JohnTaber

Re: Hero System: Sidekick

Re: Sprit Whim Magic System Hi Markdoc and Cargus10: These are pretty different from what I want but they are both very interesting concepts. Thanks for the nice replies. I may pilfer some of the smaller concepts... Take care!

Re: Sprit Whim Magic System Wow Lord Laiden...I do not have VA and did not know it had that concept. Interesting! I just ordered Tuala Morn for ideas but maybe I should look at VA too. Thanks for the tip!!!

Re: Sprit Whim Magic System Hi Tom: First off...great reply. Thanks! I was not clear enough. The 30 minimum real points is the total that the character must spend on all of their collected spells. In the past I have had an issue with all of the swordsman buying 1 or 2 smaller spells to enhance themselves. For example, Str Aid and Force Field with long delays and such. They would spend 8 to 10 pts to add powers. I am NOT worried about play balance...my primary concern is the feel I want in the campaign. I want mages to be fairly rare and to have to be very invested. Hope that helps clears it up. I have something like this planned...or at least in mind...but hearing your feedback makes me sure. I definitely plan to have the characters define the side effect when the spell is created but I did not think it would depend on a certain spirit. For example, one spell involving fire spirits might result in a RKA side effect where another might result in a transform into a raging uncontrolled lunatic. My thought was to work with the players to define the side effect. Note that I did NOT have this in the campaign doc I am starting so a big thanks.

Re: Exploding Dice Gotcha. Now I understand. Good thought...hummm...I'll have to decide how I want to proceed. Thanks again!

Re: Exploding Dice Hi Doc: Nice thread. More data that is influencing this...from a campaign that I am running now... I am currently using a meta gaming bennie concept similar to fan mail from Primetime Adventures in a Fudge based Victorian horror game. For some reason my players are having a hard time getting into the meta gaming mechanic. Thus my thought is to avoid a mechanic of any kind that relies on judgements of other PC actions. Yours idea do not do this but I wanted to give mpore background. I am planning the later. There would essentially be no drawback AND it would be a mechanic only for the PC and key NPC who are "blessed by spirits". Why should I be careful making this just another part of rolling damage? What is the drawback? To me is seems like this would be an advantage... Again...great reply...thanks!

Re: Exploding Dice I guess I was not clear enough in my initial post...this is exactly what I intend to do...I really don't care about a limitation value. I plan to consider this a campaign rule. I just wanted to figure out how to impliment it. I think people misread the tag..."How Do I Build It"...my fault for choosing that one.

Re: Sprit Whim Magic System Definitely something to consider. I could force Extra Time too. Not bad.

Re: Exploding Dice Wow...that is an interesting idea and kinda puts weapon users on par with what I am planning for the magic system. See the "Spirit Whim" thread. Drat...now which idea do I use...

Re: Sprit Whim Magic System Yeah, that is very close to what I am thinking. Interesting ideas. Thanks for the link!

Re: Sprit Whim Magic System Wow...nice stuff. It does not have any that are like what I am trying to do but there are some great ideas for some small add-ons and such. Very cool collection!

Re: Sprit Whim Magic System

Re: Sprit Whim Magic System Great ideas.

Hi Hero Gods: I'm currently working on a FH campaign where spirits are source of all magic. For example, to create a blast of fire you summon spirits of fire and order them to speed at the target. All spells must have this overarching special effect of "call fairy x to do task y". Spirits have minds of their own and can do occassionally do unpredictable things. To that end I was contemplating altering the FH base magic system to promote this feel. Now...some guidelines...these are my guidelines for this campaign...yes there are some opinions thrown in...please accept them as my takes only... I do NOT want to drastically effect the default base FH magic system. In other words I don't want to completely change rolling a modified skill roll based on the active points, an attack roll (as required), then damage/effect (as required). I want to promote a feeling that launching a spell has a bit more uncertainty in damage or effect. Spells could have ramifications to the caster if the spirits get upset when called (i.e. the magic roll fails). I do not want "mystically enhanced fighters" with only 1 spell that gives them some minor benefit. Calling spirits is draining. Defensive spells are too cheap for FH where damage is often lower. For example, 10 points of armor spell is cheap and extremely effective. Here are some of my thoughts right now...#5 is the most out there...I would love some feedback on that one... My Thought #1 - Magic Roll And Side Effect Are Required On All Spells The Magic Roll would be a skill called "Call and Bind Spirits". If the roll is missed the spirits would backlash somehow on the caller (i.e. Side Effect). Maybe in damage, annoying effects, etc. By forcing these on all spells that effect would occur. My Thought #2 - Minimum Real Points Spent On Spells For Starting Characters Forcing a minimum real points spent on spells should prevent "mystically enhanced fighters". I have to figure out what the number is...30 points?...but I think this idea would work. My Thought #3 - Spells Costs 1 End/5 Active Points This would make spells draining to cast. My Thought #4 - Double The Cost Of Defenses Bought Through Powers Armor costs 3 pts for 1 defense, FF costs 2 points for 1 defense, benefits from other powers that relate to defense are half as effective. I think this should be ok... My Thought #5 - A caster can sacrifice from their magic roll to add active points to their power I thought this would be a fun way for spirit mages to really be creative and take a chance to get some neat effect. The trick is going to be picking the numbers. For now I'll say the caster can add 5 active points for every point they make the magic roll. For fun...if they miss their magic roll in this way they take a larger side effect based on the amount they wanted to try! I'll start an example so we can talk about it... Example #1 - Arc has a 16 or less magic roll and a 6d6 lightning blast. This would be -3 to the magic roll (13 or less). Arc decides he is going to tweak a dragon and make the attack armor piercing. This means he needs 15 active points. That is -3 to his magic roll. If he rolls a 10- he casts the spell as desired. If he misses the side effect is 15 points greater! Thoughts on any of this? Good ideas? Bad ideas? Etc? Thanks!

Re: Exploding Dice Hi Roter Baron: Good question. Essentially I want a more dramatic feel to the campaign where chance plays a larger role. By adding exploding dice I'm hoping to capture a wilder feel without greatly altering the existing damage/defense balance on every roll. For example, I don't want to simply give the PC an extra 2 damage classes or something...I want it to be given by chance. There is also a concept for a magic system that I want to pair with exploding dice that will strongly back up this wilder feel...watch for another post on that topic soon.

Re: Exploding Dice Thanks for your comment on liking exploding dice. I have NOT played a lot of systems with exploding dice but I thought that feel would be fun for this campaign. Good idea to toss lots of dice to determine the impact. Note that I am not concerned about tossing a lot of dice because this is for FH. I'm expecting lower dice pools. Yeah a brute with a club can dish out a fair amount of normal dice but I think that is likely going to be the exception not the rule. That did make me think of something though...with small dice pools would I always want exploding? For example, what if I am throwing a 1.5d6 KA which might be pretty normal for FH. Should the whole d6 explode? My instinct is yeah but I need to play with it a bit...that might be too gross. Humm... Any other thoughts? Great stuff folks! PS Love your Petrelli avatar BTW.

Re: Exploding Dice I am leaning towards this idea...or possibly something very close to it. Here are my reasons and my idea for a slight tweak. I like this idea because I plan to make this a standard campaign rule. This is not something that will be a new optional advantage. I also think this option is fairest for RKA and normal attack. A 6 is less likely when less dice are rolled but if it does come up on a RKA it would be more powerful. Since this will be a standard rule for at least the good guys I also like the simplicity of this idea. What about something like what Wolf says but what if this happens only if CERTAIN dice roll a 6. What if 1 out of every 3 dice that is rolled is a different color then if that dice only comes up a 6 you get to roll it again? For example, Setup - 6d6. 4 of the dice are blue. 2 of the dice are red. #1 Blue: 2,3,5,6 Red: 1,4 <- No reroll. #2 Blue: 2,3,5,6 Red: 2,6 <- Reroll the 6. #3 Blue: 2,3,5,6 Red: 6,6 <- Reroll BOTH 6's. Thoughts?

Hi Fellow Hero Gamers: I'm working on a new FH campaign that I will be starting in roughly a year. One of the things I am thinking about is how to add exploding dice into Hero. Exploding dice are used in Savage Worlds and other systems. The idea is pretty simple in those games. Lets say you roll 1d8 damage. If you roll an 8 then you pick up the dice and roll it again. You continue until you stop rolling 8. NOW... With Hero you have RKA and normal attacks that damage. You also have a lot more dice for normal attacks. Any idea how I can get this effect in Hero?

Re: A New Dawn. 'Post-Apocalyptic' Fantasy Hi Shadowsoul: I read your entries and laughed...these ideas are VERY akin to something I am currently working up. I am working on a post-apoc FH setting that takes place after a mage war but in my campaign I want to have a very strong fairy tale feel. I am working up a magic system that is completely based around spirits. In fact all magic is simply the invoking of different spirits to do the casters biddings. The overall campaign thread will involve the world choosing a bunch of unlikely heroes to defend it from harm. When I get more I plan to post a thread in the FH forum but I thought I would mention it. Love what you have so far!

Re: Optional Rules I used a trick in a sci-fi campaign based on Alien Legion that worked great. Raise the damage of weapons but give them all -1 to the Stun Multiple. The effect is more Body damage with less Stun. It works great. Deadly but not overly so.

Re: Hey Gang! Welcome Jack! Loved your comments on the future of MMOs...

Re: IGN Article On Champions Online -- Including Trailer! Also at GDC our new buddy Jack Emmert has some interesting things to say about the future of MMOs. I think it is worth a read (see link below to the IGN article). Sounds like he has strong opinions on this stuff! AWESOME! http://pc.ign.com/articles/854/854123p1.html

Re: Fantasy Hero - Basic Questions 1 level is needed to raise OCV/DCV. Two levels are needed to raise 1 damage class Example = Conan has 1 level in all combat and 1 level with axes. He has ONE of these options EACH phase: +2 OCV +2 DCV +1 OCV AND +1 DCV +1 Damage Class (DC) if he hits with his axe. You do this when the other guy is stunned...[evil snicker]... Hope that helps...

Re: Information for HERO/Champions Fans About The Champions Online MMO

Re: Information for HERO/Champions Fans About The Champions Online MMO