JohnTaber

Re: Building acrobatic combat agility (?) You can also do this by adding DCV linked to an Acrobatics roll (ala old school Acrobatics).

Re: Computer Programming I think this line from John is interesting. In my Star Hero game the hacker PC took several skills with a limitation that they only apply to computers. These skills would be to be used to compliment his Computer Programming skill. For example, Forgery (Faking access codes), Security Systems (only electronic or computer related), and Tracking (using computer databases and bit trails to find people). At first I hesitated and said that these are just Computer Programming rolls or maybe KS/SS but then I backed off. Why not let these go!?! It is not abusive and man it's cool when he pulls out the appropriate compliment.

Re: Starship Design Hi Heroites: Sorry to interrupt this fine discussion but I thought I would mention that I worked on a Star Hero Starship vehicle export template for HD2 that you folks may want to check out. Go to the File Download page on my site (the URL is below my name) to get the file. Carry on!

Re: A Psionic "Computer"? And how to build it... Hi Daoen: I'm confused by your post. You seem to clearly outline the Hero powers you want to get for the computer but then you ask how to buy them. Can you be more specific in where you are encountering problems? All sorts of drives are addressed in Star Hero and the Ultimate Vehicle book. I don't remember which but one of them has a great example of an FTL drive.

Re: Seeking a little gming advice Hi K: Others have sort of mentioned this...and it sounds like this comment is a bit after the fact...but I wanted to let you know what I do. When I start a new campaign of ANY genre I have an entire play session where everyone works on characters. It works like this: * Before the session starts I tell everyone to come with several ideas. I give them only VERY high level info at this point. In most case I give them a one sentence description of the new campaign. * At the start of the session I describe the campaign in detail. I talk about the world, the government, the PC's role, etc. I also go into depth about the feel I want. "The PC are galactic good guys." * After this I answer questions from the PC. These can be anything from points to campaign questions. * The PC then start throwing out ideas. If two PC overlap they work it out. "I want a fire throwing guy." "I want a fire throwing guy too!" "Wanna be brothers or do you want to change your ideas?" I have had the same core group of 3 or 4 players for 20 years. I still have this issue and these session really help. In fact the players love these sessions now that I started having them about 5 or 6 years ago. I've also found that I end up fleshing out my world in these sessions. "Why are mentalist hated? Can I be a hidden one? Maybe in a league of freedom fighters?" It works great. Good luck!

Re: Jack of All Trades Hi Narthon: They don't do the same thing. For example, Acrobatics and PS:Acrobat are completely different. Acrobatics is the ability to do flips, etc. PS:Acrobat is the knowledge of how to get hired and make money at being an acrobat. It would also impart knowledge of other key acrobats in the field. Maybe the Flying Walenza's. The skills are different.

Re: A Xmas present DicePro is the best. Here is a URL. Rival Labs

Re: Character Build Question - How Would You Do It? Here is another idea. If you are a player not a GM this might be a good approach...if you are a GM points are not as important... Make the robot the PC. Give the robot a follower or even a DNPC of the controller depending on the effect you want to achieve. If you want more than one robot buy duplication. The advantage to this approach is that the robot is likely higher points than the controller guy.

Re: What's the best way to learn Hero?

Re: Autonomous weapons You could also use Area Affect - Selective. Target the corner and if the target is still in the range it gets em. Lots of ways to build stuff in Hero...yeah!

Re: harnworld -- worth it for HERO? Hi Michael: I have run the last four or five of my Fantasy Hero camapigns in Harn. I've done barbarian wastelands of Orbaal, knights in Kanday, mages in Melderyn. Check my site for some of the things I did for my games. Note that I was NOT strictly adhering to Harn's low magic profile...it depended on the settings. Check the File Downloads page on my site for all the downloads. I have over 150 pages of stuff. A link to my site is below.

Re: Speeding Up The Game Looks what I just found on the web...I'm gonna order one...I'll let everyone know what it is like... Big Foam D12

Re: Speeding Up The Game I do a few things...all of these are very simple...some have already been mentioned... Idea #1 - Buy a big rubber d12. Put it in front of the GM screen and turn it as the phases elapse. It keeps the players from always asking for the phase. Idea #2 - Never roll 1d6 EVERY phase when characters are tied with the same Dex. Roll 1d6 for the ENTIRE combat or even the entire game before combat starts. After the roll is determined sort the sheets in the right order (i.e. see below). Idea #3 - Have the players sit in Dex order around the table. Helps the GM know where to look. Idea #4 - Make copies of the villains AND the heroes. Put them in Dex/Spd order with the highest on top. Just flip through them as the phases roll by. The character on top has the action. If the sheets are in plastic or on notecards you can simply use a overhead marker to update the End and Stun. Idea #5 - Give the player a rough time limit of 20 to 30 sec to decide what to do. If they don't respond in a reasonable amount of time start verbally counting down from 5. For example, "5"..."4"..."3"..."2"..."1". If they don't respond you skip their turn or if you are nice you have them automatically hold their action. I use these ideas and they work great! After doing it for 20 years the players expect it...

Re: PROJECT: The Ultimate GM Screen Agree. This is really nice. It also keeps the workspace clean. Something like the old chart from the Champions II book I think...that would be cool. I conducted a Hero seminar at a local store this weekend and I made an insert with just the very simple info in very big type. The info had 6 moves, the range chart, the hit formula, and how to calculate damage. It worked great. I like the idea of just a few bits of info in big type. It might work good for one of the outward facing side panels...leave art or a map for the middle.

Re: PROJECT: The Ultimate GM Screen GREAT idea oh Jedi Master! First off...here is a link to the screen on FRP games: Customizable GM Screen This way others can get a look at this sucker. I think it rocks! I have been using it for a while now. Very nice. I LOVE the landscape low profile. The company is also wonderful. They sent me a new one when mine arrived damaged. Nice company. I currently use the Hero GM shield PDF from Fitz as inserts. It is in landscape mode and works quite well although I would love to have it 11" x 8.5"...currently it is a bit less. I particularly like the color coding in the one from Fitz. Here is a link to the page with that sucker: Fitz's GM Screen I think some of the folks who created cheat sheets might be able to help. If they could convert them to landscape we would have it...

Re: Pokey Starships? Hi Kintar: I really like some of your ideas. Nice! Hi NuSoard: I totally agree with you about the TE ships. Did anyone actually try out some combats with these??? I dunno...maybe I misread them...

Re: Old version of Star Hero I totally agree with Archer. I have the 4th ed Star Hero and I do not think it is very well done. The 5th edition version is FAR FAR better. Get that...

Re: Doctor Who Like Game Hi Colossus: Sure. I have run something very similar to what you describe. I am a Dr. Who fan but many of my players are not...thus my incarnation... At various conventions I run a game which I call "Time Travel DI" (DI = Danger International). In each game the PC arrive at a given time and place and have to figure out what it going ok. Often they get involved in a supernatural mysteries, aliens plot, etc. The key is that the time zone and location completely changes! One of the fun things that I do is allow them to pickup players as they go. The result is that now there is a football quarterback, a victorian movie actress, a 6th century monk, and an Australian big game hunter. Very fun stuff...and extremely easy to do in Hero...

Re: Starbase Floorplans I REALLY recommend Points In Space by Cumberland Games (i.e. S. John Ross). Not only are the maps cool but there is a lot of great encounter material. I am literally using everything except for may 2 locations in the entire thing!

Re: I Can't Believe He Played That! I've had some wild ones over the years... The Michilan Man - Yeah, the white guy made of tires. Glue - Literally a blob of goo.

Re: Why I love HERO As a GM I like the universality. As a player I like the versitility.

Re: Cosmographer Pro released I have Astrosynthesis too. I just started using it so I do not have a lot of comments. I'll reply again in a couple of weeks with more details. Note that I did come up with a bunch of enhancement ideas and forwarded them to the NBOS mailing list. I also have a couple of gripes which I have also forwarded. We'll have to see how they respond. I think it is a really nice first release. I hope they get enough sales to keep supporting it with future cuts...

Re: Heroic Campaign Guidelines & Equipment Hi Kevin: Couple things. Re: MA vs Gun. I wanted to make it so there was at least a remote reason why someone would get anything except a laser. Re: Speed of Light. Yes, the shields have a side effect of distorting sound and light which causes perception penalties when it is activated. John T> PS You are not the Kevin Rose on Screen Savers right? Just curious...it would be VERY cool if you were the same Kevin Rose.

Re: What kind of Star Hero 'teams' are you gaming? The PC in my new campaign are pretty different. My campaign started with the PC travelling towards a distant asteroid mining colony. (This was my only stipulation for the players out of the gate: They must be on their way to the mining colony having never been there before. That was it! ) Along the way the ships crashes and the PC work together to save themselves and make their way on foot to the domed mining colony. During the trek every PC does something in their skill set to help save the group. Once they reach the done they discover the ship was sabotaged! Who did it? Why? They are also mysteriously given group control over a business that was run by one of the people who dies on the ship. Did they know about the crash? The group owned company and serveral common goals are enough for the PC to stick with eachother. It has been a blast so far! The PC include the following. (These will be on my site once I get a chance to work them from paper into HD2. ) + Lena - Psionic cop on leave. Uses a power sword. + Mack - Loveable cybernetic digger with a mysterious past. + Captain Schaffer - Blood thirsty smuggler pilot. + Vlad - Paranoid Va Rulen spy. (Va Rulen are space born elves kinda.) + Hannibal - Thawed cryogenic sleeper now bounty hunter. + Stooz - Kid hacker with a secret bio computer implanted in his chest. It has been REALLY fun! Re: Locale. Right now my PC are solely on the asteroid mining colony. I use warehouse maps, bars, garages, the port, etc as locales. When they get enough money to fix their ship I plan to let them lead the campaign a bit. Once I figure out what they want to do I'll create some adventures to tie into the rest of my game ideas. Re: Published Adventures. Boy I am having a hell of a time in this area. I found some stuff but I really near StarTown adventures and those are non-existant. I found some old stuff for Traveller but it is not super helpful. The best thing I have found is 100 Science Fiction Adventure Ideas (see RPGNow) and GURPS Far Trader. I purchased StarTown Liberty but I have not had the chance to read it yet. If anyone has good books that I could use PLEASE send me a private email!!!

Re: Star Trek-type shields? Wow...I really like Blue Joggers additional Body idea! Man...I might actually change some things in my game...hum...nice! Here is what I am doing now. I created a couple of new modifiers: [NOTE that all of this can be found in the campaign doc found on my site.] 7.10.7.2 Fragmenting Defense This is a new limitation that can be taken on defensive powers. It is used to reflect a defense that chips away as it is struck. In essence this is a very specific form of the Side Effect limitation. I got the idea from an article in Digital Hero and modified it to suit my needs. Fragmenting is a base -1 limitation. When struck a fragmenting defense loses 1 point of PD or ED based on the attack type. For every point of Body done that exceeds the defenses given by the power an additional point of PD or ED must be removed. The adjustment in the defense is done after the effects of the damage are applied. Here is a brief example. An energy attack that does 8 Body hits a 10 PD/10 ED Force Field. No Body gets through and the target gets to use the full 10 ED for soaking the damage. After the attack the Force Field is considers 10 PD/9 ED. If the attack did 12 Body the resulting Force Field would be 10 PD/7 ED. At the end of each turn the power recovers 1 point of PD or ED. The recovery rate can be changed by moving up or down the time chart. For each move up the chart a -1/4 additional limitation is granted. For each move down the chart a +1/4 move is made in the value of the limitation. and 7.10.6.1 Adjustable Defense This is a new advantage for defensive powers. Like Fragmenting Defense I got the idea from a Digital Hero article then tweaked it a bit. Here is how it works. 7.10.6.1.1 Adjustable Defense For a +1/2 advantage on a defensive power the user may spend a half phase to move up to half of the points in a given defense from PD to ED or from ED to PD. For example, if a user has a 10 PD/10 ED Force Field they could move 5 of the PD to ED. This would give them shield a 5 PD/15 ED Force Field. 7.10.6.1.2 Faceable Defense On defenses which are defined as having multiple facings the advantage can be applied for at a +1/4 level. In this case the user can spend a half phase and move the defense gained from one power to another power which is protecting a different facing. Up to half of the given points may be moved in this fashion. This is used to mimic star ship shields which can be adjusted from one facing to another. For example, a star ship has 20 ED shields on four facings (i.e. front, left, right, rear). By spending a half phase a user could make the front facing 30 ED and the rear facing 10 ED.