AlHazred
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Posts posted by AlHazred
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I was looking over the Wikipedia pages regarding air combat maeuvers (such as the famous barrel roll), and was intrigued enough to consider building a set of maneuvers (and porting them to my Traveller Hero game). However, I am not an aerobatics nerd, and would not probably be qualified to assign numbers to these. Has anybody else worked up aircraft maneuvers (dogfighting or otherwise)?
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http://www.wired.com/2014/04/mit-whizzes-invent-magical-transforming-furniture/#x
In my Traveller Hero game, this is more-or-less how I had envisioned the kind of furniture most people have on their starship. Able to take on specialized shapes for a variety of situations (within reason) you can make the most out of limited resources; the only thing you need is electricity, which is easy to generate in Traveller.
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I will admit to printing it out on a large format printer.
It took four months of off-time at work to do, and is on 2' x 3' pages.
At that scale, you can use miniatures on it (albeit, they're still a little small for 28mm scale), but I have yet to field a table large enough for the whole thing.
I am considering extracting just the rectangular sections, stitching them together, and printing it as a continuous sheet, but I have no idea how that will work in practice, since the 2' x 3' pages are unwieldy enough. I may still extract the rectangles and print just them, so the scale is somewhat more user-friendly.
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Roadable cars
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Yeah, the floor plan I linked to is freaking huge.
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Not specifically Terricide, but this may interest you.
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That's odd, the wiki entry says it's classified as an experimental ultralight.
Hey, man, I'm only repeating the article.
While the Martin Jetpack will qualify as a microlight aircraft in much of the world, this is not the case in the US, as it is too heavy. It will be a light sport plane, and as such a Sport Pilot's license will be needed to fly the Jetpack. Although not required by law, Martin also offers a training course that would be a very good idea to include in one's preparations for the first Jetpack flight.
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Yeah, they can't even get it to be certified as an ultralight. It's going to be a "light aircraft" and require a Pilot's License if you're getting one shipped to you here in the States. In New Zealand it's considerably looser. Anyway, "jetpack" is not what it is, it's what they've named it. It wasn't me!
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Working on the Aeromobil V2.5 reminded me of the Martin Jetpack, a personal flight system which is expected to be start delivering in mid-2014. The Martin system isn't really a "jetpack" per se, using two ducted fans for lift, The interesting part, to me, is that the target audience for the first units isn't jetpack fanboys or sci-fi nerds such as myself, but first responders. So now, in my imagination, after I have crashed my Martin Jetpack due to my own lack of flying skills, I'm imagining a jetpack-suited first aid woman flying down to get me. To me, that's even cooler than I had originally imagined for being more plausible!
The .hdp file is available here.
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The Aeromobil V2.5 prototype roadable aircraft has achieved its first flight. Due to some unsubstantiated hyperbolic claims regarding the feasibility of "flying cars," this field of vehicles labors under something of a cloud. However, there have been many positive developments in the area over the last few years, and it seems likely that roadable aircraft will be marketable within ten years. So, in a fit of fanboyish enthusiasm, I thought I'd crank out a Hero version.
You can find the .hdc file here.
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You know, they say the Them! ants were eight feet long, but they look bigger in some of the production stills I've seen. Also, my writeup won't work that well, since they need to have a formic acid poison connected to their bite attack.
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If you want to simulate cinematic weapon maintenance, then mention the characters maintaining their weapons during camp in your narration from time to time. At a key moment, at least once in each arc of the campaign, use a weapon failure during the denouement in order to increase tension in the scene (not as an "instant-fail" mechanic, but more of a "you'll have to work even harder now, if that's even possible" event).
If you want to simulate "realistic" (or at least plausible) weapon maintenance, then tell the players their characters will need to maintain weapons every couple of days, and they'll need to tell you they're doing it. Keep a spreadsheet of all the weapons in the group, and mark when a day passes in-game but they haven't stated they're maintaining a weapon. Don't just tell them what weapons they have on their persons -- let them tell you what specifically they're working on. They'll mention the regularly-used weapons, but what about the knife in the boot or the holdout gun in the backpack? What about the surprise weapon Jose boarded up in the door of the car? Each personal weapon should take 1 Hour to maintain at a minimum; people with the appropriate Weaponsmith might get to do it in 20 Minutes if you're feeling generous. Don't forget they have to maintain armor, too.
Mark each day a weapon isn't maintaained. After a weapon hasn't been maintained for 1 Week per point of its BODY, make a note that it is now -1 OCV until it gets a full 6 Hour maintainence (1 Hour for a skilled Weaponsmith) and reduce its BODY by 1. After the first 1 BODY drop due to lack of maintenance, it can't lose more BODY that way until a great deal of time has passed (but see below). Once its OCV penalty is as high as its PD, it's pretty much ruined.
If weapons take damage during combat (and melee weapons should frequently take damage) then they require more than the regular maintenance to bring them back to full. Once a weapon is down any BODY, it shouldn't be fixable to full BODY anymore; that's the facts of life in the post-apocalyptic wasteland.
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I've uploaded a Giant Ant I worked up for an Atomic Robo scenario that never got completed. Once it's approved, you'll find it here. It's in 6th Edition, but it should translate pretty well to 5th Edition.
EDIT - I've attached the file.
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What's your favorite superhero origin?
Mine is from Dragon magazine issue #75 (July 1983), from the What's New? with Phil & Dixie comic strip:
After his parents are murdered, an infant mutant is rocketed to Earth to escape the destruction of his home planet. He is found by a secret order of magicians led by the mysterious robot A-1. They train him in the physical/mental/sorcerous arts. In his 16th year, he is doused by chemicals, hit by lightning, bitten by a radioactive spider, bionically altered by a mad scientist, and given a weapon of great power by beneficent extraterrestrials from the future.
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I was noticing some mini-adventures on the Hero Store website. Perhaps one of those could be converted to 6e and gussied up for a FreeRPG day offering.
"Gussied up"
That's a phrase you don't hear so much anymore! Too square for the hip youth of today!
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I would highly recommend picking up the HarnMaster rules. Base Harn is Low Magic for a reason. That reason is that it's easier to add magical elements to the campaign world than remove them. HarnWorld is a toolbox Fantasy Campaign World. HarnMaster has a bit more magic in it than the base world. It's enough of a difference to be noticable between the two sources. HarnMaster Sucks rocks as a system, but there are spells etc in there that you won't find anywhere else. Also there are magic books for each of the schools of the ShekVar Mages. I am going from memory here, as it's been easily 20 years since the last time I picked up a Harn Supplement for play.
I actually have both the HârnMaster 3.0 and HârnMaster Gold rules sets. And HârnMaster Magic and HârnMaster Religion. Even HârnMaster Barbarians. I've been picking-and-choosing what I want to use from each rules set, since I also don't care for the rules system but think the setting has loads of potential.
Also, from my experience I would recommend using Fantasy Hero Weights for everything esp Armor. The Weights in the Harn Supplements may be more "realistic" but will mess with the game balance for encumberance (IIRC Harn Armors are heavier than FH, which makes fighters super low DCV)
I've actually completed preliminary work on a Weapons/Armor document. I should probably post it, though I'm getting ahead of myself in the design process. Please note that it's not done.
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So how come there are never magic items written up to heal the land of plague or jumpstart the crops to overcome famine.
Those weapons got sucked up into the Bladestorms. Good luck gettin' 'em.
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In which case there is no reason to have it as an ability in the rule book separate from Enhanced Vision Perception.
Eh, it's a way for the GM to define what he wants available. If you make "Keen Vision: +2 to Sight PER Rolls" and "Keen Hearing: +2 to Hearing PER Rolls" available as Talents, and make "Nightvision: see in the dark" available as a racially-specified Talent. Some players need a menu of choices, others prefer their own LEGO. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to.
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*sigh* And it just occurred to me to mention that the expectation here is that the Pathos and Angst Pools aren't always at maximum; in fact, they will very rarely be at maximum.
A good way to reflect the Wraith: the Oblivion rules without slavishly adhering to them would be to say that, when the Shadow's Angst Pool is equal to or greater than the Wraith's EGO, the Shadow can try a Possession attempt, which requires an EGO vs. EGO contest.
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I'm going to have to weigh in here -- if you're not running Nightvision the way I'm running Nightvision, you're doing it wrong. My way is always the right way.
Just kidding. My kneejerk reaction is to believe what Tasha says, and reading her posts that guideline works here.To approach it from another direction, the Perception Modifiers table on page 12 of Volume 2 gives "Darkness and Shadow" penalties up to "Dark Night, -4" and goes no higher. So, to buy that off, you'd need four levels of Enhanced Perception, which is exactly what Nightvision gets you.
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One thing I wanted to address was the lack of Possession power for the Wraith's Shadow. In the game, the conflict between Wraith and Shadow represents a soul fighting its darker self. Possession as a power has specific mechanics, and is more supposed to represent an outside force taking control of a person's body. I thought that's better reflected through EGO Rolls on the Wraith's Passion/Shadow's Dark Passion.
However, in the interest of covering my bases, I should show what that power would look like:
38 Shadow Takes Over: Possession: Human (Mind Control Effect Roll 50; Telepathy Effect Roll 40), Persistent (+1/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Invisible Power Effects (make the Target Effect of the Power Invisible to the victim; +1/2), No Feedback (+1/2); Limited Class Of Minds (single mind only - the target Wraith; -2), Usable Only Under Specific Conditions (-1), No Range (-1/2), Requires A Roll (EGO roll, -1 per 20 Active Points modifier; resisted with EGO Roll vs. EGO Roll; -1/2) -
So, I thought I'd tackle the most difficult character type from the old World of Darkness -- Wraiths. I've had to make some hard design choices here, and I'm not quite sure it's done, but I'll sit on it for another year if I don't just drop it here. Comments welcome, but be sure to read the pdf file for some design notes. I've also attached the Campaign Rules file for creating Wraith characters, as there doesn't seem to be a place to upload them in the Downloads section.
The Shadow base character sheet is posted here.
Template file for creating Wraiths is posted here.
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You could inject a little down-home wisdom with Silver John from the John the Balladeer series by Manly Wade Wellman.
Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel
in Dark Champions
Posted
The Sixth Staircase
The hotel is not that big. It has a bank of two elevators in the lobby, and a freight elevator that opens to the loading dock. They also have six stairwells; two of them sit at the end of either wing, and one parallels the elevators in the lobby.
The sixth staircase is not indicated as a recommended mode of escape on any of the emergency "In Case of Fire" floorplans. It's kept locked at all times, and only the manager has the key -- an old-fashioned skeleton key with an elaborately detailed bow and shank, and a curiously-cut-out bit. The sixth staircase sits in the middle of a hall, breaking the symmetry of that hotel wing. Like the other stairwells, the sixth staircase runs from the basement to the top floor, where it has a large angled skylight that lets in the sunlight.
Usually.
Before the staircase was on lockdown there were reports, from a few (usually frazzled) guests, that the sixth staircase sometimes goes higher than the top floor of the hotel, late at night. One guest said he had emerged into what he thought was the top floor to find it pitch black and filled with a rank odor. He thought he heard "animal noises" and "people moaning," that so terrified him he immediately fled back down the stairs and refused to return to his (top floor) room. Another guest, who by her own admission was extremely intoxicated, reported a strange cloudscape, brilliantly lit by golden sunlight and featuring what appeared to be "fairy castles" floating by; she was found unconscious on the top floor landing the following morning.
The most detailed report comes from one guest, a respectable businessman in his 50s, who returned from a client meeting held in the bar/restaurant past closing and took the sixth stair. He knew his room was on the top floor, and didn't really pay attention to the climb. But when he opened the door at the top, he reported the hallway looked different than he remembered. He got all the way to what should have been his room, before he realized what those differences were.
The light fixtures spaced regularly down the hallway were not fluorescent, but seemed instead to be some sort of lamps burning a sweet-smelling oil. The carpet also seemed different than he remembered, with a green viny motif. The door to "his" room was ajar. Thinking he was discovering an intruder, he threw the door open to discover a huge room, larger than he remembered. A few steps led down to a large, comfortable space with a window-wall that looked out over a beautiful mountainous area. In the distance, birds flew with... something... apparently tethered behind them.
Then he noticed the couple in the room. Wearing robes of unfamiliar cut, the man and woman were apparently engaged in relations when the guest entered the room. The strange man stood and bellowed at the hotel guest, who reported the windows suddenly darkening before a flash of lightning blinded him and a peal of thunder deafened him. Instinctively, he fled out of the room and tumbled down the stairs, the sounds of a deep voiced man and thunder filling his ears.
Hotel staff called emergency services, and the guest eventually recovered his eyesight. His medical expenses covered by the hotel management, he was given several weeks of therapy for his burns; since that incident, the staircase is kept locked.
Plot Hooks:
1) Mystical: The sixth stair sits on a nexus of ley lines. On nights of supernatural significance, it can send people to an otherworld coinciding to the ethnicity of the person traveling upon it. One of the guests was sent to the Happy Hunting Grounds; the older guest ended up on Mount Olympus. If the guest has no definite ethnicity, the nexus sends them to an afterlife coincident to their ethos -- so the intoxicated guest ended up in a cloudscape which was an amalgam of her hopes and dreams. Some guests have gone missing in their respective otherworlds, which is why the hotel staff has locked it up because, while they don't know exactly what is going on, they know enough to limit access. Unfortunately, it might not have been done soon enough -- otherworldly forces have captured one (or more) of the errant guests and discovered the passage works both ways, and now they plan an invasion...
2) Weird Conspiracy: What most assume is the top floor of the hotel is actually just beneath the actual "top floor." The actual "top floor" fits under the facade/"roof" of the hotel. This space was created during the hotel's construction by the cabal that owned the place back then. They used it as a "secret clubhouse" of sorts, for wild bacchanalias and the like. The only means of ingress is a secret extra stair that is normally kept mechanically folded against the roof of the stairwell, its presence disguised as support structure for the large, angled skylight window. Pressing a hidden key lowers the stair for entrance. The cabal has changed membership in the intervening decades, but they still retain control of the place. Some of the members have grown forgetful, and sometimes leave the secret stair in place after they enter or leave; those times coincided with the hotel guests' strange experiences. The members use the secret floor for all sorts of things -- romantic trysts, blood matches between animals or coerced humans, ritual sacrifice/torture, etc. The older guest ran into one of the romantic trysts and, disoriented, was amazed by the window image (projected by a hidden device as part of the decor) and was then attacked by one of the cabal members using a tazer (actually an advanced version, made with the cabal's secret high tech).
3) Fortean: The sixth staircase occupies a natural fold in space, which leads occasionally to places Not Of This Earth. Alternate Earths can be visited, some extremely different and hostile to Life As We Know It. There is no way to control the "spacewarp," but it is possible beings from other worlds can navigate its folds better than we can. It is also possible that, with experience, PCs could learn this as well. Maybe the spacewarp twists according to "temporal waves" that emanate from some other-worldly source.