Midhir

Re: Archery question Also unless they are in an area completely bare of ground cover, finding arrows isn't exactly the easy task. Volleys fired into the air to arc down on a group and land sticking pretty much perpendicular to the ground are one thing, but firing straight at a target and missing means the arrow is mostly likely going to be lost in any kind of grass or forested location, with the exception of the odd arrow stuck in a tree here and there.

Re: New to running a Fantasy Hero game In the campaign I'm GMing now the PCs started off with 60pts (40/20 split). Usually game session nets them 1-2 pts possible 3 for great RPing. With another 1-3 at the end of the campaign. It allows them to really develop their characters and prevents the stat maxing and uber power/skill purchases when starting out with alot of points. One character wanted +2 Overall skill levels so he saved and saved till he got it. I also impose training limits and time restrictions for skill and characteristic advancement. Characteristics can only be increased one point at a time over a set length of time. Skills that are actively used during a session can be increased otherwise they require training and time.

Instead of just having each extra point of SPEED beyond 12 be a buffer against DRAINS why not have it allow a character to change a FULL Phase action into a half phase and/or a HALF Phase action into a 0 Phase action on a number of phases (of their choosing in different segments) equal to each point over 12? Example: Zippy the speedster has a SPEED of 14 so he acts every segment and can also adjust two of his actions on separate segments to only take half the amount of time (SPEED 14 - 12 = 2). This may have been mentioned some where else, so if so excuse me for bringing up old topics. I just thought of it and wanted to put it out there. Sound viable?

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality Fate Point system WFRP had not Fantasy Hero.

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality Shout out to Montreal, Plattsburgh, NY gamer here. I tend to like to run what I call gritty hero games. The gaming group I'm GMing now started the Warhammer Enemy Within campaign several years ago with 75 pt characters (50 pts + 25 pts in disadvantages). I allowed the use of Deadly Blow and Combat Luck but they had to be bought with limitations and had caps on them to keep them from becoming unbalancing. Basically it allowed a light armored individual (up to 2 Resistant DEF) to use Combat luck to a level that would get them equal to Full Plate but could not be combined with Full Plate. Deadly Blow could only be bought to a max of 2 levels and had to be specialized and or required an activation roll or situation (like back stab and could not be used with all attacks. Initial Characteristics where restricted so that they couldn't dump all their points into one or two stats and I instituted rules to govern how often a stat could be increased in game time. This made a more logical progression in stats instead of everyone starting out with STR & DEX 20, OCV & DCV 7 and SPD 4. Combats where dangerous and fun and usually fairly quick. Then to simulate the Fate Point system that Fantasy Hero had I ran across a post here about a chit system where each game session the players randomly chose different colored chits that had varying effects on game play. This allows for a minor miracle or more accurately simulates those amazing but rare situations where the hero pulls something off that is simply amazing but not a routine happing every now and again to make up for a bad choice or a just plain horrible roles with out having to fudge numbers or break the reality of the game to badly.

Re: List Your CO Heroes! Avenger (Force, Power Armor & Gadgeteering) Mitsumuri (2 handed sword) Dark Avenger (Dual Blades & Munitions)

Re: Paper Models for Fantasy Hero This site has a nice selection of fantasy style buildings based off of the WFRP look and feel in pdf format. http://www.davesgames.net/wfrp2/

Re: Strength Cost: 1 point or 2 I've set STR at 2 points in my campaigns right after I ran my first FH campaign 15 years ago. It was just to cheap not to have 20 STR and reap the benefits when dealing with mostly mustle powered weapons.

Re: Fate systems I used the Luck Chit system for the first time during this weekend's game session and my players loved it. I was contemplating puting in a Fate system to make up for the loss of Fate Points from the Warhammer game (running a FH game using the Warhammer Enemy Within Campaign) by giving out Luck Points where it called for Fate points but all my players like this solution even better. Thanks for the great idea RDU!

Re: question about normal damage For NORMAL damage isn't the Hit Location Modifier (NSTUN) applied before you subtract any defenses?

Re: A new take on "Deadly Blow" I've adopted a few house rules to balance out deadly blow by limiting the number of times it can be taken based on what type it is (7, 5, 3 pt variety - I don't allow the all inclusive 10pt) coupled with total character points. example 7 pt 1 1d6 deadly blow for 100pts 2 1d6 deadly blow for 150pts 3 1d6 deadly blow for 175pts then 1 more for each 25 pts example 5 pt 1 1d6 deadly blow for 75 pts 2 1d6 deadly blow for 125 pts 3 1d6 deadly blow for 150 pts then 1 more for each 25 pts The 7 pt variety can only be taken once for each type of attack it is used with. The 5 pt variety can be taken twice for each type attack (Thieves back stab with a DEX roll can be bought upto 2d6 + 1d6 for a dagger (figuring 5 pts over str min) thats a 3d6k strike with a dagger in a low level fantasy game (1/2 DCV from behind and 1/2 Hit locations if out of combat and surprised means a pretty easy called shot for the head, neck or vitals). Then that puts the 3pt variety at being able to take it three times for each type of attack. This being a very limited circumstance to use plus a DEX roll means it shouldn't unbalace game play since its use will be rare and have a chance to fail. I like running low fantasy games (which to me is a 30/30 or 25/25 starting character and between 1 to 3 XP per normal weekly session). Although the Aid version is an effective way of raising the cost to bring it inline with the damage it makes it to costly for my PCs to purchase. In High Fantasy campaigns 150 to 250 point characters I would adopt that version. I'm also considering adopting a rule to "not" allow it to be used in conjuction with a martial arts. I am seeing a trend to buy one martial art maneauver that has a good OCV/DCV bonus with some DC bonus then adding in the deadly blow. Add in a big weapon like a Great Axe and the players will only use that one maneauver and nothing else, where before deadly blow they often jocked between maneauvers to get the OCV/DCV bonuses when they needed them or the higher DC when they needed it. I think this would put the benifit of MA back in play.

Re: Conan vs. Elric

Re: Conan vs. Elric Its been a while since I read the Eternal Champion books but I don't believe Stormbringer has anything to do with any other EC except Elric so him summoning any of the others would not fit the syntax of those books. I'd have to give the battle to Conan though, one on one, he survived every encounter Howard every wrote, he would find a way to defeat Elric and Stormbringer.

Re: Movies One of my favorities and just happens to be on at the moment.... KRULL!

Re: Combat Balance HCS - Hero Combat Simulator. Throw your NPCs/Monsters/Villians, etc in and your PCs then you can walk through combat with them to get an idea of how it will go. Then of course you can use it to run combat during the actual game to take the number crunching and record keeping tasks out and allow you to enjoy combat (even large combats ex: I just ran a 15 Great Wolves and 24 Goblins vs a group of 6 PCs and it was a hell of alot eaiser). P.S. Did I mention it is oh so close to being able to open Hero Designer save files, reading in all the Powers/Advantages/Disadvantages/Limitations/Skills/Martial Arts that HCS supports?