DrFaust

Re: Acquitaine [PDF] now available.

Nice! Purchased.

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff?

I happened to be wandering by the forum and this thread caught my eye. My copy of Tuala Morn's been serving on a gang of books flattening out some prints, so the cover keeps catching my eye. Every time, I think, "I wish they'd published supplementary material for that world."

So I am completely on board with snapping up new Tuala Morn material. Subscribing to the thread for updates!

Re: The Price of Hiring a Villain

Well' date=' the NPC could always subcontract it out to the villain, but then the PCs might accuse you of railroading.[/quote']

 

That is a very interesting idea! I might just use that.

 

I'm so not railroady that if I used that twist, the players would have no reason to complain at all.

Re: The Price of Hiring a Villain

They left it to the NPC technical boffin, despite his strenuous complaints he wasn't a bio-engineer. I'm sure that won't come back to haunt them at all.

Re: The Price of Hiring a Villain

For the curious, the characters pooh-poohed the idea of dealing with a villain seconds after an NPC brought it up. I kinda saw that one coming, so I didn't push the matter.

Re: The Price of Hiring a Villain

Yeah I'm sure that's not going to come back and bite us in the ass. I mean' date=' tailored viruses, planting DNA at a crime scene or to help fake our deaths while we're imprisoned, growing clones to infitrate our base and attack us, the reasons this is a bad idea (from the heroes point of veiw are legion.[/quote']

 

That was one of the first possibilities that sprang to mind, but it seems like one of those ludicrous GM plot-hammers. "Hur, hur. You guys are going to screw yourselves to save the city because I ensured that was the only option available."

 

I think Teleios may ask them to steal someone else's DNA. This is all assuming they even go the route of bargaining with them. I'm just covering my bases.

It's not WWYCD, but more like What Would the NPC Do?

Suppose for a moment there were a plague or virus of some sort spreading through the city. The heroes, lacking a biologist or doctor amongst their numbers, find themselves turning to a Teleios-style villain for his services in devising a cure. What do you suppose he might want in return?

Things I've thought of so far: he asks the PCs to steal something he can't get hold of himself -- a DNA sample of a well-guarded and shielded person, maybe, or chemical X-19 -- and putting his latest monstrosity through its paces.

Any other suggestions?

Re: Wizard of Oz: perhaps a one shot or short campaign.

Sounds like a clever concept!

Reminds me somewhat of Philip Jose Farmer's decentish A Barnstormer in Oz, in which Dorothy's son accidentally flies into Oz in his biplane. A lot of that book was spent making Oz "plausible." I forget what the Cowardly Lion was rationalized as.

Re: Currency . . . of the Future!

They should have named the currency the "Quatloo".

It'll be three quatloos to a quid, but seven zorkmids to the quatloo.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7029564.stm

"'None of the existing payment systems we use on earth - like cash, credit or debit cards - could be used in space,' said Professor George Fraser from the University of Leicester.

"'Anything with sharp edges, like coins, would be a risk to astronauts while the chips and magnetic strips used in our cards on Earth would be damaged beyond repair by cosmic radiation,' he added."

Re: Urban Fantasy Recommendations

I'll throw in James P. Blaylock's The Paper Grail and The Last Coin, which share a lot in common with Tim Powers' novels. I'm told All the Bells on Earth rounds out the trio, thematically speaking.

Thought the podcasters in the audience might be interested to know that the latests episode of the gaming podcast Roll 2d6 is devoted discussing the development of Champions and one of the hosts' love for making characters.

Re: Known Spheres, a Spelljammer-inspired campaign

Just wanted to update y'all that unfortunately Known Spheres stalled after one session because of a lack of sleep on my part. The hour-long ride home at midnight was not compatible with the other demands on my schedule.

But I haven't given up, and am using the downtime to refine setting details and mechanical tidbits. And the quickie battle we did have during the one session was quite valuable in finally seeing a HERO combat goes.

Re: Hero System and Rpg.net

I've found the Gaming Index and Reviews section of RPG.Net to be both really cool and really useful. More of us should go over there' date=' rate the Hero Books in the Gaming Index and write Reviews of the books.[/quote']

 

Seconded. I put my whole HERO library into the index and I know a couple other people seem to have been pretty diligent about submitting the latest releases.

Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy...

There was a short-lived series on USA, briefly revived on the Sci-Fi Channel, called G vs E, about working stiff-style agents of heaven fighting against, unsurprisingly, the forces of darkness in sunny Los Angeles, California. It was light, action-y fare with a sense of humor, and kind of a sort of urban fantasy.

Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy...

Yikes, how could I forget the "California magic" books written by Tim Powers and James P. Blaylock? Novels like Last Call and The Paper Grail practically define urban fantasy for me. I can't believe I didn't think of them.

Re: When you hear Urban Fantasy...

Honestly, Changeling: the Dreaming springs to mind before any fiction does, but that's probably because I've spent more time reading Changeling books than the source material. I've also come to think of Mage Done My Way as urban fantasy.

But yeah, for source material, I guess I think of Neverwhere, Charles de Lint's Newford stories and even parts of Gaiman's Sandman as urban fantasy.

Re: You practice what-o-mancy?

There's also plutomancy, magic based on having and not spending money; cliomancy, creating truth through lies; epideromancy, body-improving magic through self-injury; personamancy, manipulating identity by proving it's an illusion; and irascimancy, suffering others' rage to inflict it on others.

It also has my favorite name for a school of magic, though it's not a -mancy: A Grammarian Gate, or anagram gematria, which someone already mentioned upthread.

Re: You practice what-o-mancy?

Three pages and no one's mentioned Unknown Armies? That game is king of the -mancies.

Re: Known Spheres, a Spelljammer-inspired campaign

So we had our first session Thursday evening. It went pretty well, I suppose. I've never GMed for these guys before, so I was kinda thrown when they started asking for exact costs of things and such. I usually just handwave that stuff.

We had a combat that went okay. I fudged more than I suspected I would. But then, they were just orcish mooks, so who cares, right? The session was more about teaching the players the basics of HERO, rather than having a full-on brawl.

I'm not entirely sold on SPD, but we'll give it a few more encounters before rendering a verdict. We've got one samurai-type with SPD 5; everyone else has SPD 4 or 3.

The wizardly characters are going to need to be retweaked, as none of them have all that much END at their disposal, once we start using it. In fact, I think I'm going to encourage them to add some limitations to their spells, and decrease their magic skill rolls, to free up some points.

I actually found myself wishing for a map and minis. Usually, I don't like minis because I find they limit my thinking. But I kept getting lost about how many orcs were left and what they were each doing. Granted, they were just mooks, but it doesn't bode well for a fight with more significant NPCs.

Next week, I think we'll work more on plot and such. The PCs are taking a field researcher from the Library of the Spheres to find a lost survey ship in an uncharted sphere, with a resupply stopover on Hyspera, an elven colony world -- ooh, sudden idea flash! The colony's missing, Roanoke-style, or maybe brutally ravaged. One of the plots I want to work up to is the goblinkin making a resurgence on the interstellar scene, a la Spelljammer's Second Unhuman War.

So I'm getting a few final things together for tomorrow's kick-off session of my HERO test run, one of which is a SPD Chart. I open up a blank spreadsheet document to make the thing . . . and realize I'm not really sure what I should put on it.

I mean, is it just a grid with SPD values along one axis and Phases on the other? Should I incorporate DEX information, in case of characters sharing a phase? How?

Would anyone be willing to show one of their own SPD Charts, for reference and inspiration?

Re: Swallowing a Man Whole

I suppose you might feel compelled to model this' date=' simply so the characters can react to it, but I don't know if I'd make a creature who happens to be larger than a human pay points for the ability. It just [i']is[/i].Otherwise, why not have ALL characters buy it? A human might be able to swallow a pixie.

You know, I agree. I was really hesitant about starting this thread because I'm the one usually thinking to myself, "They don't really need to write that up. Just wave a hand and make it so," when I read this particular sub-forum.

And yet, I wanted to have some guidance in how to adjudicate such a thing without going completely with handwaving. I like the solution in the Bestiary, though I suspect I'll ignore the size strictures with regards to this particular critter.

Re: Swallowing a Man Whole

Hero System Bestiary' date=' page 33[/quote']

 

Works for me! Much simpler than statting out a special power.

In putting together material for an upcoming game, I find myself faced with the following: do you model a creature that can swallow a person whole? My initial thought is some weird kind of Grapple with a Continuous Damage Shield, only while grappling, to represent gastric juices.

Has someone else already invented this wheel?

Re: Federal Authority Registered Meta-Human Form

That's awesome.

"Are you aware of any substance that may cause you to change size, shape or intention?"