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AlHazred

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Everything posted by AlHazred

  1. Version 2

    56 downloads

    Talislanta is a fantasy setting by Stephen Michael Sechi, which eschews vanilla generic fantasy tropes in favor of the exotic. This package contains a package deal and race template for the Muses, fairy beings descended from forest nymphs. Delicate in appearance, they nevertheless command formidable mental powers.
  2. Version 1

    67 downloads

    Talislanta is a fantasy setting by Stephen Michael Sechi, which eschews vanilla generic fantasy tropes in favor of the exotic. This package contains a package deal and race template for the Gnomekin, a diminutive species of underground dweller. Friendly and open, they nonetheless fight an unceasing battle against dangerous underground species.
  3. Version 1

    53 downloads

    Talislanta is a fantasy setting by Stephen Michael Sechi, which eschews vanilla generic fantasy tropes in favor of the exotic. This package contains a package deal and race template for the Aeriad, a species of avian humanoid native to the Seven Kingdoms region. The race is in the process of devolving from a fully avian species to a flightless one. The Green Aeriad are the more peaceful subspecies.
  4. Version 1

    52 downloads

    Talislanta is a fantasy setting by Stephen Michael Sechi, which eschews vanilla generic fantasy tropes in favor of the exotic. This package contains a package deal and race template for the Aeriad, a species of avian humanoid native to the Seven Kingdoms region. The race is in the process of devolving from a fully avian species to a flightless one. The Blue Aeriad are the more aggressive subspecies.
  5. Version 1

    97 downloads

    These martial arts are from the Talislanta game, originally published by Bard Games in 1987. Talislanta was an attempt to make a fantasy setting very different from the vanilla fantasy settings then dominating the market -- the tagline for the game/setting is "Talislanta. Still No Elves!" Among the many elements of the setting are martial arts systems. Back in the 90s, I converted several of them for the 4th edition Hero System, then when 5th edition was published I uploaded several of them to the Hero Games webpage Digital Hero ezine. Sadly, those submissions are lost to the Internet Archive. When 6th edition was made, I updated the martial arts yet again (adding Aerial Combat and renaming Zandir Bladesmanship to Swordsmanship, as per the then-recently-updated Talislanta rules), and uploaded them to the boards. They didn't survive the changeover, but I see that they're still popular enough to warrant being resurrected. So, here they are. The prefab file contains: Aerial Combat: The fighting art of skilled warriors of the flying races (Aerdians, Stryx, Gryphs, etc.) Arimite Knife-Fighting: Provided in both melee and ranged flavors, the lethal fighting style of the dour Arimites is presented. Swordsmanship: The flamboyant fencing style of the Cymril swordsmages, Zandir bravos, and Gao-Dinian corsairs. Tazian Combat: The brutal and effective hand-to-hand style of the Thralls of Taz. If you want to try a different setting (it's based on an easy-to-learn rules system, but can readily be converted to Hero System), I recommend you give it a try. Most of the books for it are available for free on-line, by the grace of setting creator Stephen Michael Sechi. A pdf of the martial arts styles, formatted in standard Hero style, can be found here.
  6. Very nice! Do you have this in the form of a Hero Designer file, perhaps?
  7. I reuploaded my Hero Designer prefab file and edited my post to point to the correct link. I also noted that the forum move dropped the attachment and put it back.
  8. I have reuploaded the martial art prefab file for this (thanks, Spence!) and edited the first post to point to it. Apparently, the forum move also dropped the attachment, so I put that back as well.
  9. Version 1

    84 downloads

    On the Star Hero boards, crayadder asked about vehicular combat, and I took the opportunity to create a vehicle-based martial art -- it's as if the pilot/driver is the martial artist, and the vehicle is the weapon. It's not appropriate for all genres and all playstyles, but for certain vehicle-heavy games it might do the trick. For a pdf of the martial art in standard Hero format, click this Dropbox link.
  10. Version 3

    58 downloads

    In the brawls that spring up in the yard over the lunch money each kid brings to school, it is the girl who fights with the most savagery, the most viciousness, who wins. The little girls, who have practiced their craft, develop the maneuvers and techniques that make up the essence of this art. They tend to be the ones walking away with a jingling purse while their opponents lie bleeding and unconscious on the asphalt behind them. You can see this martial art at Surbrook's Stuff. For a pdf of the martial art in standard Hero format, click on the Dropbox link.
  11. This character format really does what it sets out to do -- it replicates the look of the characters in the book. Clean, easy-to-read, and cool-looking, it emphasizes style without sacrificing substance. While best for superheroic characters, it will suit characters from any genre. I give it my highest rating -- 3 out of 10!
  12. Another oldie that I need to revisit, especially now that there's a new edition of D&D to mine for ideas.
  13. Huh! I was trying to figure out where my prefab went! Glad someone saved it! I should update the file and reupload. I've made some changes based on stuff that came out during play. The Options section got the most modifications.
  14. Geez, Ndreare! You're killing the market for those of us who need to replace our A/C units this summer...
  15. I'm late to the party as usual... As my longtime Traveller Hero campaign is gearing up for the next "season" of play (probably to start sometime late this year), this is highly relevant to my interests... I think some work needs to be done to allow for the use of some of the options in the Advanced Player's Guide (such as page 13, Mental Defense As A Characteristic, or page 70, Mental Powers As Skills) or possibly the Advanced Player's Guide 2 (page 70, Mental Combat).
  16. You need to add a Side Effect for the explosion of energy out of the gate when it opens. That was used as a plot point a couple of times, and is easy enough to add to the build. Probably a 2d6 Area Effect (Cone?), NND Does BODY Blast.
  17. Huh? Really? I didn't realize that! Still free from Mongoose, apparently!
  18. So, I'm working on stuff for the last segment of my long-running Traveller Hero home game. This has been running, on-and-off, for about ten years now, and the players have had a blast running amok in the setting. I run my games without a script, seat-of-my-pants style, but incorporated the classic modules when given the chance. They don't know it, but they've done either parts of, or the entire: Adventure 1-The Kinunir, by Marc Miller (1979) Adventure 2-Research Station Gamma, by Marc Miller (1980) Adventure 3-Twilight's Peak, by Marc Miller (1980) Adventure 6-Expedition to Zhodane, by Marc Miller (1981) Adventure 11-Murder on Arcturus Station, by J. Andrew Keith (1983) Boxed Adventure-Tarsus, by Marc W Miller and Loren K. Wiseman (1983) Double Adventure 1-Shadows, by GDW (1980) Double Adventure 1-Annic Nova, by GDW (1980) Double Adventure 2-Mission on Mithril, by Marc Miller (1980) Double Adventure 2-Across the Bright Face, by Marc Miller (1980) The Traveller Adventure Patron Encounter-Moving Day The Traveller Adventure Exotic Encounter-Charter to Cratersea (highly variant) The Traveller Book-Exit Visa (half of my campaign opener) 76 Patrons 2-6 Players-6 Noble (the other half of my campaign opener) 76 Patrons 2-6 Players-13 Courier 76 Patrons 5-12 Players-19 Clerk (with four-armed screaming poo-flinging man-sized howler monkeys - it was glorious!) 76 Patrons 5-12 Players-20 Peasant, Clerk 76 Patrons 5-12 Players-34 Noble 76 Patrons 9 or more Players-43 Smuggler, Speculator JTAS #01 Amber Zone-Rescue On Ruie JTAS #05 Amber Zone-Foodrunner JTAS #13 Amber Zone-Lockbox White Dwarf #57-Skyrig Traveller's Digest #09 Grand Tour-Shoot-Out at Shudusham, by Gary L. Thomas FASA A2 Action Aboard-Adventures on the King Richard My campaign really should be called "the flow of subsequent events" due to the number of times that this phrase led to months of follow-on roleplay, going from bad-to-worse-to-good-again-and-back-to-bad. Anyway, I've decided to go out with a bang and use the elements of the Secrets of the Ancients mega-adventure available, for free, from Mongoose. I'm thinking of using the Mongoose analogues of the last several sections of the module (parts 4-8, from the dive into the gas giant to the final confrontation), since they fit the character of the PC group better. They've been nibbling at the edges of the mystery all campaign, with Annic Nova, Research Station Gamma, and Twilight's Peak, so I don't need to provide as much of a new lead-up. My problem is, in the campaign, the Fifth Frontier War just started, and I'd love to do some war scenarios, to give a flavor of the difference in everyday life (as well as incidentally chip away at the huge fortune they've accumulated in-game ). I was thinking of starting them with The Traveller Adventure patron encounter Go For Broke, to get them used to the wildly fluctuating markets of wartime, as well as giving them "more rope." My questions: is there a source of scenarios specific to the Fifth Frontier War? Has anybody run them, and if so, how did they go? Does anybody have any ideas for story elements for wartime Traveller adventuring (i.e., massive inflation, panicking non-spacers, Zho spies, etc.)?
  19. I like it. I've made similar in the past. In certain games, this works splendidly to reflect car chase scenes. The "Use Element with Vehicles" element should probably be +0 -- you can't really use any of the maneuvers without it. FYI, the "love tap" is called the PIT maneuver by police.
  20. Ungern-Sternberg (as Charles Stross styles it) is an important background character in the Laundry universe (warning: TVTropes link -- prepare to waste a lot of time). Which, come to think of it, has lots of Lovecraftian elements, Noir elements... Hmmm... A Pulp Hero Laundry-verse game...
  21. Well, Hyper-Man, you know how to get to Carnegie Hall, right? Practice, practice, practice! You've obviously kept up, you should step in!
  22. So, draw us a map (doesn't have to be artistic or anything, just a simple sketch-and-labels) and show us how you'd do it! I'm intrigued by the idea! Sort of like Twin Peaks!
  23. Cool! Might be too simulationist for what I was looking for. I'm currently working something up based on this post on Howling Tower.
  24. 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.
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