Chris Goodwin

Zoot: Have you looked at GURPS tech levels? The GURPS Lite PDF at http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/lite/gurpslit.pdf has the basic examples, but if you have access to the GURPS Basic Set you can see tech levels broken down the way you have done. Have you heard of the Kardashev system? Nikolai Kardashev was an an astronomer in the Soviet Union who came up with three (or, technically four if you count type 0) ways of classifying how societies collect and make use of energy: (The above was from http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/sf_and_society/70188 Type 0 is, of course, us, generating energy by burning dead plants (wood, fossil fuels).

Mechanics wise there really isn't any difference, so from a straight mechanics standpoint there isn't really any reason to choose one over the other. And some (I'd say most) people don't like that. It bothered me, but not a huge amount. My big problem with colleges was in the way the "Must have X points in college" Limitation was used. For instance, most of the colleges had that for all of their spells, all at the same level. So you couldn't have, for instance, an apprentice necromancer, because all spells required 30 points in the college. (Actually, you could, but you just couldn't cast any of them until you had 30 points worth.) The way it should have been done was to make a few basic or apprentice level spells for each college without the limitation, make a bunch of journeyman level spells that required 10 points, make a bunch of craftsman level spells that required 20 points, a bunch of master level spells that required 30 points, and a bunch of archmage level spells that required 40 points. Optionally, include points spent in a KS or SS of the college's magic type as part of those base points.

I have a different way of handling magic items in general and Independent in particular. If/when you pay points for an item, you (not the item's builder) decide whether you buy it as Independent. The rationale is, you're deciding whether you're permanently spending points on it or not.

I treat magic items more like most Champions games treat Foci: if you want to start with it, pay points for it. If you pick it up and want to use it for more than a session or so, pay points for it. If you find it, and don't pay points for it, it's fair game for the GM to take away. The 'ephemeral' items are generally exceptions.

How about "Must Succeed At OCV vs. OCV Roll Against Incoming Attack"? That sort of simulates a block without actually being one.

I'd like to suggest looking at the sample powers in the sidebars, maybe taking them and working out the Active and Real costs from the Advantages and Limitations provided. Also look at some sample characters (pick up one of the books or search the web for "Hero System characters").

Wow. Most of my wizards were in the 5-10 range. I may have had five characters out of perhaps 20 that had STR over 10. I seldom played warrior types, but did have one or two. In the games I played in, I don't think I ever saw characters of more than 13 STR who weren't warrior types. I always thought, why spend points on STR when I wasn't really using them? I never had a reason for my wizards to get into hand-to-hand combat, and most of my characters were wizards. I have to ask: if a character is not going to get into hand-to-hand combat, why would they buy their STR to 18-20? GMs can say no to characters who buy that much STR in violation of their concepts. Or, if too many people are buying STR just for the figured characteristics, double the cost. Anyway, enough with the STR issue. Back to the armor issue. Make the characters justify their armor. Require them to have bought 5-10 points worth of the Wealth perk before they can just go out and buy it (a character with 20 STR and 20 DEX has already spent 40 points on his combat stats, with whatever he's spending on Wealth on top of that). Or they have to have scraped and saved their coppers and silvers to afford it, and where are they saving it? (We're saving for armor -- no drinking and wenching!) Secure banks are uncommon in most medieval-type fantasy settings, and the ones that are secure are going to build their security into the cost of doing business with them. Rooms at the inn are notoriously insecure, and if they're carrying it with them, remember, hard currency is heavy and visible, and people carrying easily portable wealth tend to be targets for pickpockets or smash-n-grabs. Speaking of thieves, do these tanks wear their armor to bed? Expensive armor may be a pain to move, but the operative word is expensive; anything that costs a lot can be sold for a lot. And armor that heavy is going to make you sweat, and if you bathe once a week if you're lucky, sweat is going to make interesting things grow where they shouldn't. How long does it take to build that 8 DEF monstrosity? Probably several months; the armourer probably has customers ahead of you. Perhaps the local government has bought up all of the local armourers' production capacity for the next several months, perhaps anticipating a war. And remember, those guys don't just keep suits of 8 DEF armor just hanging around so people can buy them off the rack; they have to eat, and if they're not selling armor they're not eating, so they don't have showrooms. (There might be something hanging around that someone ordered but didn't pay for; odds are it won't fit, and you can increase the encumbrance of armor that doesn't fit, or throw in other difficulties (it chafes, or maybe binds your movement, thus reducing both your OCV and DCV anyway). At any rate, if you're letting beginning characters start with 8 DEF tankmail, and not putting them through hoops to get it, then yeah, I can see why you're seeing problems. (Thanks again, Old Man!)

The full set is no penalty for 20 STR; at 18 it's at the 10-24% line, which is -1 to DEX rolls and DCV. (Btw, I like the name "tankmail". ) Some options: Go with it. A STR 20 guy shouldn't be bothered by carrying a mere 40 kilograms Make your tanks account for everything they're carrying; that should mean at least a -1 penalty for even the STR 20 guys (or do all tanks go around without so much as underwear?) Make STR 2 points per point (ha ha, only serious) Make the encumbrance tables a bit harsher. Use the encumbrance tables from first edition Fantasy Hero I think the basic concept of encumbrance is sound, and probably doesn't need that much modification.

What Old Man said, using a variant of Gradual Effect.

Y'know, sbarron, per FREd p. 250, encumbrance causes not just an END expenditure per turn, but penalties to DCV and DEX roll. Are you finding those penalties to not be harsh enough?

But the divine spellcasters have -1/4 less worth of other Limitations on their spells. I know, it's not really much of a consolation. Try this: They both have to have -2 worth of Limitations that can't be bought off. Divine spellcasters get the additional -1/4 you mentioned. Clerics might also get a Social Limitation: Subject to Orders (of deity). I wouldn't call it double dipping, as other things can happen if they disobey (like, their immortal soul goes to whatever hell the deity uses to scare his worshippers with, or maybe he just gets blasted by bolts from the blue).

Okay. Give your lightly armored guys Find Weakness and/or Armor Piercing weapons. Let them stick their light rapiers through holes in the armor that Mr. Tank didn't know were there. Give your lightly armored guys martial art forms that can be used with swords. Give your lightly armored characters gas NND attacks. In short, cheat like a mad dog.

Also, the question should be asked: how are these characters getting 8-9 DEF armor? I mean, you're the GM, right? Are they telling you "I've got 8 DEF armor, nyah nyah!" or are they saying "Since I'm Wealthy, I'm going to spend some of my money and buy myself some decent armor." Remember, in the real world, armored knights had to be wealthy to afford the heavy armor and the horse that could carry it. (And they rode horses because, in some cases, all that armor made them too heavy to move. Want a balancing factor? Make heavy armor reduce their movement.) Also remember, D&D provided rust monsters to deal with armored tanks.

In most of the games I've ever ran, a restriction like that on armor would turn everyone into mages who knew just one spell -- an Armor spell. I'm not trying to be snide, rude, or offensive here, honest. But.... why not make people pay points for their armor?

Yeah, it is pretty harsh. I'd say the real way to get guys out of armor is to quit using killing attacks against them. Start hitting them with gas NND attacks and the like. Or just start hitting them with bigger killing attacks.

It might have been suggested in the days of the first Hero board (pre-Cybergames). Who was the first to suggest it is probably lost in the mists of antiquity, unless the person who did it wants to speak up.

There's quite a bit of background stuff in there, and the web site at http://www.crimsonskies.com has more.

Yes. But remember the MST3K theme... "If you're wondering how they eat and breathe / and other science facts (la la la) / Just repeat to yourself it's just a show / and I should really just relax" Basically, it was done that way to make it easy to work with in play. If you want, do it the way that makes more sense; the Hero Police aren't going to come take away your FREd.

I can't argue with that.

This is not (repeat, not, NOT) intended as a flame, personal attack, offensive message, etc. But.... it looks like you've built a 75+75 point energy projector. I would go back and finish up the backstory first, then come up with something on how his system of magic works, without reference to game mechanics. Then go back and build his spells. I've played characters like this and enjoyed them, for a while. But I didn't really have a sense that what I was doing with them was playing a spellcaster; I was playing a character who had powers X, Y, and Z. Those criticisms utterly aside, you could reduce the spell costs with more Limitations (perhaps tied in to your system of magic -- no Requires Magic Skill Roll on any of them?) Maybe what I'm trying to get at is this: what is it about this collection of stats that makes this character a wizard and not a superhero on a diet?

Wow. A lot of discussion here. Dude, just write up the damn character and play.

FREd p. 17 has a Policeman package deal. FREd p. 227 has Noteworthy Normal, Skilled Normal, and Competent Normal. Choose where you want your cop's rough power level, add the package to the normal, and viola.

If you do a Google search with "Robot Warriors" in quotes, you'll find it. The "problem" I ran into when converting RW mecha was that the weapons were all in the 150-200 active point range. You can easily end up with 1000 point mecha.

Here's what you're looking for: http://home.attbi.com/~archer7/rw2hero.html

I think it depends on your browser. The home page for Hero Games is entitled index.jsp rather than index.htm(l). When I was using Opera it was giving me the java error because it apparently wasn't seeing the index.jsp as the index page. Next time you get the error, try telling it to go to http://www.herogames.com/index.jsp