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Chris Goodwin

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  1. Like
    Chris Goodwin reacted to Vondy in Top Secret [TSR]   
    Not a joke. Bourne would likely merit a dedicated task force, or mini-division within the CIA, based on his activities.
  2. Like
    Chris Goodwin reacted to Scott Ruggels in Top Secret [TSR]   
    There were two campaign adventures for Danger International, they are very Cold War though. Both of them are on DTRPG. 
  3. Haha
    Chris Goodwin reacted to BoloOfEarth in Who is the MOST Annoying Villain you have Encountered?   
    For SHIELD, I had to appreciate what they did in the pilot for Agents of SHIELD:
     

     
  4. Haha
    Chris Goodwin reacted to Gauntlet in Modern & "Realistic"   
    Gosh, when I made my comment on this one I didn't realize that it was so incredibly old. 
  5. Like
    Chris Goodwin got a reaction from Duke Bushido in Modern & "Realistic"   
    I wrote a thing, specifically for this campaign style! 
     
    I was pretty strident about it when I originally wrote it.  I'm less so now, and if I were writing it today I'd probably put the parts about powers in an appendix or leave them out entirely.  But here it is, warts and all.
     
    HERO System Low Heroic Protocols
  6. Like
    Chris Goodwin reacted to Susano in Strike Force Organizations   
    I intend to present all of the additional information Aaron had in his notes, as well as full-updated character sheets.
     
  7. Like
    Chris Goodwin reacted to Toadmaster in Modern & "Realistic"   
    Re: Modern & "Realistic"
     

     
    DI was my favorite, ok maybe a tie with Justice Inc but I count "modern realistic" games as my favorite, followed closely by fantasy. I've noticed the same thing "modern realistic" to many equals why play a game go to work theres your realistic game. I used DI, JI and 4th Ed. to play Morrow Project, Aftermath, twilight 2000 (I kinda like Post Apacalypse games), a short merc campaign, a counter terrorist campaign, a couple of espionage games, Call of Cthulhu, Stalking the night fantastic (horror) and a brief multi-dimensional game. I've been working on some WW2 material and was hoping to run a one shot Normandy game at the Dundracon (a starter for a campaign) but haven't progressed far enough yet to do it this year. HERO works quite well for "modern realistic", I also used the Armory which offered many extra nasty weapons, never had that much trouble with killing players, and I used most of the optional rules, HERO characters are pretty tough, sure one dies here and there but for the most part I didn't find HERO to deadly for modern games, GURPS was much worse for death tolls. Personnally I find HERO works very well for these games. Its not just these boards, i've found many gamers have a snobbery against these types of games as unworthy of being RPG's and many on these boards will argue that HERO is terrible for them, don't believe it.
  8. Like
    Chris Goodwin reacted to RDU Neil in Modern & "Realistic"   
    Any of you folks out there watching "24" or "The Shield?"
     
    How about movies like Gene Hackman's "The Package" or more recently "Narc" or slightly over the top "The Bourne Identity"
     
    This style of adventure... realistic, violent, suspenseful... all about grit and guns and terrorism and espionage... does anyone play these kind of campaigns... or even mini-campaigns or one shots?
     
    See... I love this kind of game. No superheroics, no "cinematic" action... real world laws and concerns... characaters who logically DON'T want to get shot at... weapons are deadly... etc. I think I'm alone in loving this level of game.
     
    Everyone else I know, and all the posts on these boards, are all about larger than life Player Charcters, magic, super powers, etc. I like this stuff, too, but I miss the days of "Danger International" if you folks remember that old Hero System product from the '80s. Some of the greatest adventures I've ever run, or been involved in, were like a good cop drama or suspense film, and NOT a comic book or Action movie.
     
    I guess I just wonder if anyone out there is playing this kind of game at all. I really miss it.
  9. Haha
    Chris Goodwin got a reaction from Duke Bushido in Who is the MOST Annoying Villain you have Encountered?   
    My favorite was League Of Villainous Evildoers Maniacally United For Frightening Investments In Naughtiness.  (From Phineas and Ferb.)
  10. Haha
    Chris Goodwin reacted to Stanley Teriaca in Strike Force Organizations   
    When the project gets to 100,000 words will it explode? Or will that happen if it ever falls below 100,000 words, like Speed?
     
    (Sorry. just being an ass.)
  11. Thanks
    Chris Goodwin reacted to Susano in Strike Force Organizations   
    For those of wondering about my sequel to Aaron Allston's Strike Force, (Strike Force Organizations) , it goes like this:
     
    1) I have completed work on Alien Research Laboratories, which is what Aaron renamed M.E.T.E. to. Everything has been updated to 6e, including the NPCs (some of which have more modern designs thanks to finding select files in Aaron's notes), the base, the computer, and several vehicles. I have completed work on the Blood. There are a lot more Blood characters than what appeared in Org Book 3. Several of them have character sheets while many of the original Blood NPCs have updated character sheets due to finding them in Aaron's notes. Also, Commodore has his base and vehicles included. I am currently working on the Circle. I found updated character sheets for almost everyone, as well as detailed backgrounds. Thus, the Circle will be more lore 'heavy' than the other sections.

    Current word count is around 60,000 words. Once I complete the Circle I will talk to Jason about adding additional groups or seeing about some smaller releases of (perhaps) PDF-only content.
  12. Thanks
    Chris Goodwin reacted to greysword in Combined Attack or Multiple Attack?   
    Ok, I'll come clean.  I was just using that as a simple example.  My real motivation was designing the lasers for an X-Wing starfighter or TIE Interceptor.
     
    I built it as a straight RKA with the "special effect" being that the lasers all fire to get the full damage.  I also added Autofire to simulate the rapid blasts we see on-screen.  This is the simplest way to reflect it.  
     
    However, I was (over) thinking that if the power had an increased quantity (4 for X-Wing & Interceptor, 2 for a regular TIE fighter), then they might be able to do a "combined" attack (one laser does normal damage, two (from opposite wings) do two sets of damage, and combining all four lasers on a single point is just wicked). 
     
    I'll keep it with the simple part, though, since which lasers fire when can just be a special effect (Luke pulls the trigger and we hear several blasts come out).
     
    Thanks for clearing this up!
  13. Thanks
    Chris Goodwin got a reaction from Khymeria in Combined Attack or Multiple Attack?   
    1.  Two separate powers... but the additional detail in 6e2 specifies that these would be a Multiple Attack rather than a Combined Attack.
     
    2.  This would more properly be a Multiple Attack; a Combined Attack would be something like attacking with a Blast and a Flash that are built as separate powers.  6e2 p. 73 goes into a lot more detail than Champions Complete.
     
    3. That would be 1d6+1d6 adjudicated separately.  👍
     
    The 5 point doubling rule for Foci freely allows them to be used for Multiple Attacks and Two Weapon Fighting; 6e2 p. 181 talks about it more.
  14. Like
    Chris Goodwin reacted to greysword in Combined Attack or Multiple Attack?   
    Thanks Chris!
  15. Thanks
    Chris Goodwin got a reaction from greysword in Combined Attack or Multiple Attack?   
    1.  Two separate powers... but the additional detail in 6e2 specifies that these would be a Multiple Attack rather than a Combined Attack.
     
    2.  This would more properly be a Multiple Attack; a Combined Attack would be something like attacking with a Blast and a Flash that are built as separate powers.  6e2 p. 73 goes into a lot more detail than Champions Complete.
     
    3. That would be 1d6+1d6 adjudicated separately.  👍
     
    The 5 point doubling rule for Foci freely allows them to be used for Multiple Attacks and Two Weapon Fighting; 6e2 p. 181 talks about it more.
  16. Like
    Chris Goodwin reacted to Susano in Strike Force Organizations   
    Fantastic news on the Strike Force front. I did a high-level search and found PILES of character sheets for the cast of the Circle chapter. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

    Also, I am presenting the Circle as seen in Org Book 1, meaning the mid-1980s members, who are all built on a base 300 points.
  17. Like
    Chris Goodwin reacted to tkdguy in A Thread For Random RPG Musings   
    Yes, it's a fantasy version of California, where it's actually an island. Its name is Insula Calafia (Island of Calafia) after the mythical Amazon queen who ruled centuries ago. San Francisco is called Porta Aurea (Golden Gate) in this universe.
  18. Haha
  19. Thanks
    Chris Goodwin got a reaction from Duke Bushido in Who is the MOST Annoying Villain you have Encountered?   
    CLOWN as written are exactly those jerks we've all had run-ins with who, when called out on their jerkitude, deflect responsibility with "It was just a joke!" regardless of any harm it may have caused. 
     
    As a wise man once said...
     
    From the Notebooks of Lazarus Long
  20. Like
    Chris Goodwin got a reaction from Duke Bushido in Who is the MOST Annoying Villain you have Encountered?   
    This points up a problem I'm starting to have with suspension of disbelief around superheroes.  Why would someone with powers choose to use them to be annoying at best or just plain evil?  (Actually, the same people who IRL try to get away with "It was just a prank!" would probably be the ones who would, I dunno, accidentally cause widespread collateral damage and claim it was a joke.)
     
    Let me emphasize that I love superheroes, love playing them, love the MCU movies and quite enjoyed the DC ones. 
     
    I can still turn that part of my brain off, but afterwards, or in places like this thread, I have to remind myself: buy the premise, buy the bit, as Johnny Carson used to say. 
     
    In the tragically short Champions game I ran for some friends in 2018 or so, I think I started failing to buy the premise.  And while my players had all seen and loved the MCU films, they didn't really want to play superheroes. 
     
    Thread tax: one of my best friends, my first Champions GM, and the best GM I know, had a slight arms race tendency, and a bigger annoying villain tendency.  He'd been playing Champions longer and is generally smarter than me.  (I'm certainly not dumb, but he's got me beat by at least 20 IQ points.)  His villains were always tougher and more coordinated, and just when I was about to have them down (one on one games usually, or one on two with his brother sometimes), one of them would scoop up his teammates and teleport out.  On the few occasions they did make it to capture, they'd escape from custody sometime after. 
     
    The most annoying one, though, was the Silver Paladin.  Dumb as a box of rocks, he thought the heroes were villains and vice versa.  His catch phrases were a singsong  "Hey hee hee HO HO!" and, to the heroes, "Halt, villain!" in the most annoyingly heroic voice you can think of.  (Anyone on the Mutants and Masterminds forums back in the early 2000's would probably recognize him; Geoff used to post there a lot.)
     
     
  21. Like
    Chris Goodwin reacted to Duke Bushido in Use of Arcane(Power) Defense vs Magical-Based Shape Shift (A type of Illusion)   
    What you have here is a GM call.
     
    This is the same problem you run into with Drain, suppress, and a few other things:
     
    Mechanics and special effects in Champions / HERO are intentionally separated.  They are also used to define each other.
     
    That makes sense: you can't use a word to define itself; you have to use other words.  These things (mechanics and SFX) are purposely split apart here, so there will never be a problem.
     
     
    Right up until Drain: Flight can remove the ability to fly from everyone in the room.  You know:  _everyone_.  The guy with the natural alien ability to fly.  The guy with the rocket pack.  The guy with the wings.  The guy that rides the ley lines across ancient trails of mana.  The alien that fills his float bladders with hydrogen.
     
    They _all_ lose their flight because the _mechanic_ says so.
     
    So I now have the power to destroy rocket packs, empty alien float bladders, rip wings off of falcon men, etc.  
     
    And now I have to pick a special effect.  Well, my character is an alien parasite that has the ability to psychicaly drain away the metabolic functions that result in  flight energy.   Therefore, my target cannot provide chemical or photovoltaic energy to the cells that power his alien flight ability-
     
    I mean wings
    I mean gas bladders
    I mean telekinetic self-lifting
    I mean gravity manip-
     
    Uh, magic ley line- no; jetpacks!  Definitely a parastic ability to destroy the metabolic process by which you control your rocket boots and-  crap!  Glider capes, too!
     
    Wait!  What edition is this?  Is this an edition where I can take out swinglines with this, too?  And traceless ninja movement?  And keep the Flash from running up walls?
     
     
     
    Tradition here is to "solve" this sort of conversation by suggesting some different SFX that can be better-stretched over the problem.  In this case gravity control, massive telekinetic powers. "Freakin' _magic_, Dude--!"
     
    Yeah, well....  I don't want gravity control or ancient wizardry.  I want to be an alien parasite.
     
     
    And the rules say I can.  I can be an alien parasite, and I can have Drain: Flight, and it can work metabolically, even against rocket boots and Bat grappling cannons, because the rules say special effects do not matter, really, so long as everyone is sort of cool with it, and  it is detectable by some number of senses (I think 2 or 3, depending on edition).
     
    I picked Drain to highlight this because this is where it tends to be the most obvious: the unregulated clash of SFX, I mean.
     
    It is a well-known, under-discussed problem, and it is created specifically by "build anything you want."  If what you want is kind of mismatched.....  Well, them's the breaks!
     
    I don't remember if it was Champs I or Champs II,  but there have been attempts to solve the problem since 2e.  One of those supplements addressed the problem by offering alternative forms of Adjustment powers, such as replacing "Drain: Energy Blast" with "Drain: Firepowers."  
     
    Alas, there wasn't too terribly much interest at least not in the growing shadow of the almost-immediately-after released 3e, which I do not recall having _any_ such options or discussion, but I never played 3e.,,I have only read it a couple of times, and even my most recent memories are stored in a very old brain. 
     
    I know it wasn't discussed in 4e, at least not the core rules, and not 4e's Western HERO (while a lot of folks used DI or JI or even Dark Champions as their template for Heroic games, we used 2e Champions and guidance from 4e Western HERO).  Possibly Fantasy HERO, where it wouod have been ideal for maybe eighty-million spells, but I have only read it a coyple of times, and I do not remember if it was in there.
     
    In fact, I don't think it was addressed again until Steve brought out a variant of the idea as an optional rule for one of his editions.  I could very well be wrong (I own and have never read both of the 4e HERO System Almanacs, for example.  There are some things I haven't read- I hope to live long enough).
     
    Which brings us back to the beginning: this is squarely into GM territory.
     
    As others have pointed out, there is not mechanical interaction between the two powers you mention.
     
    _however_, if you feel that the special effects _should_ cause an interaction of some sort, or if your player _wants_ (or even believes) there should be an interaction, then get together with that player, and ultimately the whole group, as you are potentially setting a precedent that can have long-lasting effects in your games now and going forward into other ones.
     
    If you see an interaction--  for example: "I cast detect magic."
     
    This character _is_ a magic.  I will definitely detect them with this spell.  I might not detect a character; I might just say "yep.  That illusion right there? Definitely magic."
     
    If the character _is_ an illusion and someone casts "dispell illusion," what happens?  Does the character become invisible?  Become a single flicker of magical energy?  Take STUN damage?  Fall unconscious?  Suffer BODY damage?  Just disappear for a while?
     
    Are you Dispelling the character's total points, or just their BODY score?
     
    Yes, that is technically a function of Drain: BODY, but if you allowed a spell that targets a special effect (in this case, "Magic," then you and your players have to be prepared for this spell to affect anything with the SFX of "Magic."
     
     
    Anyway, I am dictating this to my copilot, who is looking a bit annoyed, so I guess I am done for now.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
  22. Like
    Chris Goodwin reacted to Jujitsuguy in Mind Control - How to do an attack on Machines that do not have EGO   
    Chris thanks for the response...fortunately, I did find the same item in 6E1, P. 149, under Classes of Minds:
     
    A character who wishes to have Mental Powers that affect, for example, computers and other machines must buy the Powers at full cost, defined as affecting that class of minds. He cannot buy Mental Powers that affect Human minds and take a Limitation on them (such as Only Affects Computers). When using Mental Powers on machines that have INT but not EGO, substitute INT for EGO as appropriate.
     
    I best guessed it, just wanted RAW...
  23. Like
    Chris Goodwin reacted to Susano in Strike Force Organizations   
    Okay, I have run The Blood through Google Docs to edit the content and fix errors. The final word count is 34,142 words. This puts the project at 50,091 words so far.
     
     
  24. Thanks
    Chris Goodwin got a reaction from tkdguy in A Thread For Random RPG Musings   
    Overloading the combat rules is one way.  "Make a to-hit roll to see if you make the basket.  -2 for range, another -2 for the basket's size... oh, and that guy over there is attempting a Block". 
     
    Opposed skill rolls is another.  More or less similar to the above. 
     
    There's a "baseball dice" game floating around, where the batter literally rolls their batting average or less on a d1000.  Presumably the skill of the pitcher is less a modifier to that roll (because the batting average takes that into account) and more a deciding factor in where the ball goes after it's hit.  But we've about exhausted my baseball knowledge by now.
  25. Like
    Chris Goodwin reacted to Doc Democracy in Power Builds and Custom Adders   
    It does not actually have an increased OCV, it has an increased chance to hit because you are considering three hits in one roll.  If you shoot at something three times you have a better chance of recording one hit than if you shoot at it just once.  That is simple statistics.  Personally I would give someone the chance to block the attacks using the "core OCV" as the measure of success and each successful block would knock one off the "effective OCV" to roll to hit.  The special effects are that it is buzzing about taking time to attack again and again.

    I think that the final question is part of why the additional OCV is limited - the target has an opportunity to dive for cover and potentially reach some kind of protective place where the attack cannot hit.  If the target plans to run to cover but would only get there by the time of the third attack, then the attackers roll needs to get a result that hits before the target gets to cover.  It makes things slightly more bureaucratic but potentially more exciting too.  
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