couple in a row - where no one has made a single attack roll. We have had other sessions where the entire session was combat. In fact there is one player character whose best combat move is 'dodge'. The player designed her character that way and is definitely plays her character in a way to avoid combat (she helps out where she can with her staff sling) but she is definitely a non-combatant.

I am also running a superhero campaign, same group of people, called North Star Heroes. This campaign is setup as 75/25 (combat vs role playing) and the role playing mostly occurs during the combat . In this case everyone's characters are definitely combat oriented and the characters have few 'role playing skills (high society, persuasion, trading, etc). All of the characters do have a career/job outside of being a superhero, and they have the skills for that career.

Re: Mobile Bug/Tracking Device

Thank you for the suggestions. Now I have more to mull over :-)

This is for a Champions game.

I will describe the "special effect" and I am asking for how the 'build experts' would go about doing it. I have a few ideas of my own but I really am looking for a virtual brainstorming session.

A character wants to have a device that is about the size of a fly or mosquito that the character 'targets' towards a villain or vehicle. The robo-bug 'flies' toward the target and 'attaches' itself to the target. At this point its main job is to provide tracking information to the character's base which has the 'radio equipment' and maps to track the where abouts of the robo-bug. The item is very small so it is almost impossible to see. If spotted it might be mistaken for an insect and easily smashed. If spotted there is a chance it would be recognized as a robo-bug.

Also every time the robo-bug sends a signal back to base there is a chance that the signal will be picked up and possibly tracked down. I am guessing the signal itself would be encrypted but knowing that you are bugged is enough to put people on 'alert'.

I am guessing the character might have as many as 6 at anyone time. And that when they are used they have to be 'recreated' or at least recharged.

Your advice....

Re: Do you use Teamwork?

I like the idea of everyone in the group just agreeing that using Teamwork in the first turn of combat against a solo villain will not make for an interesting story.

Re: Do you use Teamwork?

Sorry about to hijack the thread for one post... My apologies in advance

4 Bricks? Probably all the same power level?

Sounds more like a problem in the villain planning. Homogeneous teams easily have such problems. Would also happen with 4 Flying EP's or 4 Martial Artist.

No I specifically planned on them fighting a villain team of four bricks. Each brick had their own 'special' thing they could do and that made it interesting. The players were able to put down two of the bricks pretty easily (the least versatile). But the last two... It was very comic book. They all smacked those last two bricks as hard as they could. Eventually the telekinetic, who has an entangle based on grabbing nearby objects to 'wrap up opponents' got enough metal chain wrapped around one of the bricks and then two others KOed the guy. The last one just coming back for more until someone remembered - Oh I have a flash attack. After the villain was flashed he gave up.

The nice thing about brick villain teams is the players can let loose with everything they have and be sure they won't kill the villains.

I would never have them face 4 flying EP that would be wrong because only one character can fly (well aside from doing fastball special telekinetic throwing the brick).