Nyrath

As you all know, once Champions gets in your blood, you start analyzing everying in Champions terms. Recently I saw some old Saturday morning cartoons that I used to watch as a child, and the brain started analyzing. Space Ghost: His power bands are obviously an OIF mult-power with the "Gestures" limitation (he often cannot use them if his arms are restrained). "Inviso-power" is Invisibility vs the Sight group. Force field. Flight. And since Hanna-Barbara didn't believe in space suits, he also has enough life support to not need to breath. And two annoying dependent NPCs who are always being kidnapped. Annoyingly enough the obnoxious money generally saves the day. The Herculoids: Iggu the rock ape is a brick. Zok the laser-dragon is a flying energy blaster, perhaps with extra limbs for his tail-laser trick. Tundro the space rhino has an energy-rock shooter (energy blast with explosive effect) and lots of armor. Gloop and Gleep the giant amoebas have several related shape transforming powers. And poor Zandor also has two dependent NPCs who are always being kidnapped. The Galaxy Trio: is more difficult. Vapor man has a gaseous form, plus he can fight with various chemicals he creates. Meteor man can make any part of his body grow in size (get your mind out of the gutter, boy). And Gravity Girl can levitate objects. Johnny Quest is mostly a dependent NPC for Dr. Benton Quest. Dr. Quest has allmost every single scientist skill, including physics, chemistry, oceanography, anthropology, primative native cultures, and other improbable talents. It is also entertaining to analzye the various villains as well. And you have to use the lingo. It is not "I can vanish". It is "I possess the secret of invisibility!".

Re: SF Novels for Star Hero? I did the cover of the original black-and-red version, but not the subsequent ones. Alas, I won't be able to make GenCon.

Re: "Magic" Through Scientific Laws? According to Wikipedian, Niven coined the term. -- SURREAL SAGE SEZ: Make a man a fire, and he'll be warm for the night, Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life

Re: "Magic" Through Scientific Laws? And Terry Pratchett notes that you measure the local mana level with a (wait for it) Thaumometer (*rimshot*) I see what you are saying, but magic has to have some structure or it cannot be simulated with the Hero System, short of making every spell a virtual power pool. And there are those who maintain that magic is a different science. Such as Isaac Bonewits. Personally I see it as merely different flavors. Yes, magic uses runes and funny chalk diagrams, but chemistry uses glass beakers with bubbling liquids, astronomy uses telescopes and cameras, and physics uses atom smashers and laser beams. YMMV

Re: "Magic" Through Scientific Laws? The "conventional" wizards are baffled by Zumwalt's spells. The spells seem to be composed of hundreds of small weak spells working together to create major-league effects. This is because Zumwalt's spells are composed of computer programming subroutines. In later books, the conventional wizards are more or less incapable of learning Zumwalt's system, because they are too fossilized in their thinking. It's like trying to teach map use to a member of a primitive culture who do not have the concept of "one-to-one correspondence". They cannot understand how that jagged symbol on the map corresponds to Mt. Baldy, nor the dot indicating Wattle-Daub Village. If you pointed to the dot and said you wanted to be there, the local might place the map on the ground and step on the dot.

Re: "Magic" Through Scientific Laws? For inspiration, there was a facinating fantasy novel called Master of the Five Magics by Lyndon Hardy (yes, there are two other novels in the series, but I wouldn't bother with them if I were you). It sets up five classes of magic, each with its own rules. Thaumaturgy is like physics, Alchemy is like chemistry, Sorcery is like psychology, Magic is like mathematics, and Demology is like, er, ah, sort of a combination of gremlins and Murphy's law. Another interesting series is Wiz Biz and Wiz Biz II by Rick Cook. In a parallel universe, the dragons, elves, and other magical creatures have hunted human beings almost to extinction. The greatest human wizard gives his life casting a spell to summon a being from another world which will save humanity. "Wiz" Zumwalt, a young hot-shot computer hacker from Berkeley. Oops. At first Wiz is helpless. He can't fight, he can't march, he's worthless. Until he discovers how to make magic work like computer programming. Suddenly he's the most powerful wizard in the entire universe! I also second GURPS: Authentic Thaumaturgy. A very useful book.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

Re: Beanstalks are becoming real . . . There are some more links in my space science blog here and here.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Be sure to read the others. Also read the Lensman novels, they are much better. You can get the Lensman novels here And note the copyright date on the book. The original magazine appearance was in 1928! The fact of the matter is that Smith invented most of the SF concepts we take for granted; like force fields, ray guns, virtual reality, tractor beams, energy beings, teleportation, etc.

Re: Hero points? The concept appears in Victory Games JAMES BOND RPG, as "hero points" of course. It also turns up in ARES magazine's The Return of the Stainless Steel Rat as "willing suspension of disbelief" points. There was some discussion of using the concept with dice of Luck for porting the Spiritual Attribute mechanism from the RPG The Riddle of Steel into the Hero System.

Re: Deathstalker novels for Pulp Sci-Fi

Re: Question: Differences between Dark Champs 4th and 5th? Seconded! I'm currently reading my new copy of The Turakian Age, and it is solid gold. Anything by Mr. Long is worth buying, sight unseen.

Re: Cursed Items

Re: Star (WARS) Hero?

Re: 1602 Neil Gaiman rulez, man. I'll definitely go pick up this series. Though Alan Moore is a close second. I always thought his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen would make a good steampunk background. Avoid the movie, but do get the concordances.

I haven't read them yet, but Simon R. Green's Deathstalker series seems to be a nice fit for a Pulp Space Opera campaign. The series has been compaired to "Star Wars". I was interested in their weapons: A gun takes at least two minutes to recharge between each shot. A force shield is only good for ten minutes' continuous use; after that, the crystal needs half an hour to recharge before it can be used again. A shield will stop a sword, but reflects a gun. A sword never needs recharging. Hmmmmmm....

Re: What is Evil? There does seem to be a tendency to equate extreme selfishness with evil and extreme self-less ness with saintliness. That is, a thief selfishly wants money, and doesn't care that they are stealing it from you; a saintly person might spend all their free time ministering to the sick. In this light, "vengence" is sort of an enforced education in not being selfish. Kind of making the selfish person "walk a mile in your shoes", at gunpoint. "You murdered my father! Well, let's see how you like having your father murdered!" *chop!*

Re: Need small starship deck plans

Re: What is Evil? A science fiction writer muses on the nature of evil here

Re: What is Evil? I saw one campaign where the deity personifying "good" was the Maker and the deity personifying "evil" was the Breaker. It sort of equated evil with entrophy. I also saw a description of the alignments from Dungeons and Dragons which opined that a person of evil alignment would answer the question "Do the ends justify the means?" with a resounding "Yes."

Re: Vicious Spells Well, I always thought it was hard to beat Tyrannon's Thanatic Rod from the 4th ed supplement Mystic Masters. I'm sure it would be illegal under FRed. It was an uncontrolled continuous attack brought to zero End. That's probably illegal right there. 10d6 Transfer vs Ego and all magic powers over a 430,080" radius. Half of the transferred points increase the base Transfer (106 points adds 1d6) and the other half increases the area effect radius (262 opoints doubles the range). Yes, a geometric progression. Basically when triggered it starts to destroy the entire universe.

Re: Team HQs On your recommendation I managed to score a copy from the Sentry Box. (I think they have one left) I agree, this is very nice. Its got about everything you'd ever need, including the staff and security. -- SURREAL SAGE SEZ: ILLITERATE? Write for free brochure

Re: My 'Star Hero' arrived D'oh!!! Sometimes I wonder why they let me near a keyboard. Yes, you do indeed have the link I wanted. -- SURREAL SAGE SEZ: "Ach! Tis a hard world!" said the schoolteacher's cat as the globe landed on his head.

Re: Lack of Power coverage Are the desolidification and clinging really necessary, or are they just special effects? Remember, the Hero System focuses on effects, not causes, blah, blah, blah, you've heard it a million times... Are we talking about posession where the Evil Being goes and lies down in a safe place then sends their astral form to infiltrate the body of a hapless pawn? If so, then all we need is Mind Control with scads of special effects. However, if you are talking about something like those "tingler" parasites from the ST:TNG episode "Conspiracy", then I have to agree that Desolidification and Clinging apply. You know the drill, ignore the description of the Bodyriding, and focus on the practical effects. How can somebody attack the internal bodyrider, what are the drawbacks, that sort of thing. -- SURREAL SAGE SEZ: What color is a chameleon on a mirror?

Re: My 'Star Hero' arrived Which is as it should be. You were one of the precious few posters who had the hard data and knew what they were talking about. I was just one of the million of wannabes, looking for useful info to use on their web sites.