Jhaierr

I remember when they used to have Fantasy Hero stats for Shadow World! I'd love to have a FH 6E version of that setting.

I am definitely anticipating a new Fantasy Hero Complete product (hopefully), but mainly I just haven't had time to do any campaigns. I'm mainly a lurker. I always have one on the back burner of my mind, though. My first roleplaying experience was fantasy (albeit a Fantasy Champions sort of campaign), so I always want to go back to it.

What bigbywolfe said, and also: The first quote would be better understood if clarified as such: "...make all his attacks using Line Of Sight with long-range Senses or using Mind Scan." Mind Scan is an alternative way of establishing Line Of Sight; therefore it does not require Line Of Sight itself, as that would make no sense. It is not an Attack power. In the second quote, the key part of the phrase is "...an Opaque Barrier blocks Line Of Sight with the defined Sense (Group)." Let us say that DarkMind the evil telepath is standing 10m away from Stalwart, a forcefield-generating hero. DarkMind has, among other things, Mental Attack and Mind Scan. The following things could happen (given Stalwart's forcefield VPP). Stalwart creates a Barrier with the following characteristics that stands between himself and DarkMind: 10 PD/10 ED. As DarkMind can see through the Barrier and establish LOS easily through the by-default-transparent-to-all-Senses Barrier using his Normal Sight, he may attack him normally with his Mental Attack. 10 PD/10 ED and Opaque to the Hearing Sense Group. As DarkMind can see through the Barrier and establish LOS using his Normal Sight, he may attack him normally with his Mental Attack. 10 PD/10 ED and Opaque to the Sight Sense Group. As DarkMind cannot see through the Barrier using his Normal Sight, he cannot attack him normally with his Mental Attack, as he has no active Targeting Sense to establish LOS with. However, DarkMind has Mind Scan, which he can use to locate Stalwart with an EGO + 10 effect roll. After he has done this and established a lock-on, the next phase he can make his Mental Attack on Stalwart, as Mind Scan can be used to target someone with Mental Powers (or more) if the effect roll is high enough. 10 PD/10 ED and Opaque to the Mental Sense Group. As DarkMind can see through the Barrier and establish LOS using his Normal Sight, he may attack him normally with his Mental Attack. It doesn't matter if the Mental Sense Group is blocked; that doesn't affect LOS via Sight. However, Mind Scanning for Stalwart's location would be fruitless, as Mind Scan uses the Mental Sense Group. 10 PD/10 ED and Opaque to the Mental Sense Group and the Sight Sense Group. DarkMind cannot establish LOS with his Normal Sight and cannot use Mind Scan to establish a lock-on and target him that way. Stalwart is (at least for the time being) protected from mental attacks by DarkMind. Luckily, DarkMind has an astral form than he can send through the Barrier (but that's another story)... Essentially, it depends on what Sense is blocked (via Opaque) by the Barrier. If it interferes with a Targeting Sense and that Targeting Sense is used to establish LOS with the target, then it will stop Mental Powers from working on the Target. Only the "Opaque to Mental Sense Group" adder would block Mind Scan. Likewise, the Power "Invisibility to Mental Sense Group" would make one invisible to Mind Scan. Therefore, Mind Scan does not use LOS to find another mind and establish a lock-on; it is a Mental Sensory Power that creates LOS for other Mental Attack Powers. Thus, Mind Scan is not stopped by just any sort of Opaque Barrier--only Barriers that are Opaque to Mind Scan or the Mental Sense Group.

Just a note: Actually, I said those two posts there, not bigbywolfe. Mind Scan is stopped by walls? So I can't Mind Scan through buildings? Also, Mind Scan is not inherently centered on the character (aside from usually keeping it on a planetary level). As written, I could stand in Paris and Mind Scan in Chicago with no penalty (see the No Range section on p. 265). This is why I would say that it is not Indirect per se; it just works differently and does not need Indirect due to the nature of the power.

I would posit that Mental powers are, by default, a special kind of "Indirect." They only require one to have a Line of Sight to the target, which can be achieved via Mind Scan regardless of intervening obstacles. I can search the city of Chicago via Mind Scan, locate a target (achieving at least EGO + 10 on Mind Scan), and proceed to use Telepathy, Mind Control, Ego Attack, and Mental Illusions freely on the target because I have my LOS now. These all work regardless of any intervening physical barriers, and thus they do not need any additional Indirect advantage in order to function. (Although, as you mentioned, if this were transdimensional, they would need Indirect per 6E.) Mind Scan is both a Mental Power and a Sensory Power. The sensory part of Mind Scan works within the Mental Group, so physical barriers mean nothing to it. In fact, I would post that a Barrier with Mental Defense would also mean nothing to it. In order to thwart a Mind Scan, you would need Images or Invisibility vs. the Mental Group. Additionally, since Mental Powers do not care about walls (only LOS, which can be achieved via Mind Scan), then they are automatically Indirect in this way. In fact, having a Barrier with Mental Defense appears to offer no defense against Mental Powers unless you are attacking the Barrier itself (6E1 p. 169). 6E says to instead apply Mental Defense as an Area Of Effect or Usable On Others, etc. Mental Defense (and the other special defenses) appear to only protect the Barrier itself, since if a power cannot normally go through a typical wall, then it is automatically blocked by a Barrier and prevented from working anyway. Mental Powers, however, are not stopped by walls if you have LOS in some way.

Do you need Indirect for Mind Scan? Isn't it indirect already? Maybe I misunderstand why you added that advantage...

Do you need Megascale for the Mind Control since Mind Scan creates a "line of sight" automatically?

I am really curious if Jason (and thus Hero Games) has any news or further thoughts about this potential product?

Oh, you're right! I forgot that BODY is now 1 CP = 1 BODY in 6E. Never mind.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Drain 6d6 BODY would actually drain 5.25 BODY on average because Drains vs. BODY are halved...

Not sure if this has been posted before, but I thought this might be great material for inspiration or pictures to use in your sci-fi games. http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/cities-of-future-artworks/

Fantasy Hero and the Hero System itself (you'll need the PDFs of the 6th edition rules or you can use the rules from Champions Complete) allows you to play any sort of fantasy genre that you like. Sword and sorcery in a gritty world? No problem. Epic, continent-sweeping campaign? No problem. Magic-sparse intrigue à la Game of Thrones? No problem. Dimension-hopping, high powered fantasy? No problem. Hero allows you to create and tweak how everything works, and Fantasy Hero provides several example genres of magic systems for you to start with. It also provides tons of information about different types of campaigns, elements of fantasy roleplaying, weapons, armor, and all sorts of related data.

Jason, I am curious to hear if there has been any more discussion about this product? It's definitely something I would get if it were presented as Fantasy Hero Complete.

Re: "Must cross intervening space" The text from 6E1 is: In my view, "pass through the intervening space" does not mean "get to normally" -- the description mentions barriers and does not mention support or bridges or such things. I would interpret it to mean that it is just like normal teleport except that there can be no barriers in between.

Re: Fantasy Fiction From Steve in THE END WAS NOT THE END Anthology Congrats!!

Re: Looking For Input On Potential New Fantasy Product What Mallet said. After reading everyone's replies, I think that this could be one of the best things Hero could do. I've been playing fantasy for years, but I never really got my friends to use Hero (in some cases for various reasons unrelated to Hero).

Re: Looking For Input On Potential New Fantasy Product After reading what Spence had to say, I am 100% on board with Fantasy Hero Complete. I think it's very important to get new customers and customers that will play the game. Since it's difficult to find Hero players in many areas, getting new people on board with it is crucial. Very well put, Spence. I really liked your post.

Re: Looking For Input On Potential New Fantasy Product I guess I would ask, as a diehard Hero fan, in what way would buying the products benefit me? would really like to have something "new" since I already have FH6, 6E1&2, and CC (which I got because it was essentially rewritten and sort of a "new" product). Part of me would like to have a Fantasy Hero 6E that is updated to refer to CC instead of 6E1&2, but that's not strictly necessary.

Re: Advocacy on other sites...

Re: Why I prefer HERO System over Pathfinder/OGL/D&D for fantasy I agree that this would be very good for new and old players/GMs alike. I'm not sure we'd agree on what constitutes "good GMing" or "balanced challenges," but a core book would be a good start.

Re: Why I prefer HERO System over Pathfinder/OGL/D&D for fantasy I wonder if it is not that Fantasy Hero lacks pre-generated settings, but that it lacks widely popular (even in the Hero community) pre-generated settings. D&D, meanwhile, has several settings that have been popular over the years and have a definite feel of familiarity and nostalgia when playing them. Likewise, Rolemaster has its Shadow World setting, and so forth.

Re: What do I need? New to HERO. Naturally I somehow didn't see that Lucius said this until after I posted.

Re: What do I need? New to HERO. Bear in mind that Fantasy Hero does not contain a complete magic system; it describes how to create one. The Hero System Grimoire book has a ton of spells made just for this, however. I would recommend the core books (either 6E1&2 or wait for Champions Complete in a few months), the Hero System Grimoire for the spells, and Fantasy Hero for all the ideas and interesting concepts related to running fantasy campaigns.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities That last post was more of a derail than I intended. This thread was an excellent read and brought up so many important points. This semester I'm teaching a class on gender. I think I might use some of the material linked here in my class discussions.

Re: Interesting article about Sexism in Geek Communities I've seen this as well (and even on these boards) as far as LGB aspects of games are concerned. Heaven forbid we spend any amount of "effort" to add any LGB characters or options to games--any "effort" spent will naturally reduce the quality of the games. One example is adding same-sex romance options to Star Wars: The Old Republic. Another is adding any references to same-sex relationships in Champions/Hero sourcebooks. And it's all seen as being "political" or a case of "if we do that then we'll have to do that for every conceivable iteration of 'minority.' OMGERD!"