Aroooo

Originally posted by Dr. Anomaly

3) With a missile-as-vehicle, you have a chance to outrun it, evade it, lead it back so it smacks into the launching vessel, etc. -- all classic literary and cinematic bits -- and you can't do that vs. a normal RKA, unless you want to define it as a really strange variant of Missile Deflect/Reflect.

You know, this is the most compelling reason I've seen yet to build a missile as a vehicle - no offense to everyone who's chimed in on this.

Originally posted by Syberdwarf2

Missiles ARE vehicles. Every 'Missile' (i.e. Rocket, not an arrow or bullet) consists of two parts.

True. But to play devil's advocate for a moment, that's not how Hero thinks. Its about the effect, not the mechanics - but you know that

Thanks again to everyone who chimmed in here.

Aroooo

My brain must be locked up by the snow DC is getting...

I know its in the book, but I just can't find it. What is the formula for calculating KPH or MPH from inches of movement?

Aroooo

Originally posted by Agent Escafarc

L x W is fine for a vehicle with a single "deck" but for larger ships with multible decks you should add the area of each deck to come up with the vehicle size. HERO does use mass for it's size charts, but most outside sources use displacement for ship/starship descriptions.

Oh, I agree. When you're designing star ships from scratch, or adapting ships that have a lot of data available (like deck plans), its easy to get l*w*h and number of decks. But when you're working with only partial info, its hard.

Aroooo

Originally posted by Agent Escafarc

Hey Aroooo,

The term tons(I've also seen it spelled tonnes) when used with ship size is not a unit of weight but a unit of volume (the amount of water displaced by the hull) so a 1000 tons wooden ship is the same size as a 1000 tons metal ship though the dead weight of each is different. It's one of those confusing old English measuring systems. I'm suddenly blank on the exact size in cubic meters but only number in my head this early in the morning is 4 cubic meters but that seems too small

I understand displacement tons. I got the impression that SH was dealing in mass, not displacement. But then you get into the old habit of trying to fit everything in the volume of a ship

Like others have suggested, I've just gone with length in most cases, and disregarded the mass column where it is 'off' from the 'real world' stats I have. In those few cases where I have length and width, I've used area as the basis for the vehicle's size.

I keep having to remind myself its about the effect, not the 'hard' reality

Aroooo

I'd limit the Talent to the first two options only; otherwise I could see some serious abuse down the road.

As an aside, the Action! System dealt with this sort of thing. Its been a while since I read the rules, but the basics were each PC in a party chose a particular area of expertise to focus/concentrate development on. It gave the character incentive to develop non-combat related skills/abilities. It was an interesting concept...

Aroooo

Originally posted by Gary

1 pip major transform galaxy to random mass of energy

nonstandard autofire (+1.5)

5.5 trillion shots (+20)

area effect (+1)

69 doublings (+17.25) (roughly 1 galaxy in radius) (did not use megascale because I didn't want too large of a drift from misses)

0 end (+1)

does knockback double knockback (+1)

 

+41.75 total in advantages. 214 active points.

 

OAF (-1) Immobile (-1) 5 minutes to activate (-2)

 

43 real points.

 

This attack transforms a galaxy into a random mass of energy. 5.5 trillion body should do the trick. Even if it doesn't, 11 trillion inches of knockback is pretty lethal.

You scare me

But since its a Transformation, what's the 'common' defense/recovery?

Aroooo

Originally posted by Agent X

Hey Aroooo, since you're going to all this work, why not run a PBEM game on B5? Looks like you would do a great job.

Thanks for the vote of confidence

Maybe I will once I get everyting cobbled together. Maybe an IPX team around the end of first season... Hm... I could get into running that.

Aroooo

A silly question, which I probably already know the answer to, but just to be sure: in a Heroic level game, do vehicles have normal characteristic maxima? Is there a point where vehicles need to pay double for their stats?

Aroooo

10mm

Just to chime in for a sec... The 10mm round is not new. Its been around for a long time. Its becoming a popular handgun round (again?) because the 'experts' say it is a good comprimise between the 9mm's (armor) penetration (read muzzle velocity) and the .45 ACP's stopping power (read mass of round). This reminds me of the early days of the military's change over from .45 to 9mm. Oh, were there some arguments

[This is more a design question than a rules question...]

When adapting, or even just creating, a vehicle, when determining the size (cost), should you use the vehicle's dimensions or mass as the primary governing factor?

More specific (to help understand the question) example: I'm writing up B5 starships. I have length (and width in a few cases) and mass of the ships. When 'fitting' those numbers into the size chart, sometimes there is a great disparity between dimension and mass, in terms of where the ship fits in the size chart. An Explorer class ship is about 3000 inches long, but only 37 megatons. The size chart would make it either a cost of 175 points - based on length, giving the ship a mass of 3.2 gigatons; or it would be a cost of 145 points - based on mass, giving a length of only 800 inches.

Which should I use?

Aroooo

FH feedback

Steve,

Not having taken the time (yet) to read all 93 posts so far, since I just started looking at this thread, I hope I'm not repeating. These are some issues that have come up in our recent fantasy game:

1) Expanded animal handling rules. When riding and not riding.

2) 'Vehicle' combat using animals. Animal reactions, rider reactions, etc.

2a) Jousting rules.

3) Expanded armor coverage/creation rules.

4) Expanded 'medieval' armor & weapons tables.

5) Expanded rules for teaching/instructing, ala the master wizard and his apprentice; or learning how to handle a sword by getting lessons from the castle guard.

6) Expanded weapon familiarity table. Break down the melee weapons into smaller categories.

More later as I think of it.

Aroooo

Re: .50 Calibur Revolver

Originally posted by Super Squirrel

I read in the paper today that a new 5 shot revolver is on the market now for $980. It is different, because it is the first firearm to feature a .50 Calibur round. I'd quote the article if I hadn't misplaced it but it is said to have the stopping power to take down a charging bear. Any idea what the write up for that would be?

I don't follow the gun world to closely, but there ave been .50 cal revolvers before. My uninformed guess would be this is a new production gun, rather than a custom job.

Originally posted by Super Squirrel

My initial guess would be 2d6 RKA, Double Knockback, Charges 5, Real Weapon.

I would think a high STR min too, possibly even the 1 1/2 hands limitation (probably two hands to compensate for the monster recoil).

Aroooo

ship speeds

Originally posted by Starwolf

Such an article would be great. I am working on a Wing Commander conversion for Hero. The toughest thing to figure out has been ship speeds in kilometers per second to inches (that makes things happen pretty fast). And then factor in afterburners.....

 

I have a handle on it but more construction guidance giving attention to SF type ship speeds would have been welcome.

 

I also am entralled with Star Hero, I think it is the best Hero product ever put into print bar none.

A year or so ago, I was trying to do write ups for S:AAB ships (in another system). I got so hung up with the 'how many game inches per turn moved for real world speed' I gave up. The numbers were so daunting it looked unrealistic. I started revisiting that again (when SH was announced), and came to the [wonderful] conclusion that real world speed really didn't matter.

What counts (from Hero System perspective) is how fast ships are to each other, not to the universe. For example, in working up B5, I use the Starfury as a base speed, call it 20 combat inches of flight. Then, just give faster ships more fllight. The Minbari fighter would have 25-30 inches, Narn fighters would be around 15-18 inches, etc. Then, if you build the engines as a multipower (per SH reccommendations), your non-combat slot just has a big megascale advantage; 1"=lots of km. No one is ever going to map out traveling from a jump point to a planet's surface, so those 'numbers' just become GM description/color. You have the MP slot to represent non-combat travel, and be done. In this instance, don't sweat the big stuff

Let me know if that makes sense.

Aroooo

Originally posted by Syberdwarf2

You make a valid point. The starship construction rules are kinda vague. But IMO, that's the point. They could've put more in there in the way of example ships, or construction variants, etc., but that would detract from the premise of the book. SH was meant to be a genre book. For ships to have a 'naval' feel to them, or B5, or S:AB&B, whatever; that kind of stuff would depend on the sub-genre and the type of campaign being run.

Sorry if I was a little vague. Your point here is the point I was trying to make The 'feel' of any campaign is up to the GM. The good thing about making ships - once you've done it, its done. I mean, once you design "ship type a" you don't need to design it again, like we do with NPCs.

Anyway, back to work

Aroooo

SH Starship Construction

I'd like to chime in here. Since I started working on my B5 conversions, I've been looking hard at those rules. Like most things Hero/Champions, the mechanics are about the effect, and not how (or why?) the effect was created. I've been used to more traditional starship construction rules, where you have a hull of X volume/mass, and you 'fit' stuff inside it. So its taken (taking) me a while to get over that hangup of mine to get stats for B5 ships written up.

But after a while, I'm starting to get into the swing of things "Hero style" and am trying not to sweat the little things. You don't need to quantify every little detail about a ship down to numbers and facts. I once tried to figure out how much Running a star fighter would need to taxi on a runway, so I could buy down its Running from 6". (Think Space: Above and Beyond pilot episode and you'll get the idea.)

However, what I would have liked to see were some more starship examples, to get a better feel for construction variations. Particularly when things like skill levels are used to represent maneuvering thrusters and other 'non hardware' (read: not Powers) abilities are used to represent hardware.

The other major SH addition I would have liked would have been a fairly detailed example of starship combat, using the Dogfight and/or Intercept rules, as well as a detailed 'complex' combat example. I know page space is limited, and as many examples as were in SH, it would have been nice to have some combat examples.

Enough rambling, back to work

Aroooo

P.S. I do have to add that I am not unsatisfied with SH in any way. in fact, its more that I origianlly hoped/thought it would be! Can't wait to get Ult. Vehicle! Maybe that will clear up some of my confusions

Re: Oh, be maintenance workers.

Originally posted by MarkusDark

Ever see the episode with those two that float around in the background, repairing things while everything is going to hell? I LOVE those types of shows. Just like Star Trek TNG's episode "Ensigns of Command".

That B5 episode was one of my favorites; although it never was explained WHO was attacking the Station. It sure wasn't the Shadows... (On a side note, both the B5 and Trek episodes in that vein were either loved or hated by the fan base. Funny how that goes.)

Originally posted by MarkusDark The plot depends on if you want to have it stationary at B5 or be out in the galaxy ala Excalibur. Any area within the series could be expanded upon. You could be members of the IPE searching out for techology to battle the shadows or be a mercenary company working to help the Narn homeworld. Blip hunters would be interesting as could be the shadow's answer to the Rangers (which you never saw but, hey, maybe they were there).

Those would [essentially] be the Drakh - the race that picked up where the Shadows left off...

Aroooo

Originally posted by Susano

Surbrook's Stuff is one of the larger archives of HERO System material on the web. There are several hundred character adaptions, creatures, vehicles, and numerous aricles on armor, weapons, magic items, spells, martial arts powers, and so on. Check it out!

 

Oh, and as I'm a big fan of anime and manga, I have a lot of anime and manga related material on my site.

 

(How's that?)

Works for me.

Nice Site

I've been to your site before. Nice collection.

But for the newbies you should expand on your request. Tell us what the site is. Your goals, etc.

Just playing devil's advocate. Don't mind me

By the way, is there actually an 'official unofficial' site for player creations, house rules, etc?

Aroooo

Re: Re: Re: Newpaper For Writers Block

It's so inspiring, in fact, that I'm even considering running a campaign in which the characters are all reporters for just such a tabloid. Can't quite decide what power level I wanna run it at, though (or time period for that matter - present day, near future or far future).

I run a Hero level game based on characters like that. Its a mix of Conspiracy Theory meets X-Files, and so far, everyone's enjoying it. Believe it or not, its actually a fairly good genre to us when introducing new people to RPGs, or just the Hero system. I started the game to get one of our player's girlfriend interested. Not being into comics, this worked out well.

Aroooo

If you're looking for actual cardboard character graphics and such, here are some good web sites:

Cumberland Games, aka Sparks:

http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/sparks.htm

These are Mac/Win font sets. High quality.

The Heromachine (great site):

http://www.heromachine.com/

Online or downloadable character 'painter'

Steve Jackson Games Cardboard Heroes:

http://www.sjgames.com/heroes/

As for printing, heavy ink jet card stock works. Or, you can print on regular paper, and spray mount to foam core board for a thicker cardboard hero.

Aroooo

Campaign ideas

Originally posted by tiger

I'm assuming that most campaigns will either be the command group, rangers or security?

 

Having problems coming up with other groups. I have a large group I play with

I was not planning on doing a lot of campaign type stuff (background info, scenarios, etc.), but could come up with some things if there is a demand...

Given that, our group is working on two avenues: first group will be Rangers, set at the begining of the 3rd season. I'll have them running around the fringes of known space and occasionally hop back to B5. The second group will probably be 'normals' in the B5 universe. Merchants, traders, smugglers, etc. You know, typical sci-fi gamer mix:)

B5 Station Security is always a good one. As well as members of Alpha or Delta flights. But then you have to be more creative about giving PC's something to do when they are not chasing Raiders and such. And depending on the time frame of the 'season' you choose to start in, backup pilots will come in handy.

Finally, another concept we've talked about is either Station personnel or civilians during the Telepath Wars (although I missed many of the novels, so don't know how prevalent the station is to the overall war).

Aroooo

For the sake of the new message forums, this is just an FYI that I've started working on Hero stats for the Babylon 5 Universe. I've set up a web site at:

http://www.aroooo.com/rpg_stuff/b5/index.php

for those interested. I'll keep this thread posted on updates as they come out.

Aroooo