Greenstar

Re: [Would-Be Hero-GM]Lethality Here's how I handle infection in my games (FH, based on 100+50, all optional combat rules, so things are kind of nasty) Anytime a character takes a wound in combat, they must make a CON roll to avoid sepsis. Modifiers to the roll are: Wound does more than 3 BODY: -1 Wound does more than 6 BODY: -2 (not cumulative with above) Wound does more than 10 BODY: -3 (not cumulative with above) Wound is not properly bound: -1 Wound is a puncture: -1 Wound is a puncture to a body area covered in pliable clothing: -2 (not cumulative with above) Wound is to the torso: -1 Fire damage: -2 Particularly unsanitary conditions: -1 In general, you do not get any bonuses for having someone with Paramedics skill help you out, you just avoid penalties. That's because the concept of "sanitary wound conditions" is extremely recent. The penalty is larger for punctures as they drive deeper and may actually carry in bits of clothing which is almost certainly dirty and loaded with bacteria. Fire damage is particularly nasty as well, as it so compromises the skin and the natural barriers to infection. Sepsis, once it sets in, progresses as follows (all have recovery times of 1 week): Day 1: Drain 1D6 END & STUN Day 2: Drain 2D6 END & STUN, Drain 1D6 STR Day 3: Drain 3D6 END, Drain 1D6 each STR, DEX, BODY, & STUN Day 4+: Drain 4D6 END, Drain 2D6 each STR, DEX, BODY, & STUN This goes on until the victim dies, is (magically)healed, or has drastic measures applied. Anytime before day 3 an attempt may be made to debride and cauterize the wound. This requires a PS:Churigeon or a Paramedics check, the latter at -4. If it succeeds, the character will take 1/2D6K to the afflicted area, and will scale back down the chart until the infection is gone, then heal normally. If the roll fails, you take 1/2D6K and still have the infection. If you the wound is to a limb amputation & cauterization may be attempted anytime before Day 5. This is checked as per above, but the damage done is sufficient to totally disable the limb in question, and the limb is removed, but the infection is halted. A failure on the roll means the limb is removed and the infection halted, but that the patient takes an additional 2D6K damage, which may well kill the poor soul.

Re: Point/Power levels in your game I'm running a couple of Turakina Age FH Campaigns. I go with 100+50 (I prefer fewer, more meaningful disadvantages), with an active point cap of 60 (!). Now, that being said, I'm very picky and restrictive on powers, particularly things I consider unbalancing in a fantasy setting such as Force Field, Armor, Flash, etc. I find that unless I put some limits on SPD, everyone buys it to 4 or 5, so I require someone with SPD 4 to have really extensive combat training. 5 is possible, I suppose, but no one has convinced me yet. I do NOT allow racial package deals that add to characteristics to skirt the NCM penalty. If it's over 20, however it got there, you pay double for it. I also require any state above 18 to be justified in the character background, and I'm VERY leery of any character with more than one characteristic above 18.

Re: Keeping Healing in Check

Re: Keeping Healing in Check One big reason that I don't like the "poof, you're healed" thing is that it decreases dramatic tension. For example: - The PC has been cut by a poisoned blade - now it's a dramatic race to see if the healing can get started before the poison gets too advanced - The NPC is near death, but manages to gasp out a garbled message before expiring (with insta-heal ®, he'd just be patched right up and the PCs would get the whole story). - Oh, that Ogre kicked your ass and knocked you all the way across the room? No problem - *poof*. Now get back in there and show him who's boss!

Re: Keeping Healing in Check One thing I had issues with in D-n-D was the "in combat healing" that was due to the spells being so damn fast. So I generally apply a special rule to my healing spell constructs in HERO. 1. NO SIMPLIFIED HEALING 2. If the spell heals STUN only, then it can happen as fast as you want it to (noce for certain magic items and such that are meant to keep someone in battle even though bruised and battered) 3. If the heal does anything other than STUN, it requires a minimum of 1 full turn for 1D6 of healing. Every D6 beyond that moves it up the time chart one notch. Thus, the big healing spells take quite a while to cast. 4. Casting a non-STUN-only heal requires Concentration and (usually) Gestures (for laying on of hands). I find this takes care of the insta-heal problem pretty well. Healing potions I require to have the "Gradual Effect" limitation - but they are still popular...and quite expensive

Re: Starting a new campaign... I've used several methods over the years that worked pretty well, to wit: - All were on the same ship when it was wrecked on a "deserted" (yeah, right) island. - I told them as part of their character creation that they all had to be loyal for some reason to a particular noble, and then had his spymaster call them together for a mission. - All were told to have a reason to be in a particular town and then the "priest" character was given a vision by his god to go find them all and round them up as part of a prophecy - All were in the same prison when they got a chance to break free (earthquake, in this case) - and had to cooperate to survive the underground passageways that lead outside.

Re: A question for the gun gurus out there I actually own a pump-action .22, a Winchester "Gallery model" that I inherited from my grandfather. It's really a very sweet-shooting gun, incredibly light, and yeah, a bit different. Of course, for heavy calibers in particular, bolt action makes much more sense, as the mechanism is much stronger, I believe (nope, not a gun nut, but I do know a wee bit about them).

Re: Changing the way END works Had thought about an END Reserve, but as the characters are already designed and played with (and the people playing are pretty new to HERO), I don't want to do a re-design so quickly. I might be able to work in the "Costs LTE instead of END" option, though....or make everything use charges somehow. Hmmm.....

Apologies if this has been hashed over before, but a search on END drew so many hits I'd never have gotten through them all! I'm running a Modern/Occult game, roughly Dark Champions "Monster Hunters" with some Conspiracy stuff thrown in. I'm beginning to see that tracking END is really a waste of time and effort EXCEPT for those with magical powers (which tend to be weak and highly limited and specialized in my game). So, I'm thinking about using LTE only as follows: If the characters are in a quick fight, they use 1 LTE (1 Turn or less). If it lasts up to 5 Turns, it's 2 LTE, and beyond that, 4 LTE. Anything that costs mondo END to use (say, a spell of some kind) costs LTE equal to the normal END cost divided by 4 Otherwise, LTE costs are as per FRED. Comments anyone?

Re: Turakian Age Maps (or How to Beat a Dead Horse) Hey, I'd buy it.

Re: Post-apocalyptic fantasy And of course there's always "A Canticle for Lebowitz" by....damn, too sleepy and can't remember. Very nice treatment of the work. And at least a couple of short stories from the Pournelle "There Will be War" series - I'll see if I can't dig up specifc ones along with authors tomorrow.

Re: Post-apocalyptic fantasy If you want to do a far after one, and want to have some fantasy elements, you really need to track down a copy of "Heiro's Journey" by Sterling Lanier. The story is OK (the sequal sucked, as I recall), but the ideas are legion. The end was brought about by WW3, and this caused a greenhouse effect....and lots and lots of mutations. Including psionics....

Re: Turakian Age campaigns? I have just started one, a PBEM game that's moving very slowly at present as I've just moved, and that's taken up all my time. But if anyone wants to lurk, drop me a private mail and I can add you to the Yahoo Groups site. The party is 4 characters: A Drusadi Shaneer, A Sister of Salea, a reluctant mage, and a seasoned traveller from afar - all human. Campaign is set in Teretheim.

Re: Package Disads House Rules? One nice "package deal" for Humans is to portray just what generalists they are: Give them one 10-point skill level as their deal.

Some suggestions that I've not yet seen amongst all the really great ones: - Stavisnsky (particularly "Firebird Suite") - Some of the "gradiose" themes from 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail" - The music track from the old PC Game "Fantasy General" - the best game music I've ever heard. - Glass Hammer (some of it, anyhow) - Robin Trower's "Bridge of Sighs" - parts of it. - Tangerine Dream - Wishbone Ash - Loreena McKennant

Holger Carlsson "Three Hearts and Three Lions" by Poul Anderson, though it's a bit high magic. Still the definative paladin in my book.

There was a Keith Laumer story whose name I no longer recall. The hero had a "gun" that was about the size and shape of a 3" smooth stone. It had some incredibly compressed fluid in it, and "firing" it released a tiny amount via a pinhole, causing it to expand rapidly and vaporize....and deliver a massive "punch" at very short range. I'd call it a HTH physical attack, maybe 8D6 that adds to any damage done by a punch. Or maybe 4D6 penetrating...

- Gyro-jet type rocket propelled bullets, only smaller and much more energetic. - "Smart" bullets that can lock onto a target signiture and have some limited steering. -- Vibro-blades that use sonic or molecular vibration to aid their cutting power. - Tiny insect-sized drones that inject destructive nanites into the target - Hell, for that matter, destructive nanites!

Dunno what the hang time is, but I'd bet longer than a minute. Also, ISTR that it could target moving vehicles, though with less reliability. I also seem to recall that they were workin gon a successor that was basically a really big shell (MLRS type) with 2 smart glider bombs inside...and then extending that, 1 smart RPV bomb with a quiet prop and solar-cell wings. Both would greatly improve loiter time.

CorpsCommander, you mentioned a "loitering missile". I *think* the US Army already has something amazingly like that, I believe it's called SADARM. If I recall correctly, it's delivered by a large artillery round that pop open and two "parachute bombs" pop out and proceed to coast about, looking for tanks. When it finds one, it dives into the thinner top armor and lets go with a EFP charge. It's been a while since I read up on it, so my memory may be off a bit. I think this is a decent link to data on it: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/sadarm.htm

Ah! I understand now. Hmmm...the only skill I require is PS:School of Magic, and that is to learn new spells. I think, maybe, that I'll have a KS:Magic so that general magic can be recognized...and a complimentary skill bonus if you have a PS in the school in question you are trying to identify. I'm often not quite sure when to use a PS vs. a KS, though since the cost is the same, it's mostly a matter of flavor, I suppose. I'm open to further suggestions on what skills might be appropriate. I think I want to keep the Perk requirement so that not any chump off the street could learn to sling spells just by studying a bit (I want magic to be uncommon in my setting...known, and feared/respected, but not something you see every day.)

Thanks for the kind words, but this was really just something I threw together off the top of my head in an hour or so one day, and i'm sure there are terrible holes in it...which is why I value the feedback here! I'm not sure I understand your question...for each area of magic, you have to spend points on a perk related to it. For every 1 character point spent on the perk, you can cast a spell with 5 times that many AP. So, if you spend 6 character points on the "Ki" perk, you can handle 30AP "Ki" spells. Looking over the document again, I think I'm going to have to make a couple of changes. First, I'll go with a shared END pool for ALL colleges known (mana is mana is mana), to make things a little more cost-effective for the dabblers. Second, I need to clarify that you can NOT buy any spell to 0 END unless it's Independent (as for a magic item). I will allow Delayed Endurance Costs for Constant Spells, up to spending END each hour for a +1/2 advantage. I'd also allow Reduced (1/2) END as an advantage. Having to spend END only to activate a spell will be rare indeed, if it's allowed at all.

I'm soliciting comments on the magic notes attached below. Note that I will design most (if not all) of the spells (with the aid of the Grimoire, once I get my greedy little hands on it, of course!) to help ensure balance. (the attachment is an MS-Word doc. If anyone needs it in ASCII let me know!)

When talking about unreadable acronyms, don't forget Fallout...which, come to think of it, might have been an FGU product as well...

Fiona Catseye Val Char Cost 8 STR -2 14 DEX 12 12 CON 4 10 BODY 0 13 INT 3 13 EGO 6 10 PRE 0 16 COM 3 2 PD 0 2 ED 0 3 SPD 6 4 REC 0 25 END 1 20 STUN 0 7" RUN 2 3" SWIM 1 1 1/2" LEAP 0 Characteristics Cost: 36 Cost Power 33 Shift to Cat Form: Multiform (200 Character Points in the most expensive form) (x4 Number Of Forms) (50 Active Points); Costs END (Only To Change) (Only To Change; -1/2) [Notes: 4 Forms: Housecat, Lynx, Panther, Tiger] 3 Herbalism: Elemental Control, 20-point Powers, all slots: (10 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Minute; -1 1/2), OAF Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -1 1/4) 2 1) Fever-Break Poultice: Dispel 8d6: Disease (24 Active Points); Extra Time (5 Minutes; -2), OAF Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -1 1/4), Gradual Effect (1 Hour; -1 1/4) 3 2) Healing Balm: Healing 3d6 (max. Healed Points: 18) (30 Active Points); Extra Time (5 Minutes; -2), Increased Endurance Cost (4x END; -1 1/2), OAF Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -1 1/4) [Notes: Heals BODY only.] 3 3) Infusion of Strength: Aid 1 1/2d6 (max. Aided Points: 9): STR, Delayed Return Rate (5 Points per 20 Minutes; +3/4) (26 Active Points); Extra Time (5 Minutes; -2), Side Effects, Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (Side Effect only affects the recipient of the benefits of the Power -1 1/2), OAF Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -1 1/4), Costs Endurance (Only Costs END to Activate; -1/4) [Notes: Side Effect: 3d6 END Drain, recover at 5 points per hour. This Drain occurs when the last of the Aid has worn off.] Powers Cost: 44 Cost Skill 3 Survival (Custom Adder, Temperate/Subtropical) 13- 0 KS: Druids of Dunmoria (INT-based) (Custom Adder) 12- 2 Tracking (Custom Adder) 12- 0 Stealth 8- 2 First Aid (Custom Adder) 12- 0 Climbing 8- 1 Animal Handler (Custom Adder) 12- 0 Language: Dunmorian: Idiomatic, native accent (Custom Adder) [Notes: Native Language] 2 AK: Dunmoria (Custom Adder) 12- 0 Persuasion 8- 4 PS: Herbalist (INT-based) 13- 1 WF: Sling 1 Language: Ambrian: Fluent Conversation (Custom Adder) Skills Cost: 16 Cost Perk 4 Druidic Priestess (Membership, Right to Marry: Can perform the marriage ceremony) Perks Cost: 4 Total Character Cost: 100 Pts. Disadvantage 15 Social Limitation: Orthodox Church will burn you as demon if they capture you, Frequently (11-), Severe, Not Limiting In Some Cultures 15 Distinctive Features: Cat's eyes - slit pupils, bright green, Concealable, Always Noticed and Causes Major Reaction, Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses 10 Psychological Limitation: Duty to Fellow Druids, Uncommon, Strong 10 Psychological Limitation: Protective of Nature, Common, Moderate 0 Normal Characteristic Maxima: No Age Restriction Disadvantage Points: 50 Base Points: 50 Experience Required: 0 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0