Acid_Crash

Okay...I just got the Black Company setting book and I really dig it, and plan on using much of it for my own mercenary game in a somewhat fantasy-high tech fantasy world. My favorite part of Black Company is the magic system. I had planned on using the BC book for the game, till I got the HERO 5ER book, and now I want to run it using HERO. The Magic system in BC is like this: Wizards gain a spell. The spell has a base description for base ability. The wizard, through the use of augmentations, can willingly increase the power of the spell but at the same time requiring a much higher Magic Use skill check to cast the spell. The only limit is Spell Energy used and skill ranks. Different spells are categorized by Magnitude, which is the basic spell's power. The different Magnitudes in BC are: Dabbler, Student of Wizardry, First Magnitude, Second Magnitude, Third Magnitude, and Fourth Magnitude. In BC, there are 46 spells. The most common augmentations are: Targets, Area/Range, Damage, Props, and Duration. Most spells begin by affecting one target, have a close range, do minimum damage, require at least speaking or moving hands, and have a duration of instant or 1 round. Targets allows you to affect more than one person. Area/Range increases the radius or range of the spell. Damage increases the damage done. Props includes adding in more gestures, incantations, or speaking when some spells don't require them. Duration increases the duration of the spell. All but Props increases the final DC to cast the spell, and increases the amount of spell energy used in the casting. Props decreases the DC. The one thing this spell system also incorporates is a Drain system, where each time a spell is cast, regardless of success or not, the caster suffers temporary Drain (in BC, this is nonlethal damage, so I guess in HERO this would be Stun damage). Each spell is like this, has these options, and the caster can customize at the time of casting how he wants his spell to perform. There are also more advanced properties of the spell system, including the blending of spells into a more powerful single spell. One example in the book is including the spells Destroy, Fear, and Water Talent to create a Mist cloud that causes fear and destroys the persons body as they enter the fog. One of my thoughts on this was to make each spell its own VPP and have an Active Point cap based on the level of Wizard knowledge the character is, which would be from Dabbler to Fourth Magnitude. That's as far as I got, because whenever I think of including the possible augmentations, and they are optional and not required during the casting, how would you work those into the individual spells. This is NOT a spell system where a person just purchases individual spell variants because of how free-form it is for the caster. The caster chooses what aspects, how powerful, etc, AT THE TIME OF CASTING. This is one type of spell system that I do find hard to simulate using HERO System. Can anybody help on this, please?

Re: DEX is used too much Any chance of getting a copy of this from you?

Okay, here's the power concept (I found this as a psion power in Trinity, but it would be cool to have): The power is basically one in which the character is able to alter his physical body in a way that allows him to alter his physical Characteristics. He's able to take Characteristic ranks from one and put them in another. So, if he wants to be physically stronger one round but slower then he can take away from his Dexterity and move them to Strength. There's more to the power, but that's all I can remember and for now, that's all I want to work on because working in how to create it in HERO is confusing me right now.

Re: Anyone else have Eberron and wonder how it would look converted to Hero. I think Eberron would be fun to play using HERO System. Eberron is one of those game worlds that is a great read and just brimming with lots of cool adventure ideas.

Re: A spell that shatters swords Ooooo...good questions, ones I hadn't thought of. The inspiration of this spell comes from David B. Coes latest book series set in a region of lands called the Farlands, and there are these people called the Qrsi (I think) who are natural sorcerers, and one of their powers is called Shaping. One spell use of Shaping was they using it to focus their magic on a single sword, or roughly equal sized metallic object, and cause it to shatter. There is a loud ringing sound along with it, but after reading the first book no occurance of this shattering of the sword caused any damage to anyone, or anything, else, including the person holding the sword. The handle was fine, but the sword was litterally shattered into many many small pieces of metal to the point like it was almost metallic dust. So, I guess, for this replica of the spell effect, there would be no damage. But, who says it has to be that way. My initial confusion was how to actually use HERO to damage the sword to cause it to shatter. Other uses of this Shaping was causing small hinges in doors to break, metal locks to rust/shatter, and jail-like bars to become loose enough to be moved. There was also one time in the book when they also put the hinges on the doors back together to make it like they were never broken in the first place.

Re: What if REC was based on EGO, not STR? Whew, at least I'm not alone in thinking of how to use EGO for other than it's normal use. I hadn't thought of using it for Stun, but I can see that also.

Re: Cybernetics in HERO I wish I could get it on ebay, but I don't have an account/name with them, and last time I tried it required a credit card to prove that I am able to get an account with them, so alas... Thank you for the link, they have been helpful.

Here is a spell idea I have for an upcoming game - Sword Shatter - This spell focuses negative energy into the blade of a sword, dagger, or other small metalic object, and damages it from the inside to cause it to shatter into many small pieces that explode outwards like within an inch radius. This is mainly used for small metalic objects and bladed weapons up to 4 ft in length. How would you build this spell?

In my upcoming Star HERO game I want to use a lot of cybernetics, but I lack the money right now to get SH or Spacer's Toolkit (and after flipping through that book and seeing the majority of it being spaceships I would never use, I put it back down). Is there a website or list by anybody who has create any cybernetics in their games? Anything would be a big help. Thank you in advance.

Re: Only in Hero ID I had this dilemma a year ago when I was creating a character who just happened to aquire a Guyver unit hehehe and that was his main power. I ended up just doing it as a OIHID because Multiform, while it would have worked mechanically, wasn't as appropriate logically. Normally, the character was a normal joe shmoe...he knew basic combat, wasn't abnormal in anyway...then he calls on his Guyver unit. I basically put it that it increased him in combat, his strength, con, body, and figs, plus the armor and blade that comes with it...and all of these were related to the guyver unit only. The thing that made it a OIHID instead of Multiform is that the character's personality did not change, his mind was the same, and since he had the same feelings, it wasn't a Multiform. It's just a bummer that I never got to play the character, he was cool.

Long time lurker, first time poster... What would be the repercussions of changing the Recovery characteristic from a (Str/5) + (Con/5) into this: (EGO/5) + (CON/5)? In my limited logic, I don't see how the character's actual physical strength should apply to the character's recovery, but I can understand the logic if the character's force of will and determination to stay alive and kicking affect Recovery instead... Has anybody else thought of this?