AlHazred

Re: Dark Sun Defiling in Fantasy Hero The most recent thread was only a few months ago.

Re: Diseases My favorite for fantasy games is Diseases of Arth. Mechanically, you'd make them Drains, Damage Over Time, Delayed Return Rate.

Re: FH and Warcraft Races? Greetings! Our resident tabulator and all-around chronicler is TheQuestionMan, who maintains a vast list of everything people've done with the system. Generally, whatever question you have, you're best service can be obtained by checking his list first. Sadly, he hasn't got anything on there yet. Your second-best bet is the Search feature. Unlike many forums where searching is disabled, Simon's got it all nice and shiny up there. Some gold there. Your third-best bet is to scan the archives of some of our more prolific members. Susano (Mike Surbrook), Killer Shrike (Ed Hastings), and John Desmarais are just a few of the many fine members who maintain websites devoted to the Hero System. Most people with such sites have a link in their signature; following the links in people's signatures and reading through the wonderful material there is just one way to kill a weekend. And welcome to the Boards!

Re: Magic the Gathering Hero? Sure, Summon's important, but there's also the Lightning Bolts, Holy Shield, and so on. Magic has a lot of card types, each of which represents a specific type of power. Artifact: Objects of power, magic items, adventuring equipment, and the like. These would be standard items like you'd find in any Fantasy Hero game. Creature: Allies, summoned entities, and so on. Some of these are more like adventuring companions than minions, but mechanically they work the same -- I guess "in game" they only really have something important to do when their card is played. Enchantment: These are long-term magical effects. The two types are Shrine and Aura. They're usually easily portrayed using Change Environment. Instant: These are spells that resolve instantly (oddly enough) and are then discarded. Many Instant Hero System Powers are appropriate for modeling these spells. Land: These are the resources that provide mana the wizard can use to cast spells. You can only play one Land per Turn, and without large reserves of mana you can't get your most impressive effects out. The Land Types are Forests, Islands, Mountains, Plains, and Swamps. Plane: These cards represent the terrain in which the battles take place, and provide extra rules to represent their special uniqueness until the Plane is changed. The Planar Types are Alara, Arkhos, Bolas’s Meditation Realm, Dominaria, Equilor, Iquatana, Ir, Kaldheim, Kamigawa, Karsus, Lorwyn, Luvion, Mercadia, Mirrodin, Moag, Muraganda, Phyrexia, Pyrulea, Rabiah, Rath, Ravnica, Segovia, Serra’s Realm, Shadowmoor, Shandalar, Ulgrotha, Valla, Wildfire, and Zendikar. Most of these have been the focus of an expansion set or three (Alara). Planeswalker: These are other planeswalkers. They don't fight like normal Creatures being far too powerful for that. Instead, they have a single stat (Loyalty) and when it goes to zero they leave. The Planeswalkers are Ajani, Bolas, Chandra, Elspeth, Garruk, Gideon, Jace, Liliana, Nissa, Sarkhan, Sorin, and Tezzeret. I believe all of these have been featured in the MtG novels, and thus they are considered "iconic" characters. Scheme: These cards represent some type of ongoing plot that affects the fight. Each scheme card modifies play in a specific way and takes effect until the scheme is changed. Sorcery: These are also spells. The types are Arcane and Trap. They can be reflected with a vast reach of Hero System Powers. Tribal: This type modifies some other card, like "Tribal Enchantment - Merfolk". Basically, it's best represented with some sort of Limited Power determining who can use a spell/item/whatever, or who can be affected by the same. Vanguard: I think these special cards represent important characters from the setting. When you have the Urza Vanguard card out, I think that's supposed to mean you're actually playing Urza doing the actions you're doing. Essentially they provide added abilities to reflect the characters' unique talents, but they also reduce your maximum hand size.

Re: Magic the Gathering Hero? I found this story, which gives an interesting perspective on what's "supposed to happen" in the "real world" of the MtG Multiverse.

Re: Obscure Build The "best" way to display characters is to get a Hero Designer subscription () and then upload the character to the Vault. You can then use [noparse][hd=XXXXXX][/noparse] where "XXXXXX" is the number of the character (provided when it is uploaded). The Vault accepts both 5E and 6E characters.

Re: The 10 Most Disgusting Alien Civilizations No votes for F. M. Busby's Demu as a disgusting alien race? Not only are they powerful, they want everybody else to be just like them in mind and body, and will force it on you with their superior technology.

Re: Sewage disposal in a fantasy world Dude, just freakin' Google it! http://www.cyber-kitchen.com/ubbs/ubbcode.html Gates, Draconic Incinerator, Oozes, and Otyugh have all been mentioned. That leaves things like Poo Elementals (gives the urban Druid something to do) and Purifying it (that would be crappy duty for civic-minded priests... Sorry!) at the High Fantasy end. At the Low Fantasy end, pipe it into the neighborhood of the group that gave you the least campaign contributions/bribes, or just fling it out the window. Worked for hundreds of years in Europe!

Re: Magic the Gathering Hero? I would make it "One Land Per Phase" at -1/4 -- at one Land per Turn, many fights will be over before the mage has enough mana to cast more than two spells, especially since the Reserve will still only REC every Turn; it just seems a little un-Magic-like. In that regard, it could be changed like so: We set up a ratio of 2/3 to REC (total of 3 per use) and 1/3 to END (total of 4 per use). This gives a maximum effect of 30 points, or 40 END, 30 REC. If we declare that we only get 3 END for each 1 point put into the END Reserve then it becomes more elegant, though we're shorting ourselves a bunch of points. The problem with this construction is that Aid is an Attack action. It takes a Half-Phase and ends your turn. So, you're either drawing on the power of your Lands, or you're casting Lightning Axe.

Re: Herbs In Hero Designer, it's even easier -- you can right-click the power, select Copy Modifiers, and paste them elsewhere. In case you didn't want to put a standard set of Advantages/Limitations on a List.

Re: what is appropriate for "spell" or "weapon-based" powers If you want to "double the damage" then that's what we do. We do exactly what we want here in Heroland. Not sure if I understand the request properly, but there's a Proportional Advantage/Limitation from the Advanced Players Guide, page 139-140. It's built for this kind of thing. You figure out how powerful you want the power to get, and slide the advantage or limitation value over depending on how often the condition that triggers it is going to happen. Alternatively, you can also do this as a Partially Limited Power (which is in 6E1, I believe) which is what Proportional is supposed to simplify. If we want our sword (let's say it does 2d6 HKA, Reduced END (45 AP); OAF, STR Min 10, Real Weapon, for a total RC of 16) to do double damage, then that's an extra 45 AP, with an additional -1/2 limitation from the Extra Time (Delayed Phase) and Inaccurate Limitations. Total real cost 28. So, if you wanted to make that a Talent, you subtract 16 from 28 to get a Talent cost of 12. That's just one way to do it, of course, and not even necessarily the most elegant solution.

Re: Herbs

Re: Magic the Gathering Hero? I could go either way. The land rules are a little convoluted. While it's an attractive idea to imagine the END Reserve as having no REC, only an Aid, I don't know that that will feel the same in play.

Re: Herbs Without going into detail, you could do things like: Klah, The Black Herb: Steeped in an infusion, this popular drink gives energy to the drinker; abuse can lead to insomnia. [1d6 Aid END, Side Effects (Major, always happens when the user does some specific thing)] Ornamude Balm: This salve can be rubbed into the skin to provide some protection from heat and flame. Frequently used by smiths, although the smell can be revolting. [Either Minor Transform (ED into ED with Resistant advantage) or a naked Resistant Advantage, Extra Time, Side Effects (Minor - +2 to Smell PER Roll against the character, always occurs), Rapid Healing (wears off over a week)] Travellers' Aid: A rub that is applied to the feet to counteract soreness from long travel. [+10 END, Only To Pay For Running, Extra Time]

Re: Magic the Gathering Hero? I'm toying with the idea that the REC on the END Reserves has an Extra Time limitation, and that effects that fiddle with Lands might Suppress or Dispel the REC. On the one hand, this seems like a good equivalence, on the other hand I'm having a hard time considering the ramifications of things like "destroy all lands" (massive Supress?) or "target land goes in the graveyard" (Dispel?), or "target land is exiled" (extended Suppress?!?)

Re: Magic the Gathering Hero? Looking over the kinds of spells you're supposed to find in the various colors' date=' I don't think a straight "Aid Powers are Green" rule would work. The various colors do similar things in different ways. As hard and fast guidelines, I guess that's not bad. I would go this way instead: Every round in MtG corresponds to an entire Turn of Hero System combat. In MtG, you can play as many cards as you like, so long as you can pay the mana costs; in Hero Terms, this is best reflected with the Turn being default. This works particularly well considering I like the Endurance Reserve for mana, and END Reserves Recover every Turn. For every +1 in one of those, you get 10 (or 15) points' worth of the relevant stuff, just as a hard-and-fast rule-of-thumb. Power corresponds to STR, EGO, OCV, OMCV, and Flash/Mental Blast/Blast/Killing Attack Damage Classes, depending on desired effect. Toughness corresponds to CON, DCV, PD/ED, rPD/rED, BODY, STUN, Mental Defense, Power Defense, Flash Defense, Damage Negation, and Damage Reduction, depending on desired effect. Either one can correspond to Aid or Transform, depending on desired effect. [*]For every point of mana, expect the card's effect to cost 2 (or 3) points of END. For instance: "Target creature gets +3/+3." --> Looking at the flavor text, "immortal strength" implies some sort of Aid effect. You might build this card this way: Note that 7 END is what the caster actually spends; the extra END is for the movement which will be paid for by the recipient. And I would rule that 3 END must come from the caster's White Mana END Reserve, with the other 4 coming from wherever else.

Re: Magic the Gathering Hero? See, normally I despise looking at other games' mechanics when converting things, but with MtG there's so little to go on. Some thoughts: There are five distinct "colors" of mana, each of which originates from controlling a different kind of territory and powers a different kind of magic: White (plains), for the magic of Order, Protection, and Light; Blue (islands), for the magic of Knowledge, Manipulation, and Illusion; Black (swamps), for the magic of Darkness, Ambition, and Death; Red (mountains), for the magic of Freedom, Emotion, and Impulse; and, Green (forests), for the magic of Growth, Instinct, and Nature. In order to use a card from your hand, you must enough mana to power it; only lands cost no mana to play. This sounds like some sort of Endurance Reserve, specifically five of them, which every mage must have. Every player is a planeswalker (and some cards represent subsidiary planeswalkers as well), the one-in-a-million character who is born with the inherent "spark" that allows passage between planes. Planeswalkers used to have a host of powers, but now the only power they all have is the ability to travel from plane to connecting plane; so, the most important characters have some form of EDM. In travelling the planes, planeswalkers learn magic spells, ally themselves with weird creatures and learn the methods of summoning them, and otherwise build alliances that the cards represent. So, not every card is going to be a Hero System Power. All creatures have two values: Power and Toughness. Power represents how well they can attack other creatures or planeswalkers, while toughness shows how much punishment they can resist. Direct translation of creatures from MtG to Hero looks pretty much impossible; it'll be a case-by-case basis. Specific spell cards should be easy enough: White spells include cleansing and healing magic, blinding light, and devastating waves of purifying energy. White-aligned creatures are orderly, defensive, and cooperative. They gather fast and strike first. White mages summon majestic angels to devastate the unworthy. Legions of soldiers and knights form effective armies under a white mage's command. The soldiers might be small individually, but together they are overwhelming. Blue spells include crashing waves, whirlpools of Æther, and even manipulations of time itself. Blue-aligned creatures try to deceive their opponents or trick them into using magic in a way they didn't intend. Blue-aligned creatures often confuse, disguise themselves, or steal things from their enemies. Blue mages call wizards and weird beasts of the air and oceans to serve them. They summon crafty sphinxes, ferocious drakes, and elusive sprites. Titanic leviathans surface from the depths of the ocean to do their bidding. Black spells are tendrils of corrupting shadow, command over the undead, and projection of crippling nightmares into the minds of enemies. Undead skeletons and ghouls, unspeakable horrors, and diabolical demons are native to places of black mana, and they're as self-serving and treacherous as the mages who control them. Black magic isn't limited to these abominations, though—death-cultists and secret societies of assassins carry out black mages' nefarious plans under cover of darkness. Black mages control the most horrifying of creatures, but always at a price. Red spells include rains of meteors, searing bolts of lightning, and huge gouts of flame. Red-aligned creatures are warlike, frenzied, and dangerous. Red mages summon mighty dragons to dominate the skies. They send hordes of bloodthirsty barbarians or rampaging goblins to lay waste to their enemies. They also channel mystical energy and summon fire elementals of merciless power and destruction. Red creatures rage across the landscape cutting down anything that stands in their way. Green spells include wild, lush growth, sudden predatory hunger, and the might of an entire stampede. Green mages summon a huge variety of creatures, from forest-dwelling animals to territorial elves and awe-inspiring behemoths. Some green creatures are living wellsprings of mana; others overrun their foes in a mighty rush of ferocious power. From towering nature elementals to carnivorous wurms, green creatures are the biggest and mightiest around. Not sure yet how to tie lands to mana. Some sort of Limitation on the REC of the Endurance Reserve seems appropriate but what?

I know Keith Curtis did a color-based magic system similar to the MtG grading system, and elsewhere it was discussed how to build Slivers (a popular MtG monster) in Hero. But has anyone done a large-scale conversion of MtG spells/creatures/items to Hero system terms? I've got someone who wants to build a Blue Mana wizard in my Fantasy Hero game.

Re: "Raise Dead" / "Resurrection": for those of you that DO, how do you handle... Since I'm running High Fantasy, I have resurrection available in my game. Wizards (and some druids priests) learn Arcane magic, while those holy men who claim divine sanction use Invocations -- something wizards consider a kind of unstudied "wild" hedge magic while religious types see it as something else entirely. This power falls into the Invocations category, since wizards who study what happens when people die tend to become necromancers. It's not super-common -- a good-sized temple in a small- to medium-sized city might have one available every week or so. Since it's rare, it's not "priced" per se -- you won't find it on the "Price List for Spells Cast" in a magic shop (well, except maybe in a necromancer's place, but that'll be a different story). I figured it's available when the PCs are doing a job for one of the chief priests of the temple or a noble patron (who can "squeeze" the priests) but that's about it. If you had to put a value on it, figure anywhere from 500 to 5000 silver (my standard coin).

Re: Requires another power limitation? In my games, I try to provide and encourage Package Deals (5E) or Templates (6E). In the available ones, I'll list "10 points' worth of Magic spells" or "40 points' worth of Invocations" to give an idea of how much magic the player should purchase. Will I reject the character if there's only 19 (or 39) points' worth of magic? Probably not. But this way my Apprentice Wizard (package cost 25 points) and Master Wizard (package cost 75 points) look like they should -- like people who've invested whatever amount of effort needed to qualify. Typically in most campaigns, I'll even go so far as to say, "You can't learn magic without taking one of these packages" or "You can't have Fringe Benefit: Knight or better without taking the Noble package (cost 22 points). That's to try to restrict unworkable builds more than anything else; someone with a knighthood who doesn't have any of the skills of a knight would be difficult to work into the plot.

Re: Need list of skaldic kennings It's a little less "we snuck in the back door and slit their throats while asleep" and more "we barged in the back door and a spearfight erupted!"

Re: Need list of skaldic kennings Fixed that for you.

Re: Need list of skaldic kennings Hey now, that's an interesting thought though! Do Viking fantasy as a Pulp game! Now I'm trying to imagine Egil's Saga but with Robert-E.-Howard-style action and writing...

Re: Need list of skaldic kennings FWIW, this kind of "language game" is exactly where most fantasy conlangs fail miserably. When Robert Jordan wrote The Wheel of Time books, he made words that sounded and looked right, and (this is the mistake) meant exactly what he wanted them to mean. In Real Life, people play with words all the time, in everyday language and (as Markdoc provided such a great example for) even in foreign languages. While I can't make it through the whole The Lord of the Rings epic in one sitting anymore, I really appreciate the thought Tolkien put into doing this exact thing with his conlangs.

Re: Permanent transformation