Chris Goodwin

Indeed! I won't pretend to be any kind of great mind, though. I'll admit to pretty good, at least.

Uh, thanks? I'm just a regular guy, put my pants on one leg at a time. * * * A Multipower sort of has a built-in Active Point cap. Aside from that, and the 150-175 points generally available, I'd probably back off of strict caps for wizard players. Weapon users are to an extent limited by the amount of points available, but also things like STR Minimum; I wouldn't cap DC or DEF values either, outside of what's available under the auspices of normal equipment. I also tend to look askance at Deadly Blow and Combat Luck. I tend to privilege wizards (or other power-users like mentalists) to an extent that since they pay points for everything, they can afford as much as they're willing to pay for, and those who rely more on no-point-cost equipment sort of have to take what they can get. I also don't have too much of a problem with wizards buffing their teammates' weapons and armor with Aid and the like, or with non-wizards spending some of their initial point allocation on magic items, though I'd reserve GM-veto power over anything.

Probably one per element, with others as per the Grimoire. This isn't really anything I've used or put design energy into, but it is made up of parts I've had cooking mentally on various back burners for a long time. So I don't have spells or anything designed for it yet.

One idea of mine is: Spells are in schools, colleges, whatever you want to call them. Each school would be required to be a separate Multipower. No one is ever required to buy a Multipower. Any spell that is Constant, Persistent, or requires END to maintain automatically drops if the points are moved out of the slot. Any Triggers end if the points are moved out of the slot. Some spells that are Instant with continuing effects may end if the points are moved out of the slot, depending on the SFX. Any spell bought Usable On Others ends if the points are moved out of the slot. Starting wizards have to buy all of their spells at RSR: -1 per 5 Active Points. Additional Skills are required before you can start improving this. Like KS: Magical Theory 11- and a KS at 11- relating to a particular school of magic, before you can start buying the spells in that school to -1 per 10 Active Points. You have to buy the Limitation down to at least -1 per 10 on all of your spells in a school before you can start learning new ones of that school at the -1 per 10 level. You'd have to have KS: Magical Theory and the KS for the school at maybe 14- before you can start buying those spells down to -1 per 20 Active. Characters can have an affinity for a school of magic. This is some number of Skill Levels that can apply to all of the spells in the school. These can be used on a KS roll related to the school; they can apply to the character's Magic Skill Roll with spells in that school; they can apply to the character's O(M)CV when attacking with spells of that school or D(M)CV when defending against spells in that school. The character can also use them with any mundane Skills used for a task relating to the subject matter of the school. (For instance, characters with an affinity with Fire can use their Skill Levels when attempting to start a fire with mundane tools, even if they're in a situation where their magic is useless.)

The examples have been errata'ed. The effects on BODY and STUN are indeed halved. If you're the GM you can ignore that.

In case anyone is curious , the Robot Warriors PDF was a new layout by Ben Seeman after DOJ bought Hero Games. The only parts of it that are direct scans are the character and robot sheets, and the two sample pages of hex paper. It does not, however, include a front or back cover. Edit to add: I found a PDF version of the robot sheet that I remade and uploaded here.

If you look at, for instance, Marvel Comics, and their main superhero lines, their Conan lines, their Star Wars, and GI Joe/Transformers lines... think about sitting down to play in a Conan-based game and having an insistence that because Marvel had a Conan comic that we're playing in the Marvel Universe. I wouldn't be able to get that out of my head, and would probably give up on the game, even if this theoretical version of me had thoroughly enjoyed Marvel's Conan comics. Or sitting down to play in a modern military adventure game and have superheroes be part of the universe, no matter how peripherally, because GI Joe is also a Marvel comic. I don't know if that makes any sense the way I've described it, but that's how I feel about it.

I need to watch the third one still. I can vouch that the first two are well worth watching. Duke is quite the character, and his "volunteers" are even more so.

If a GM worked all of that out, or at least was aware of it, and used it to give an otherwise glossed-over travel through farmland that much more verisimilitude, that makes it more immersive to me.

You're not wrong, actually. I've been letting stuff get to me lately a bit too much. I shouldn't have gone off on you; I'm sorry.

Most of those were on my list as well. I've got a few that weren't on your list (Hawk the Slayer, Beastmaster, Neverending Story, Highlander) and a few of yours not on mine, but I won't press that. How about books? The Chronicles of Prydain (and from there, the Mabinogion). A Wrinkle In Time et seq. Operation Chaos and Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson. The Compleat Enchanter by deCamp and Pratt. The Ethshar series by Lawrence Watt-Evans. The Incarnations of Immortality, Xanth, Apprentice Adept, and others by Piers Anthony (whom I'll disavow now, because of certain proclivities, but I enjoyed his stuff in my youth and his worldbuilding has left an indelible mark on my fantasy preferences). The Myth Adventures series by Robert Asprin. The Vlad Taltos series by Steven Brust. The Dancing Gods series by Jack Chalker. The Black Company and Garrett, PI series by Glen Cook. The Belgariad. The Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. The David Sullivan series by Tom Deitz. The Guardians of the Flame, by Joel Rosenberg. Every gamer I knew had read those, whether they enjoyed them or not, and "PMD" was a thing we all seemed to know after they came out, even though none of us had them in any of our games. A lot more than that, as well. Everyone has different tastes in fantasy; that's fine. That's best. You know what's not fine? Coming in and threadcrapping when someone else's tastes differ from yours. I'm going to report, next time.

Here's another query. Does your fantasy world have a Friday night? By which I mean: it's the night of the last workday of the work week, however that's defined. It's the night when the longshoremen and the warehousemen and the trades apprentices and the wizards' university students are done with the week and are ready to go out and party, drink, dance, and so forth, and the thieves and rogues and so on are out to try to help them spend their coin (with or without permission)?

Koloth the Virile (and unlettered) is awesome! I was snarking at the wrongfun implication, and especially at the example. And this is Fantasy Hero! If I want to play Ellarin the Wizard who actually does know aught of international trade, and absolutely loves Jirandan food, and oh by the way did you know that this particular spice that comes from Jiranda has a beneficial effect for men of a certain age, and we'll leave that conversation right there...

I mean, I look at this... I didn't just click "Like" on Dean's post for the hell of it. I can instantly imagine this city in my head. The sights, the sounds, the smells! I have no idea where Vohai or Jiranda are, but I want to know more about this place and the people in it! That to me is immersion. "Bob the illiterate fighter"... really?

Given that this thread is about immersion... playing Bob the Illiterate Fighter is immersive for you?

I love all of this. Things that give the touch of verisimilitude. I've got a "bit", not really a full setting or even the basis for one, where most cities charge entry fees to non-residents. Wizards are asked if they know any spells from a short list (purify water, night vision, light, control fire, cure disease, a few others), and their entry fees are reduced if they do know them, and even further if they're willing to take one or more volunteer shifts doing things like fire watch, night patrol, things of that nature. The wizards' guilds in the cities will teach these spells to anyone who wants to learn them, just because the city has an interest in having people who can do things like stop disease outbreaks, prevent the city from burning down, and the like.

One of the Ethshar novels (The Blood of a Dragon) concerns a regular guy who put off choosing his apprenticeship until what is traditionally considered the last possible date (like the month before his 18th birthday). Showed no aptitude for anything, not even any forms of magic despite growing up in a house with sisters who are all casters. He eventually started a business doing just that.

This might be worthy of its own thread, but do anyone's fantasy worlds have a Silk Road analog? Trade routes that spread halfway around the world. For that matter, how much is known about the rest of the world? Lost or as-yet undiscovered continents are fine, but most educated and/or wealthy people know where their trade goods come from, even if what they know is third hand, "game of whispers" things like Prester John.

I just remembered that I wrote something up for this a few years ago. Automobile Combat Hero

I think if you're postulating a world in which there are monsters out in the wilderness (and by monsters I'm including "hordes of evil races" even though I don't like the notion), marauding and attacking cities, caravans, travelers, and the like... especially if they're something the regular military and city guards/watch can't or won't handle, and you've got warrior/wizard/rogue/priest types, you'll probably have adventurers. Think Europe and the British Isles, in the let's say 500 years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Opposite would be Europe post-Renaissance, or let's say Lawrence Watt-Evans' Ethshar. Everything is peaceful -- relatively so, at any rate -- and there aren't necessarily hordes of barbarians/bandits/goblins/undead/monsters wandering around the countryside or out of crypts. People get on with the business of making a living. That's not to say there aren't bandits or whatever, but those are handled by professionals (caravan guards, city watch/guard, etc.). I like this idea, a lot. I've always wanted to play in a city sort of campaign, whether it's as watch, independent operators, vigilantes even. Generally speaking: what do "adventuring types" typically do for a living? Fighter-types usually come out of a war of some kind (hence the old school D&D first-level fighter's title of "veteran"). Cleric-types, if they don't have a parish or congregation, can easily be wandering missionaries with a side business in hunting the occasional undead that somehow pops up. Rogues tend to make their own trouble, whether they're criminals, carousing swashbucklers, or even hard-boiled (Garrett, PI) types. Wizards? Aside from opening a shop, casting a few spells for people who need it, or going full research... what might wizards do for a living that might get them involved in adventures?

I think what Christougher is asking is, if the game revolves around driving, what is there to do besides rolling Combat Driving rolls over and over?

I'd say give them plenty of things to do outside of the cars.

The shape of the ground has, at least. There's a lot of shapeshifting in source material in which one or more senses are left out. When Mystique shifts into an exact duplicate of General Whoever, no one even has a chance to figure it out, except Wolverine who always seems to be able to smell her. Plastic Man can change his physical form, but he always has his Plastic Man costume, mask, and flesh colored bits. To that extent, I can see how the shape change vs. particular senses aspect was derived. The part I've tripped over, forever, is making "physical form" equal to Shape Shift vs. the Touch Group. Meaning, if I can change my skin to feel like fur to the touch, I can also change my physical form into that of a furry worm. I can easily see some shape shift abilities done as super-Disguise, if the shapeshifter has to "get it right". But in most of the source material I've seen, either the shapeshifter doesn't care (i.e. Plastic Man) or can't be detected except through other senses (dopplegangers, Mystique). And I too still want the super-power equivalent to Disguise. (Or Disguise, Mimicry, Contortionist, if the character can change into a worm in order to escape through prison bars.) Is it worth separating physical form changes from appearance changes? They're combined in 6th edition Shape Shift, but weren't in 3rd edition (Champions III) and 4th edition. Or might it be worth implementing a "fringe effect" the way Invisibility does? Like with the living metal T1000 in Terminator 2. If you get close enough to him, you have a chance to make a PER roll to tell that something isn't right. No Fringe Effect would do the same thing it does for Invisibility, to give you Mystique's no-really-you-can't-tell change. The thing is, the other super-power equivalents to Skills do have ways to overcome. We don't have Spider-man buy Climbing 22- to represent wall-crawling; we use Clinging. Clinging can be overcome with sufficient STR. Stealth and Concealment can be defeated with a sufficiently well made PER Roll; Invisibility takes a different sense, really. Maybe... ...this is the way to go? However, I'm still liking Transform, Self Only. And Duke, I do see your point about sufficiently high Disguise skill, but it still doesn't -- quite -- work for me for the above reasons.

If I can become a wolf, those who know me as Chris the Human might not necessarily know me as Chris the Wolf, but I'm always going to be the same wolf. If I can turn into a different wolf every time, that's qualitatively better than me turning into Chris the Wolf every time, thus worth points. Plus, I don't think turning into a different wolf necessarily means someone might see through my not-Chris-ness; it would depend on how my power was defined, and how many points I paid for it. (I would postulate that everyone has an "Everyman" Distinctive Features: Self for zero points.) I'm going to point back at the Skills analogy again. Climbing is to Clinging as Concealment is to Invisibility as Disguise is to... something. Regardless of what that "something" is called or how it's defined in game terms.