eepjr24

1. Depends on the campaign and what I think is suitable for it.
2. In my current campaign I am not "excluding" any, but some maneuvers you need a familiarity with to use. Examples: Hipshot, Unarmed block, Multiple attack all require familiarity (1 point skill, like a weapon familiarity).
3. If I am using hit locations, no. You want to simulate hitting a vulnerable spot when using hit locations, call a shot. If I am not using hit locations, usually yes. Although I tend to favor the Offensive Haymaker rule on 6e2, 69.
4. Generally, no. If the campaign does not have a standard "Spell" limitation, I would consider it. That is where I usually build in things like not using haymaker. I do sometimes allow a player to "push" a spell in extraordinary situations.
 
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Repel in this sense would be along the lines of "Find easier prey". If there is no easier prey to be had, it is not an absolute. 
 
I like the change environment idea since it has a mechanic for resistance on a die roll. At -1 to EGO and EGO based rolls, for normal and large insects that are not summoned you would have a mechanism for a summoner to win their ego contest by more than the insect failed theirs and force them in anyway. Probably would be something like:
 
[Repel Wasps] Change Environment: -1 EGO and EGO based rolls, make EGO roll or move out of affected area, -2m Flying; Area of Effect Radius: 8m (+1/2);Only versus Wasps (-1), etc.
 
I think I will limit the effect to only "Animal Intelligence" or "Instinctive Intelligence". Outside of that you would need to go to Mind Control or they could reason around it by holding their breath, etc. Situational modifiers like defending the nest or extreme hunger might provide bonus of 3-5 on the roll.
 
Thanks for the ideas. I think the darkness would have been the second best. It does not have a roll mechanic, but being blinded in an area is a good reason to avoid it. Spiders and Scorpions would be especially difficult to handle with this though, due to special senses. 
 
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Proofs came in and looks good. Plan released is mid-february. I hope everyone enjoys it and finds it useful

You do you, man. I'm glad you found a route that works for you.
 
I play using any system that fits best with the genre/style/story of what I want to play. The flexibility inherent in Hero is why I always come back to it. There's always more than one way to do things and none of those answers are wrong.

I ended up going with Transform. It's much easier to figure the math using area of effect, I didn't have to play with Opaque or Configurable (for rougher terrain), and I don't have to worry about people arguing whether they could turn it sideways and use it as defenses. There is another spell for that already. 😃
 
I will likely design another one with Tunneling for use in creating tunnels, still have to figure some things as I don't want matter to be destroyed as part of the process.
 
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I ended up going with Transform. It's much easier to figure the math using area of effect, I didn't have to play with Opaque or Configurable (for rougher terrain), and I don't have to worry about people arguing whether they could turn it sideways and use it as defenses. There is another spell for that already. 😃
 
I will likely design another one with Tunneling for use in creating tunnels, still have to figure some things as I don't want matter to be destroyed as part of the process.
 
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You know, it's interesting because I was actually thinking about this for my upcoming setting. Anyone who trains to be a mage with general offense and defense spells likely learned either at a place where they taught the basics of combat as well OR they have been in the world long enough acting like they know what they are doing to have learned in the school of hard knocks. If a player wanted to play otherwise I would certainly allow it and it might provide some amusing anecdotes. I'd actually encourage it, since this is would be strictly for roleplay reasons.
 
On the other hand, the village water mage (a different example of the "utility" mage) who is accustomed to finding new water sources, purifying water or maybe best case creating minor water constructs for labor purposes is NOT going to be ready to do these things in combat. If this comes up with a PC, I will apply the penalties until they either buy the skill or I judge them to have had enough trial by fire to make it needless (probably several months).
 
And the common person who might know a cantrip to tidy a room or light a fire, etc. is not going to have that type of skill and will likely not even remember that they have it as the frantically run from the scene. And that's even assuming there was some creative use they could find for the cantrip in combat.

The only method I see is to insert a link to a file share, like Google Drive. No direct uploads.
 
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I would give Fast Draw some kind of bonus, because its a special skill and ability the character spent points for.  Everyone has a DEX roll.  Fast Draw represents someone that has extra skill in taking an action before others can react.  I recommend looking at the Showdown section in Western Hero (which will be updated and in the new edition when it comes out) which covers two people trying to act before each other at the same time.

I just use the web when I need something. Try some place like this:
 
https://www.soundboard.com/sb/dndactionsounds
 
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The slider sounds like it worked fine if you can come up with something like that. In a VTT environment it should be pretty easy to display END cost for a power as it is used, allowing whoever is tracking it to see clearly what the cost is. With my non-Hero familiar players I used little cups (erm... clear jello shot cups) and plastic beads for END and STUN. They just put however many END they had in the cup and took them out as they used them. Very visually easy for them to see how close to exhausted they were. And STUN was the same, pretty much. When they recovered, they just put some END and STUN back in the cups. I let them pick colors but used different for STUN and END. 
 
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The slider sounds like it worked fine if you can come up with something like that. In a VTT environment it should be pretty easy to display END cost for a power as it is used, allowing whoever is tracking it to see clearly what the cost is. With my non-Hero familiar players I used little cups (erm... clear jello shot cups) and plastic beads for END and STUN. They just put however many END they had in the cup and took them out as they used them. Very visually easy for them to see how close to exhausted they were. And STUN was the same, pretty much. When they recovered, they just put some END and STUN back in the cups. I let them pick colors but used different for STUN and END. 
 
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It's really up to the GM what kind of ranged attack meets the definition of "ranged Strike".  A HTH Strike can be a punch, kick, knee strike, and so on; it can be based on a character's STR alone, or STR plus Hand-to-hand Attack, or STR plus Martial Arts DCs.  All of the Martial Arts maneuvers with "Strike" in the name (Defensive Strike, Killing Strike, Martial Strike, Nerve Strike, Offensive Strike) all qualify as HTH Strikes, as do melee weapon attacks.  You're specifically asking about ranged Strikes, though.  Called out in the definition that you quoted are guns and longbows.  Those definitely count as ranged Strikes.  But what else might? 
 
The key here is that 2-point Combat Skill Levels with a particular Strike (punches, or broadswords, or any particular other type of Strike) apply to OCV only, so the 3-point levels with "all HTH Strikes" or "all Ranged Strikes" should also apply to OCV only.  Keeping that in mind, I'm going to fall back on letting the GM decide exactly which kinds of ranged attacks fall into the definition, based on the trio of common sense, dramatic sense, and special effects.  
 
Also note that when Steve Long is able to return and answer rules questions, his response supersedes mine.    

So I am working on an encounter map and wanted to try out something for making settings with variable cover (trees, brush, etc.) easier to use. In the past a lot of questions about what sections of a tree provide cover or what kind of cover, have come up. See below for my WIP, this should illustrate what I am trying for. Thoughts and feedback appreciated.
 
Hrm. Going to have to post links, not enough room for the images to attach. You'll need to click in and zoom a couple times on the second image to see the tree trunks, this map will be split into 4 pieces for Roll20. The greenery remaining in the second image is smaller trees or brush that would still provide cover at ground level.
 

 

Just sharing some information that others might like to have. I have been getting into cartography more lately and as a result have come across some resources that can be used for different genre's of HERO in VTT platforms. Note that these are useful in many different genres. If you need some maps for upcoming games, here are some places to look:
 
Cartographers Guild Battle Maps section: (also check the Finished Maps section)
https://www.cartographersguild.com/forumdisplay.php?f=57
 
I like some of these, specifically:
https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=48412&p=428065#post428065
https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=48398&p=428000#post428000
https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=48323&page=2&p=427855#post427855
 
Deviant Arts: (warning: quite a bit of NSFW content here if you are not careful)
https://www.deviantart.com
 
and specific ones:
https://www.deviantart.com/jcarlhenderson/favourites/57508884/rpg-encounter-maps
https://www.deviantart.com/jcarlhenderson/favourites/57509128/fantasy-cartography
https://www.deviantart.com/sapiento/art/Encounter-Map-Fallen-Statues-245055258
https://www.deviantart.com/torstan/art/The-Low-River-Map-Pack-172684106
 
 
Venatus Maps: (has paid and free content)
The free encounter maps below also have all the pieces to build multiple maps for free. And even the paid stuff is good quality and low cost.
https://www.venatusmaps.com/product-page/example-maps
 
2-Minute Tabletop: (has free and paid content, similar to Venatus in cost)
https://2minutetabletop.com/product-category/free/
 
DM's Guild: (has free, pay what you want and paid content, link below is free/pwyw)
https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?keywords=encounter+++free&x=0&y=0&author=&artist=&pfrom=&pto=
 
Drivethru RPG (lots of cross here with DM Guild, may be a mirror or run by same people)
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?keywords=free+encounter&x=0&y=0&author=&artist=&pfrom=&pto=
 
Drop any that you like below and enjoy the maps.
 
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Long term endurance. 
 
If you keep doing something long term your end isn't going to recover as fast. So you march non-stop for 2 days or cast that spell for 12 hours straight.

No. For the simple reason that there is no justification for doing so. Multiple attacks already has specific effects that are fairly complicated and trying to add in "coordinating with myself" just seems like something for nothing or a way to get around campaign maximums for AP. If a player wanted that effect I would just have them buy extra dice of the attack power with an additional RAR to represent the attack or coordination rolls. Then they have at least paid for the power.
 
Yes, I do. I also use LTE, but generally I track it rather than forcing the players to do so.
 
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Hello again, denizens of the Fantasy Hero forums. Like many others I am sure, I have gotten quite restless during the events related to COVID and have undertaken a number of projects to assuage my boredom. This sent me down an odd path that eventually led to me finding a Creative Commons adventure that was written in Spanish and I decided to give a shot at translating it. I am not a Spanish speaker (aside from polite phrases and the ability to order basic beer and food) so I used a variety of online translations along with context from within the adventure itself to accomplish this. 
 
Anyway, I wanted to share the result with you all. It is somewhat tongue in cheek but could easily prove to be a challenge for even intermediate adventurers depending on how the monsters are written up or if the rolls go sideways. I still have a final editing pass to do, so if you find phrasing errors or the like, please let me know. I will be including some blank maps and maybe a map with hexes in a zip file with the PDF when I am done.
The Well of Brunnenburg.pdf

I say go with Transformation-minor. Minor because good roads (or more precisely bad roads) affect your horses your your wagons and travel time. Now if they can also do the inverse- good road to bad, to answer @Spence’s question as to why the write up, I can see a scenario where the Earth mage casting the inverse so as to slow up pursuers. Of course depending on casting time and how close the pursers are.

It's developed by Seven Networks. From their XDA forum:

 
 
They are profitable without this product so my suspicion is that they will charge (for some meaning of the word) for it once they figure out the best way to monetize it.
 
If you read through their thread history you will see that they have had outages and the like from a week to a couple months at various times as the team got called to work on their actual profitable applications. Just a suspicion again, but I suspect this is a love project by the dev team that they are hopefully will pay off for them at some point.
 
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Just sharing some information that others might like to have. I have been getting into cartography more lately and as a result have come across some resources that can be used for different genre's of HERO in VTT platforms. Note that these are useful in many different genres. If you need some maps for upcoming games, here are some places to look:
 
Cartographers Guild Battle Maps section: (also check the Finished Maps section)
https://www.cartographersguild.com/forumdisplay.php?f=57
 
I like some of these, specifically:
https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=48412&p=428065#post428065
https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=48398&p=428000#post428000
https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=48323&page=2&p=427855#post427855
 
Deviant Arts: (warning: quite a bit of NSFW content here if you are not careful)
https://www.deviantart.com
 
and specific ones:
https://www.deviantart.com/jcarlhenderson/favourites/57508884/rpg-encounter-maps
https://www.deviantart.com/jcarlhenderson/favourites/57509128/fantasy-cartography
https://www.deviantart.com/sapiento/art/Encounter-Map-Fallen-Statues-245055258
https://www.deviantart.com/torstan/art/The-Low-River-Map-Pack-172684106
 
 
Venatus Maps: (has paid and free content)
The free encounter maps below also have all the pieces to build multiple maps for free. And even the paid stuff is good quality and low cost.
https://www.venatusmaps.com/product-page/example-maps
 
2-Minute Tabletop: (has free and paid content, similar to Venatus in cost)
https://2minutetabletop.com/product-category/free/
 
DM's Guild: (has free, pay what you want and paid content, link below is free/pwyw)
https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?keywords=encounter+++free&x=0&y=0&author=&artist=&pfrom=&pto=
 
Drivethru RPG (lots of cross here with DM Guild, may be a mirror or run by same people)
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?keywords=free+encounter&x=0&y=0&author=&artist=&pfrom=&pto=
 
Drop any that you like below and enjoy the maps.
 
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In some cases the cost of an item in currency is based on how many points it cost.  In those cases putting a limitation on the power makes it cost less in credits or whatever you are using for cash.  

I think the above covers it pretty well. Do remember that some people even in brutally hard games like hockey (Mark Messier, etc.) play for more than 20 years and you are going to have some heroes who are more detective types or long distance combatants or support who could have careers in the 40-50 year range. On the flip side, there are tragic accidents that take down people in their early years or even the first foray. The line will likely have a few people who sat out the hero game altogether for a variety of reasons. And you might even get a generation or two that the genes skip altogether. Maybe they still went into the family trade, maybe not. 
 
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I think the above covers it pretty well. Do remember that some people even in brutally hard games like hockey (Mark Messier, etc.) play for more than 20 years and you are going to have some heroes who are more detective types or long distance combatants or support who could have careers in the 40-50 year range. On the flip side, there are tragic accidents that take down people in their early years or even the first foray. The line will likely have a few people who sat out the hero game altogether for a variety of reasons. And you might even get a generation or two that the genes skip altogether. Maybe they still went into the family trade, maybe not. 
 
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Hi, fellow Herophiles! I am not looking to design and publish something solo at this time, but in the spirit of helping out a community that I quite enjoy I'd like to offer assistance if someone has need of my skills. 
 
I can read for comprehension, grammar and spelling (things a spell checker misses like the versus they, etc.).
I can check math calculations for powers, etc.
I can create basic encounter maps with hexes at appropriate size for VTT or printing. I can provide an example or two if needed. I am not a professional, just a hobbyist with GIMP.
I can sounding board ideas, concepts, contribute power ideas, for plot, characters, organizations, and so forth. 
I am most comfortable in 6th Edition at the moment since that is what I GM right now, but I played and GM'd basically all of them.
 
I have the next two weeks off from work so that is a good window of opportunity. After that my time is more sporadic, but I will still have some spare time. You can contact me on here or email me at eepjr24  at gmail D0T com.
 
 
- Ernie