AlHazred

Re: Shadow World setting

 

I believe ICE also used Kulthea for a miniatures-based wargame whose name escapes me at the moment. It came in a boxed set and was placed on a single island continent separated from the rest of Kulthea by Essence Flows and pounded by storms of discarded weaponry on occasion when battle occurred.

Re: STAR HERO Reading List

 

I've been gradually inputting my library into a book database, and if it's not too late to add some books to the list, I have some suggestions (name links go to Wikipedia, most story/book links go to the ISFDB, for assistance in tracking them down):

 

 

• Keith Laumer: I'm surprised and saddened not to see him on the list. He wrote lots of great sci-fi stuff in the 60s, and is responsible to two great (and antithetical) series, Retief (light-hearted social sci-fi about an interstellar diplomat) and Bolos(military sci-fi about gigantic autonomous robot tanks). If you end up having copious free time, A Plague of Demons (a protagonist given super human powers by surgery battling against alien dog-creatures and their apparently "human" allies) is probably also worth checking out, as is the The Ultimax Man (similar to the above). He also did a universe-hopping series worth checking out called Imperium, but that's probably a different genre book. In all cases, his earlier stuff is better -- around 1971 he suffered a stroke and, while he continued to write, he was a different author afterwards. The Retief stories in particular suffer.
  
• Laurence Manning: He wrote only a few stories, including The Man Who Awoke. If you manage to catch this one, it's a great example of 30s sci-fi, about a protagonist who figures out how to sleep away ages of time. Awakening every 5000 years, he tries to find out how it will all end. Very interesting example of some ttanshumanist thought from the dawn of Science Fiction.
  
• Ursula K. Le Guin: Kind of surprised not to see her there, though admittedly much of her sci-fi is heavily fantasy-tinged and pretty much defines "soft sci-fi." Nevertheless, her Hainish cycle is worth checking out, containing unrelated stories set in the same universe. The Left Hand of Darkness is one of those, and regularly makes "Top 100 Sci-Fi Novel" lists. While I don't care for some of her work, Rocannon's World (or even the short story on which it is based, "The Dowry of Angyar"/"Semley's Necklace") is an excellent display of the effect of high-tech space-faring people can have on a low-tech native culture.
  
• Charles Sheffield: While he wrote a lot of excellent short stories that I can't find collected in one place, his Heritage Universe novels are worth checking out. Essentially, while they're somewhat repetitive, they are also excellent examples of the "Long-Vanished Ancient Technological Race" concept.
  

Re: Side effects of eating alien fauna and flora?

 

(think the weirder stuff seen in 'House')

I was going to say exactly this. If you want story-elements from the consumption of alien bacteria' date=' the TV show [i']House [/i]is a great place to go for some of the weirder potential side effects -- like the radical personality changes from brain lesions or chemistry alterations, or that woman who couldn't sleep who turned out to be infected by the Plague.

Re: Is there a semi-plausible way for battlesuits/powered armor to do HVAC?

 

I did a little research at one time into spacesuits, which turned into this post here. Part of it is a Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment (LCVG), necessary because (as folks have said) there's no medium to conduct heat away from the body in space. You'd think it would be cold, but assuming you had some sort of air supply to survive and adequate sustenance, you'd feel just the opposite -- your core temperature would rise until you perished from fever.

 

In the old Battletech game, which I never played, I seem to remember that the mechs had immense heat exchangers and many a battle was lost when one's mech overheated and shut down.

Re: Space fightercraft in RPGs.

 

The way this discussion is turning out puts me in mind of Keith Laumer's BOLOs -- autonomous AI-guided supertanks. As time went by, they got more and more independent. There's one story ("Ploughshare" by Todd McCaffrey) where

 

 

The Bolo stories kind of point to where such craft would be most useful -- in an arena where the enemies are nonhuman (and therefore can be killed with moral impunity) and the distances are great (thus malfunctions have little chance of rebounding on the generals). Ultimately, I think it's going to come down to a lack of preferred resources. Sure, I'd love to have remotely-controlled drones in LEO under a human command; but, up in Titan orbit, you might need to make use of multipurpose autonomous robotic craft, just because you lack other options.

Re: PC that can see death on people

 

I could see it as a suite of powers. For instance, does the character suddenly have a skull superimposed over his own field of vision if someone plots his death with 24 hours? That would be Danger Sense to distinguish it from the Precognition, since they do different specific things.

Re: Need help with race names

 

Shadowsoul's last notion is the tried-and-true method used in many fantasy novels -- to have race-names that sound similar to proper English, but are also "in their native tongue." So, for example, the Panthryn, Leonyn, and Tigryn could be the race names (for some reason, Ys are very popular with the run-of-the-mill fantasy authors (or as I like to call them, "Sturgeon's Legions").

 

Another way is to make "poetically-translated" race-names. For instance, there's no reason frog-fish people would have a name pronounceable by humans; so, in my fantasy campaign, outsiders called them the Deep-Folk (and since my players are all humans, they did too) while they call themselves something that translates to "People of the Deep Wisdom." Keep in mind that homo sapiens has as a root the word homo, which came from the Old Latin hemo, meaning "the earthly one," so even the word for humans has a "poetically-translated" meaning.

 

Yet another way is to riff off of things your players know well, even if there's no real reason for it to be so in your fantasy world. For instance, say one of your PCs plays a lion-headed Sachalin, and has a cat named Whiskers; perhaps the lion-headed Sachalin call themselves the Wis-Kar, or have the "poetically-translated" name of "Long-Whiskers."

Re: 1927 Cartoon Map of San Francisco

 

Another style of map popular at the time was the panorama map. Kind of a like a pre-computer version of Google Earth, I suppose.

Re: Your favorite SF gear.

 

Did no one mention The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (besides the towel reference, I caught that)? Well, then, I want one. If I'm to be in a space operatic future setting, I need that, a towel and a bag of peanuts, and I'm set.

 

Granted, a Lens does all that and more, but it's not like you can just buy one even in the setting where they exist. And you can't steal them, since they don't work for anyone besides the owner.

Re: Religions in SF settings.

 

I enjoy crafting intelligent, thoughtful, yet "realistic" religions for my games. (Okay, let me rephrase -- I enjoy trying to craft etc. etc.) I have a few I developed for my Traveller Hero campaign, as religions in the standard Third Imperiumsetting never struck me as sufficiently well-developed for deep play. Yes, I-as-GM don't expect the players to bother delving into religion in my games. But if the religion is a shallow mock-up, I have a hard time making it play as a plausible motivation for my NPCs.

 

One that I tend to use as a generic religion (as in, I want to have religious NPCs but haven't given any thought to making a distinct religious culture for them) is the Universal Church of Gaia. This is based on certain modern ideas (i.e., the Gaia hypothesis) taken to a logical religious conclusion (something Dr. Lovelock, who proposed the hypothesis, strenuously objected to). There have been several Gaian Churches in the modern day which have all had neo-Pagan roots; I envisioned something more like a quasi-religious scientific organized belief system adhering to a simple set of precepts: namely, that the biota of living planets organize themselves and self-regulate in order to reach the Omega Point and Singularity, at which point they will have manifested the divine in the Cosmos. I don't specify the core concepts further than that, because it allows me maximum flexibility to make sects and offshoots. For instance, what about "dead planets"? Many may have the capacity to sustain or develop life but haven't; should life from other planets jump-start the process or supplant it? I could see two schools of thought on this that would lead to different (even competing) religiously-backed scientific colonies.

Re: Help Needed Locating Generator

 

I like AutoRealm, but I've gotten the most use out of the roleplaying city map generator mayapuppies posted. It's fast and (assuming you put a little thought into the parameters you enter) can be used to generate a bunch of distinct maps in a short amount of time. Handy for the GM on the go.

Re: Tintin Adventures that never were

 

Well, he's up to five now:

 

At the Mountains of Madness

Tintin and the Reanimator (Herbert West: Re-Animator)

Tintin in R'lyeh (The Call of Cthulhu)

Tintin in Innsmouth (The Shadow Over Innsmouth)

From Beyond

 

Narratio called it! Unless you meant The Shadow Out of Time, in which case you didn't.

Re: Planets of SF Author Hats

 

What I'm looking for are themes and gimmicks the author uses repeatedly' date=' not just a particular world they invented. For example you may have thought I was talking about Dune's Fremen in Herbert but I was also talking about the Sardaukar and the Dosadi.[/quote']I see what you're doing there. In that case:

 

Vanceworld: An enormous planet at the edge of human-occupied space, with a fantastically diverse ecosphere. It has been conquered by successive waves of invaders who rule for a time and then gradually retreat into small pockets of fiercely xenophobic, protective (and homicidal) "natives." Currently tended by the most recent group of settlers, who have a culture of strong independence and occasionally produces remarkable individuals of cunning, good heart, and a strong drive towards justice; this despite the fact that the universe frequently moves to bring their karmic circumstances to an equilibrium.

 

(I'm thinking Big Planet/Showboat World, the Alastor series, the Tschai, Planet of Adventure series, the Cadwal Chronicles, the Grey Prince (kind of like a counterpoint to the former), Night Lamp, Ports of Call/Lurulu, and probably a few of his earlier stories as well.

 

Now I have to go back and reread some of them. Thanks a lot!)

Doc Savage can't have all the fun! This guy's making some covers for hypothetical Tintin adventures in Lovecraft country, thus approaching a different Pulp mainstay! He's only got four so far, but they're perfect.

 

http://muzski.darkfolio.com/gallery/470268

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]37524[/ATTACH]

Re: Doc Savage Adventures that never were

 

Thing is, while this is a wonderful idea, many of these fail to completely capture the style of the Doc Savage covers. The Monster Maker is perfect, for instance, while Ant Hill Horror has perfect composition but an inaccurate pencil style. Many have photos composited which don't look "right" as Savage covers.

 

I'd still like to read them.

Okay, I changed the Recovering From Stun power to the Automaton power. It looks like it should work now as intended in the Werewolf game. I've also updated the Package Deal and the attachment to my original post. Let's see how this flies. Obviously, the big thing here is the werewolf's magical Gifts. Eyeballing them, it looks like the Level 1 Gifts should be about 10 Active Points. There's little in the way of Limitations on them, so perhaps some sort of divisor (like 5E FH spells) would work. It looks like Garou should find it difficult to learn new Gifts, but it only costs them a few experience points, so dividing the costs by 3 or 5 should work. I've got too much on my plate just now to work on them, but maybe someone else will pick up the gauntlet.

Some comments:

1) Since there are no more Figured Characteristics in 6E, this solution actually can work. The main problem here is the same shortcoming as my original "solution;" how do you know you have enough CON there to prevent the character from being Stunned? The way the power is supposed to work, the werewolf can automatically shrug off a Stun effect by spending a Rage Point. I went with +20 CON, but I was just putting something in there as a placeholder hoping something would come to me later. I then dropped the ball and never returned to the build again. I should have checked before posting it, I would have found the typo and started playing around with the Rage Multipower again.
2) Playing around with the numbers, this is feasible. I avoided it mainly because it's an Automaton power, not meant for PCs to use. It does come out a little strange with END costs. I need to edit the template for the HD file to allow for "x1.5 times END" on the Increased END Cost Limitation; currently it only does it in multiples of whole numbers. The power would be 30 Active, so 1.5 would be the right multiple to make the END come out "right." Normally I wouldn't care, except everything else falls into the multiples of 4 so well.

 

Recovering From Stun: Cannot Be Stunned, Trigger (Activating the Trigger is an Action that takes no time, Trigger resets automatically, immediately after it activates; werewolf is hit with enough damage to be Stunned; +1); Costs Endurance (-1/2), Instant (-1/2), Increased Endurance Cost (x1½ END; -1/4)

3) You could do this, but it gets mechanically clunky in practice. Not the most elegant solution, though it would work for simulating certain kinds of effects.

I noticed a typo in the writeup, and when I checked the Package Deal it was there too. So, I've taken the liberty of re-uploading the character and Package, so they should be correct now. While I was doing that, I changed the Rage Multipower slightly -- I incorporated Roy's suggestion of x4 END cost on the Changing Forms, and modified the END Reserve slightly to more accurately reflect how Werewolf is supposed to work. As noted above, different werewolves have different starting Rage Pools. You can modify the END Reserve to the following amounts: 4 END for a Trickster, 8 END for the Seer, 12 END for the Judge, 16 END for the Moon Dancer, and 20 END for the Warrior; the Recovery on the END Reserve does not change.

 

 

So, I might be wrong, but is the Rage Powers Multipower supposed to draw from the Rage Pool END reserve?

You are correct, sir!

 

If so, the rage powers all cost 4 END (with the exception of changing forms) which costs 1 END. This means that 3 of the 4 actions deplete the pool 4x as fast as the 4th action, rather than all actions costing 1 Rage Point. My suggestion would be to quadruple the size and recovery of the Rage Pool then add Costs x4 Endurance to Changing Forms.

You could do that. Rage in the WoD depends on Auspice, which factor also dictates your starting Gifts (magical powers) and Renown (equivalent in Hero to Positive Reputation, obviously, though with enhanced mechanical aspects). The lowest starting Rage is 1 (for the trickster-type werewolves) and the highest is 5 (for the warriors). I wasn't too worried about exactly copying the Werewolf system all in one go -- I wanted the "base werewolf" from which you would start. In a full conversion, there would be notes on Werewolf Breeds (determines "natural form," starting Gnosis, some Gifts), Auspice (Trickster, Seer, Judge, Moon Dancer, or Warrior - determines starting Rage, some Gifts), and Tribe (thirteen of them, determines starting Willpower, available Backgrounds, some Gifts). I haven't done all that (er... yet) because I'm not running a World of Darkness Hero game, I only wanted the basic werewolf from which I could grow my own variations.

 

Also, I would probably build the "recover from being stunned" power differently, but that doesn't mean this build is bad.

By all means, post it up, man! I love to see other ideas! I have even been known to agree on occasion*!

*Yes, I know this is a rarity on the Internet, but the Hero Boards are a special, calmer place.

Re: Anyone working on a Fallout 3 conversion?

 

Wow! Nice! I had no idea anybody else was considering this! Scratch one project off of the list!

Yes. Yes I did!

Re: Castlevania: Combat Cross

 

Or I suppose you could assume that any evil beasty the weapon encounters will have been built with vulnerabilities to holy weapons. Which' date=' since you're running the campaign, is fairly easily arranged.[/quote']That's exactly what's intended. I toyed about with the extra damage you'd buy to simulate such a property, but it looked cumbersome. Characters get no defense versus their Susceptibilities and Vulnerabilities are multiplied prior to armor, so it seemed the most elegant solution was to just note that this is a "holy" weapon and leave it to the factors affecting each target.

Re: Items of myth and legend

 

I don't know that I'd agree the Emerald Tablets have no "spiritual component."

 

"As above, so below."

Eh, it's 50/50. An argument could be made either way. Which just makes them EVEN MOAR BETTER for the job!

Re: Items of myth and legend

 

Artifacts in the Indiana Jones movies are religious in significance (the Hebrew Ark of the Covenant, the Hindu Sankara Stones, the Christian Holy Grail). There are a wealth of such items from the major religions of the world:

 

• Wikipedia: List of artifacts significant to the Bible has a good list of Christian and Jewish stuff.
  
• Relics associated with Jesus is also decent.
  
• Cetiya are a Buddhist relics and sacred places
  

The only religion that seems immune is, oddly enough, Hinduism.

 

Temporal artifacts (i.e., relics without a spiritual component) are far more common and widespread.

 

• Arthurian enchanted objects
  
• The Emerald Tablets of Hermes Trismegistus (for my money, this is the best idea)
  
• Here's a thread with many ideas
  

Just about the only things I wouldn't send Indy after and thoroughly modern relics - alien spacecraft or some such, for example. Good thing they've never done an Indy movie like that! It would be terrible!

Re: Crimson Skies Plane Conversion

 

AlHazard has given me the okay to post his places to my site. Anyone else have anything they want to submit?

Since I wrote these up, 6E Hero has come out with changes to the way vehicles are built. Eventually I'll get around to converting these babies into 6E stats and reposting them.