Chris Goodwin

I have a tendency to forget power modifiers if they're not on the sheet I'm looking at. But then I'm also fine with playing the game with characters made in the ultra-minimalist notebook paper template format. I submitted an updated version of the first edition Fantasy Hero spell creation sheet, usable with any game in 4th edition plus. (Here.) I wonder if that could be adapted to a Hero Designer export template?

I mentioned this in the Share Your Magic System thread, but I've been plugging away at a document for Myth Adventures in Fantasy Hero. I actually ran a game of this, long ago. I'd love to have suggestions, ideas, feedback, and so forth. Is there anything you'd like to see in it? More of something? Less of something? Suggestions for how to do (thing)?

The cost of normal senses is considered to be the same as the point value one would receive for its loss as a Physical Limitation or Complication. Thus, the cost for normal sight of 25 points in 5th edition or 35 points in 6th. Also, the normal senses are considered to fall under the "simulated Sense Groups" rule. Normal sight is Targeting and (partly) Discriminatory because the Sight Sense Group is Targeting and Discriminatory. Agreed.

Poking away at Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures Hero for 6th edition, including the magic system. A recent reread of the series shows that most areas have ambient magic levels, barring direct interaction with force lines. For instance, Limbo (from Myth-ing Persons) is generally a low magic dimension, until Skeeve locates a force line to tap into; the home Skeeve shared with Garkin seemed to be similar, implying that much of Klah is like this, while Isstvan's inn on Klah is at the confluence of a number of force lines (thus granting it a much higher ambient magic level). I'm working on something akin to GURPS's mana levels for this. Feedback is requested and appreciated!

It's sad because it's true. It's funny because it's true.

1st through 3rd edition -- didn't have Change Environment. Light Illusions (from the Champions II supplement) and Images (the Fantasy Hero version of Light Illusions) explicitly could create light. 4th edition -- Change Environment could explicitly create light. Images (the successor Power to Light Illusions) doesn't mention light. 5th & 6th edition -- Change Environment is explicitly prohibited from creating light. Images explicitly can create light. I don't believe in the inherent superiority of any one edition over any other, and even if I did, the "correct" mechanic for creating light would not be one of my criteria for deciding. Images works, even though it's expensive. Change Environment works, if your edition and/or GM allows it. Free as part of another light-based power is fine. A custom power is fine, if your GM allows it. Agree to disagree?

It's available at the DMs Guild in PDF at least.

A number of folks have made free utilities (the Homebrewery being one) that anyone can freely use to create near-perfect replicas of the D&D 5th edition layout and formatting, for use with the DM's Guild and self-publishing efforts in general. This might not be trivial, but it is certainly doable.

See also Parkinson's law of triviality ("bikeshedding").

Doing a bit of comparison... Change Environment: -1 to PER costs 2 points for one Sense or 3 points for one Sense Group Enhanced Perception: +1 to a character's PER costs 1 point for +1 to one Sense, 2 points for +1 to one Sense Group, or 3 points for +1 to all Sense Groups Nightvision: 5 points, for +4 against natural darkness penalties. Images: +/-1 to viewers' PER costs 3 points regardless of what Senses/Sense Groups, which are bought separately (10/Targeting Group, 5/Nontargeting Group, 5/Targeting Sense, 3/Nontargeting Sense) CE is single target; Images is a base 1 cubic meter. It's assumed that both of these will be bought with Area of Effect if needed. I'm ignoring the Darkness Power as I don't think it's relevant. For Images, my assumption is that if it's used for light, it acts as a spotlight effect in whatever its area is (thanks to Phil for that, btw). If the AoE you've bought it to is bigger than the area you're in, it will illuminate the entire area (i.e. room lights). Which is good, and all, except that as @dsatow and others have pointed out, it's expensive for what it does. I'm not certain that it's worth the points for something that we're pretty sure is free (points-wise) as a "standard" item (battery powered flashlight, burning firebrand torch, lantern or lamp of whatever tech level, etc.). I'm inclined to just go with my original instinct: a custom Power. Maybe 1-5 points for the ability to create light on demand as a Power (spell, etc.), which can be built through a Focus if desired, but a light source of some kind (torch, flashlight, etc.) is usually free, points-wise. And if you already have light-based Powers, using them like a flashlight is as free as a character with flame powers using them to light a candle. (Analogously, a character with sonic powers can act as a "sonar flashlight" for Sonar, infrared likewise with IR light, and so on.)

In all seriousness, what about Active vs. Passive Senses (6e1 p. 210)? Active Sonar is the one we see most often, but why not Active Normal Sight? (Or, to answer my rhetorical question above, Active UV Vision?) (For starters, that would leave a lot up to the GM.)

Unless there were, I don't know, some kind of power that could generate UV light... Any idea what we might use for that?

See the Simulated Sense Group rule, 6e1 p. 207.

I disagree that this is how we must represent lack of natural light. Lack of natural light existed as a condition long before Change Environment existed to give us the means to build a Power to replicate it, or before Dispel or Suppress existed to give us a means to dispel Powers. I'm perfectly fine with a Change Environment creating low-light conditions via a Sight PER penalty, and having those low-light conditions be mitigated via whatever means we're using to represent light. I don't think that means that Dispel or Suppress Darkness is necessarily it. It would be approximately as effective as my previous, "1d6 Blast (light), AoE, Constant, Does No BODY, Does No Stun, etc." We don't need a Power construct to replicate everything. As does light: Images. That we're having this discussion, trying to figure out what else to use besides Images, doesn't change the fact that Images is a nice clear mechanism, and in fact is specified in the rules. The capital-D Darkness here indicates the Darkness Power. And I can think of a number of SFX for the Darkness Power that wouldn't be Dispelled by light. Smoke cloud, for instance. Cloud of crystalline shards. Field of bright light. Darkness vs. Hearing, Radio, Taste/Smell. And, again, going back to the first post in the thread, we don't seem to be talking about dispelling the Darkness Power.

True enough, but I'm willing to chalk that up to... Even shading the eyes might be enough to allow someone in in a lighted area to see outside of it.