bluesguy

Eventually the characters in my campaign are going to be involved in traveling by ship. They will be going up and down rivers on barges (oared mostly) or on larger bodies of water via sailing ships. Will the Hero System Vehicle Sourcebook or The Ultimate Vehicle help me out that much? I have looked at some other threads about sailing ships.

Re: Banshee Meadyaon: You submit a bunch of character ideas here. I wonder if you are just collecting character ideas? I ask because I don't see how you could be playing all these characters. What is your goal with all your character threads?

My turn to contribute to the community. I have been using a spreadsheet to track both merchandise and randomly treasure in my campaign (The Valdorian Age). Recently I came across the tool Inspiration Pad Pro which makes it possible to create a number of text files that IPP reads and then uses to generate anything you want based on your files. I have taken my spreadsheets and converted them into the kind of data files that Inspiration Pad Pro uses to randomly generate things. The result is a Valdorian Age treasure and merchandise generator. Here are the notes from the "Readme.txt" file which is part of the zip package. ======== This zip package includes the files necessary to generate treasure in a Valdorian Age campaign using the InspirationPadPro2 tool. You can download a copy of the InspirationPadPro2 tool from http://www.nbos.com/products/ipad/ipad.htm. It is a free program and it is very useful. These random generation files have been "tuned" for the Valdorian Age campaign material. They have also been further "tuned" to fit my version of the Valdorian Age Campaign Material. After you have installed the InspirationPadPro2 tool, locate the directory C:\...\nbos\InspirationPadPro2. You will then need to copy the Common\va directory to C:\...\nbos\InspirationPadPro2\Common and Generators\ValdorianAge directory to C:\...\nbos\InspirationPadPro2\Generators When you start the InspirationPadPro2 tool the Valdorian Age should be one of the options. The ValdorianAgeTreasure.ipt file is setup to generate many more mundane items than a typical fantasy campaign treasure pile. My players like finding 'useful' things in the treasures they come across. It is very important to realize the Valdorian Age is a campaign world where monsters and magic are extremely rare. How often items show up is based on this rarity and the costs reflect the rarity as well. One area where there is a great deal of detail has to do with the bookbinder.ipt file. My players are very interested in books in the campaign world. Their characters will spend coin on books. So I have created a very complex book generator. It is highly customized to the campaign world (people, locations, etc). To adapt this material for another campaign the following files will have to be changed: 1. coins.ipt - This generated is highly skewed to generate copper and small amounts of silver coins. Finding gold coins has a 1 in a 1000th chance of occurring. 2. colleges.ipt - These are the magic colleges. The outcomes have been adjusted away from certain types of magic (Black Magic, Conjuration, Elemental, Necromancy, Shamanism, and Witchcraft) and towards other types (Alchemy, Song, Divine, Wizardry, Divination, etc). 3. historictimes.ipt - This is very specific for the Valdorian Age campaign world. Extensive changes need to made here for this file to work with other campaign worlds. 4. holidays.ipt - This is a simple file to change 5. oldgods.ipt - List of deities in the Valdorian Age and it will need to be changed for another campaign world. 6. people.ipt - This is another area that will require extensive changes for another campaign world. 7. places.ipt - This is another area that will require extensive changes for another campaign world. There is at least one bug in the files. There are times when a "Novel" is generated but the 'place' that should be generated with the novel's title doesn't appear. ==== If you have questions please contact me.

Re: Weirdness Magnet I can't help with the character creation part but I do have a friend from college who is a weirdness magnet. My friend Don is weird unto himself. If gamers are on the edge of 1 standard deviation off of norm, then Don is easily 2 standard deviations off the norm for the American population. In addition to the fact that Don is weird unto himself, he attracts an odd collection of friends - some of us are in that 1 SD off of norm, but he had/has some friends that are 3 or 4 or 5 deviations off of norm. He doesn't do anything special to attract these folks they just 'find him'. Also there were weird occurrence that happened around him - finding weird objects (bizarre religious emblems), phenomena, and the previously mentioned people. If he was late for a game session there was always another story about some weird thing that happened to him.

Re: some useful toys That is fantastic. Thank you!

Re: some useful toys Awesome! Are you going to create a HD file and post it? I was taking the previous ones and putting them into a HD file. I can put all of them into a file and post it if you would like.

Re: some useful toys More please... Those are very cool. I run a low magic powered (especially items) world. So I am always on the look out for magic items that are interesting and have 0 use in combat.

Re: New Hero System Players And Game Masters My gaming group is myself (GM), my wife (we played a long time ago and then stopped), our two teenagers (17 & 14), a woman and her son (14) from church and a new member who is a friend of my son's (also 17). The teenagers are hooked.

Re: Fantasy Art Thread In fact I asked the sponsor whether or not I can buy a 'license' to use the images on my Obsidian Portal site. I am sure I will buy the $25 level. But I am willing to buy a bit higher level if I can use the images for my OP site. We are in discussions about that :-)

Re: How long to learn or improve a skill, spells, etc? Is your program available for others to use?

Re: Fantasy Art Thread Thank you for pointing out the Kickstart project. I am going to seriously consider getting them.

Re: How long to learn or improve a skill, spells, etc? Thank you for all the feedback. I am definitely adjusting what I was planning on doing. Hugh thank you so much for pointing out the big flaws in the approach I was going with. There will still be training time but it will be 'cinematic' - think Karate Kid, Eragon, etc.

Re: How long to learn or improve a skill, spells, etc?

Re: How long to learn or improve a skill, spells, etc? Hugh, First of all excellent feedback. This is exactly what I was looking for... Definitely didn't think about Martial Arts, Stats, Interaction skills, etc. If my goal is to encourage more skills (basic skills + knowledge skills), your feedback basically is saying Make the act of learning a new skill faster. So maybe learning a familiarity just has to be logical. For instance I have been providing the players w/ 1 pt AK for the area where they live or where they adventure - just because that is where they hang out. If they say, I want to increase my AK to a full skill roll I would want to say ok you can have that now. Another one would be the Lockpicking. Learn the familiarity of lockpicking (on their own with help) pretty quickly and if they use it then they can put points into quickly. Combat skills - Maybe the deal is that it takes the same amount of time to gain a +1 with any kind of CV since saving up the points for a +1 w/ All Combat vs +1 w/ swords will take 5x longer to acquire the experience. With this approach that means if someone wants to go from learning a new weapon, for instance a mace and wanted to be a master (+6 CV is highest in my campaign) would take 7 months to occur. Weapon Familiarity - for each 1 pt in familiarity it would take one week for common weapons. At least 2x that for unusual weapons. +1 would take a one week. The next +1 would take two weeks. The next +2 would take 1 month each. After that each +1 would take 2 months. [*]Spells - I think I would leave them the way I had them. The big deal with the spells is finding someone who knows the spell you want. In my world find a mage is tough, they are few and far between. So what do you think about this adjustment?

My proposed approach Skills Improving an existing skill is based on the character taking the time to consistently practice. I am thinking the first +1 would take a week. The next +1 a month. And every +1 after that would take 6 months. I am basing this on my own experience of improving skills I already have. I tend to learn the skill and then get better at it pretty quickly but then it starts taking a while to get even better. Learning a new skill is based on finding someone who can teach you. I was thinking a familiarity (1pt) would take two weeks. To get the full skill (+2 pts in skill) would take another month. Again going back to my own experience learning something. Combat skills would be based on the following and would require training. No one can have more than +6 CV with any attack. Weapon Familiarity - for each 1 pt in familiarity it would take one week for common weapons. At least 2x that for unusual weapons. +1 w/ a single weapon would take a one week. The next +1 would take two weeks. The next +2 would take 1 month each. After that each +1 would take 2 months. +1 w/ a small group would take two weeks. The next +1 would take one month. The next +2 would take 2 months each. After that each +1 would take 3 months. +1 with a large group of attacks would take 1 month. The next +1 would take two months. The next +1 would take 2 months. After that each +1 would take 3 months. +1 with all HTH or Ranged would take 3 months. The next +1 would take 6 months. After that each +1 would take 1 year. +1 with all Attacks would take 6 months. After that each +1 would take 1 year. I am also thinking that if a player had a professional skill that was combat oriented (warrior, archer, knight, etc) they could attempt to make their PS roll and for each point they make their roll by they can reduce the time by one level from the above. But it can never be shorter than the base time. Spells - I am thinking about the following for spells. There are apprentice/novice and master spell casters. Many spells in my campaign have between 20 and 40 active points and are between 2 and 7 real points. Every spell caster has a skill roll they have to roll to 'activate' the spell. For Apprentice/Novice If they have someone teaching them the spell the time is Hours = (Active Points * Real Cost) / 4. During the time the character is in intense study and can spend a minimum of 4 hours of day and up to 8 hours a day studying for the new spell. They cannot take a break longer than one day otherwise they have to start over again. If they learn the spell based on self study and some kind of written material (scroll or spell book) the time is Days = (Active Points * Real Cost) / 4. During the time the character is in intense study and can spend a minimum of 4 hours of day and up to 8 hours a day studying for the new spell. They cannot take a break longer than one week otherwise they have to start over again. [*]For Master the time is cut by 50% [*]Halfway through the learning process the spell caster can roll their skill roll. If they make the roll by -3 they cut the remaining time in half. If they miss their roll by +3 the time remaining will double. If the roll is between -3 and +3 then it takes the remaining time to finish. Special Combat Skills - Whirling blades of death; parry/riposte based on a trigger; etc Need someone to train with Must train ahead of time Training time is Hours = (Active Points * Real Cost) / 4 Halfway through the learning process the character can roll their professional 'combat' skill roll. If they make the roll by -3 they cut the remaining time in half. If they miss their roll by +3 the time remaining will double. If the roll is between -3 and +3 then it takes the remaining time to finish. Here is what I would like to accomplish with these rules. Encourage skill development and improvement. Encourage developing a variety of knowledge and language skills Encourage a variety of combat skills Buy skills like teamwork Have the players plan out when they want to 'spend some down time' to train. i.e. let some 'campaign time' pass while they train. Find mentors Buy contacts, favors, and save points for followers Opinions? What you do you do in your own campaigns?

Re: MYTHIC HERO Kickstarter I pledged as well. Thank you for doing the work Steve.

Re: The Valdorian Age I want to bring this up again. I love the setting. It would be wonderful if it was available as a PDF.

Re: Post your campaign/setting/supplement Valdorian Age

Re: Unoficial Advance Players Guide 3 Survay.

So based on my reading of the various Hero books (6e) I think a fantasy character who wants to build mechanical traps would need: Concealment - so they can hide the trap Mechanic - to put together the mechanisms to build the trap Blacksmithing - maybe to make the specific parts of the mechanism Inventor - to be able to invent a new trap vs. one they have encountered and 'taken' apart. Opinions? Thank you in advance

Re: Realistic Monetary Systems in FH I think I will stick with Valdorian Age's 10 copper = 1 silver and ~400 sp = 1 gold bar. Good luck finding a gold coin or bar in my campaign.

Re: Where does it show the price list for Hero system equipment guide. What I have been doing my Valdorian Age campaign is collecting lists of items from various sources and then putting them into a spreadsheet. Within the spreadsheet there is the base cost and then formulas for low, slightly above average and expensive for each item. The Expensive includes a random factor to make it more interesting. As there are no magic items for sale that eliminates that problem. I have included such things as rent and services as well. If there is an interest in the spreadsheet I can post it here.

Re: Why I prefer HERO System over Pathfinder/OGL/D&D for fantasy When Champions first came out, all those many years ago, the group I was gaming with was pretty tired of playing fantasy games (AD&D). We played in a Champions campaign that was Marvel based universe but far away from the main Marvel action. When Fantasy Hero came out it was a natural to stop using AD&D because we were all sick of the rigid rules about character creation. We also liked the fact that we moved away from the attitude of "I am a 10th level ranger, those 20 orcs don't scare me." to "Dang 20 orcs I wonder if we/I should run away and fight another day." A couple of lucky hits and you might be dead. I just started RPG again after a ~20 year break. I had gotten rid of all my material (rule books, source material, everything :-( ) a long time ago. When I went looking for rule system, Hero was the natural choice. The rules have changed a lot (no figured characteristics was the biggest surprise) but the system still has all the flexibility I love. I would say the biggest problem is how long combat can take. On occasion I now do dice less combat where we role play the combat out. This works well for quick combat where the players are suppose to easily dispatch the opposition. But when they are taking on the main encounter a battle can take an hour or more, which of course in the campaign world was only 24 to 36 seconds .

Re: The Treasure Thread There have been some great ideas here. I have also gleaned a number of other treasure list ideas off the web and put together a spreadsheet (it has +800 items on it) of items that can be found by an adventuring party. One of the sheets can be used to generate a list of random items for a treasure. I have included instructions in the spreadsheet on how to use it. As I am running the Valdorian Age campaign the list of items is 'magic poor'. You really won't find any magic unless it is something unusual - there were a couple of items from this thread that fit the bill. I hope you find it useful. [ATTACH]41083[/ATTACH]

Re: Hero In Two Pages - Complete Thank you. My contribution was to turn the PDF into some simple HTML that I could use on my Obsidian Portal site. I have attached the html (it still needs the & tags - which I don't need on my OP wiki page). Hope this helps someone else. [ATTACH]40964[/ATTACH]