Tom Carman

Re: I Need a Plot, and Fast! Page 269 of Star HERO has a Random Plot Generator. Roll 1d6 for a Hook (like Client, Clue or MacGuffin), roll 2d6 for a Goal (Acquire, Destroy, Escape, Rescue, Survive), and two 1d6 rolls for Obstacles - 1d6 for number and 1d6 for type (Friend, Nature, Rival, Villain).

Re: 11- or better 10+ I prefer to keep the stat/5, and turn it into the character's "stat bonus". So you are rolling 3d6+bonus to "beat 12". The familiarity skill rolls a -1 "bonus" and the base KS, PS and SS have a flat +2.

Re: Ncm:15 I had an idea along these lines, but currently no campaign to try it out. It was a soft-NCM:15 with a hard-NCM:25. Above 25, the costs would double, and above 15 the costs increase 50%. No free points of course, so when 3 points buys 2 STR, the first costs 2 and the second costs 1. Some people will still push to the max, but the cost along the way may result in a wider range of values.

Re: [Campaign World] Clockwork Fantasy This write-up makes me suspect that you have played the computer RPG "Arcanum". If not, check it out, since it covers a lot of the same territory.

Re: high medical tech, physicals & psych exams Umm, it's always been my understanding that Disads are a major source of plot hooks, and not just for balancing weaknesses. As to not taking disadvantages that don't significantly hamper a character, notice that the bottom rung of the Disad ladder is "Infrequent, Slight" or "Uncommon, Moderate" or something similar. If characters are supposed to be "perfect", and you are not getting more base points to build them, then low-end Disads are a good place to mine for personality and behavior quirks.

Re: high medical tech, physicals & psych exams This is the sort of Disad that I would probably never buy off. First because it isn't worth spending points to remove and second because I wouldn't consider it as transient. Yes, the character has years of experience living on planets; that's why it is Infrequent and Slight. But he spent his formative years in space habitats so certain habits will be buried in his subconscious. This may be a difference in GMing philosophy. The GMs I play with don't tend to beat you over the head with your choice of Disads. Oh, if the Disad was worth a lot of points it will come up, but things that just give the character some distinctiveness and personality quirks don't get played up.

Re: high medical tech, physicals & psych exams Physical Limitation: Not used to planetary living; Infrequent, Slight (5) Will occasionally misjudge weather and similar things because he "knows" that the "environmental systems of the 'habitat' wouldn't do that".

Re: Classes in Star Hero For what it's worth, here are the professions from the Star Wars Galaxies online game: Basic Professions * Artisan * Brawler * Entertainer * Jedi * Marksman * Medic * Politician * Scout Elite Professions * Architect * Armorsmith * Bio-Engineer * Bounty Hunter * Carbineer * Chef * Combat Medic * Commando * Creature Handler * Dancer * Dark Jedi Knight * Dark Jedi Master * Doctor * Droid Engineer * Fencer * Image Designer * Jedi Knight * Jedi Master * Merchant * Musician * Pikeman * Pistoleer * Ranger * Rifleman * Smuggler * Squad Leader * Swordsman * Tailor * Teras Kasi Artist * Weaponsmith

Re: Victorian Wealth: Still Helping a Friend OK, my bad: I haven't looked at my Space:1889 source material lately. The conversion for current dollars to late-19th Century is more like 20:1, not 100:1, so Victorian pounds sterling to current dollars is around 100:1 (but one source suggests that 200:1 might be more accurate, and I think he's right). For most of the latter half of the 19th Century, dollars converted to pounds at around 5:1. The exchange rate spiked up during the American Civil War, to about 10:1 in 1864, but was back down to 5 by the latter 1870's. Be careful with the income figures, as they are not so much "personal" income as family income that supported one or more households, including the servants. A personal allowance for the wealthy gentry or aristocrat is likely to be equivalent to 1-3 points of Wealth Perk. My main data source is http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/current/howmuch.html

Re: Victorian Wealth: Still Helping a Friend I'm not too sure of your units here: Pounds x 5 = Dollars is right for the period. Is "Modern" supposed to be the equivalent in current Dollars? I wondered because the chart shows Pound x 100 = Modern, while I believe that 19th Century Dollars x 100 = Modern Dollars. At least that's what I found when I was running a Space:1889 game. If the Victorian-era annual salaries are correct, then a $75000 Modern income would equate to Victorian lower middle-class, which doesn't seem right. (Or maybe modern technology and conveniences are allowing us to get along on relatively less money without the domestic staff of a middle-class Victorian household?)

Re: Modern Weapons?

Re: Anyone using Sidekick?

I made a character armed with a black-powder machine gun, and added this linked effect: Clouds of Smoke Change Environment 2" radius w/-2 OCV, No Range, Zero END, Personal Immunity. The idea was that it would be harder to target him in the smoke. The issue hasn't come up, but: how long should this no-END-cost effect linger?

This targetting drift has a cap: you can't miss by more than half of the distance between the attacker and the target. I've seen some discussion of abusing this by dropping an Autofired AoE Hex attack into an adjacent hex. Unless the attack roll was a '3', most of the attacks will hit; probably no GM I've played with would allow it, of course. Sidekick simplified this issue by just saying that if you missed the target hex, the attack has no effect.

One of A. Bertram Chandler's Commodore John Grimes novels had an all-male planet in it. The title was "Spartan Planet".

Last Saturday I ran a one-shot character, time-lost from a steampunk universe: Phineas MacAndrews AKA Steam Colossus. He was built with 4 levels of Growth (0 END, OIF), an END Reserve Steam Engine, and the extra PD, ED, Armor, and Running all bought OIF. His armament consisted of an arm-mounted Maxim gun, a Big Cricket Bat (AoE HA), and Big Cricket Balls (based on STR, Ranged HA). I never got to use the last, but I figured that a Haymakered Cricket Ball would have the SFX of tossing it up in the air and hitting it at the target with the bat.

Western Hero had some ideas along these lines. First was to track damage as separate injuries. A successful Paramedic roll could take 1 Body off each individual wound. a 1-Body injury is a "minor wound", and characters get to heal up to their REC in minor wounds per day.

Actually, the aliens did check back after a few months, and they issued him a new manual (no charge!). As soon as they left, he started reading it to see what he could do. "Wow, I can shrink?" So he zapped down to micro size. A "giant" ant startled him and he dropped the book and jumped away, growing back to normal size. But the manual didn't, and he couldn't remember how to shrink again.

They have flat-out admitted this. "Crewman Daniels" (the future time agent) showed up and Capt. Archer was ready to rip him a new one: "Why didn't you warn us about these Xindi?!?" And Daniels answered that he hadn't known, because this wasn't supposed to be happening at all. I get the definate impression that A) the temporal Cold War has gotten hot, and there are more than just two sides involved, since it was the Sulibon's patron that told Archer about the Xindi.

I recall a story in which a Sentinel decided to turn his detector's sensitivity all the way up, and saw every entity with any potential for mutation. Surprise, surprise: every last "normal" human within range registered. Its ensuing actions show why prioritizing "kill mutants" ahead of "protect humans" is a bad idea.

I'm currently playing (when I can find the time!) a game called Arcanum. There is a definite plot railroad in effect. However the hint book in the box implies that you have real options with respect to the climax event. In fact you can swing to the Dark Side and help it happen.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Life on a Lunar Colony If you want a really really tall tower, so tall that the tip in at lunar synchronous orbit, then it will have to be supported by compression strength. The tower's foundation supports the full weight. I'm not sure there is even a theoretical substance strong enough for this. But if there is, the tower would be mammoth; I'm talking about a tapering structure with a base hundreds if not thousands of kilometers across. Beanstalks, as we know them, are theoretically possible because they depend on tensile strength instead. The structure is in orbit; the center-of-mass at synchronous orbit, with the portions above and below in balance. The outer end doesn't have to be as long as the lower end, just equally massive; this is why you will see mentions of asteroids as "anchors". If you start converting the orbital velocity of an orbiting beanstalk into electricity, the strength of its ground anchor is irrelevant. The entire structure will slow down and move to a lower orbit. This lower orbit will no longer be stationary relative to the ground. The lower end will be dragged across the surface of the moon. If you're lucky, the bottom will just break off and rest will continue moving around the moon. Otherwise it will continue to drag and dissipate orbital energy; the structure will continue to move lower and drag the bottom around the moon at an increasing rate of speed.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Life on a Lunar Colony You are not going to affect the moon's rate of spin. A beanstalk extends not just to lunar orbit, but well past it; the outer part has to balance the inner section. THE BEANSTALK IS IN ORBIT, even if the bottom is touching the ground. You don't want to reduce its orbital velocity because it will then "fall over". It's mighty long, too, so a "falling" beanstalk could wrap aound the moon's equator several times.

Re: Re: Re: Life on a Lunar Colony That power source is assuredly not limitless. It's just an oddball generator, converting orbital velocity into electricity with a long conductor moving thru a planetary magnetic field. This idea has been advanced as an emergency power source for spacecraft; using it slows you down and lowers your orbit.

I have some old quick reference sheets that have been floating around the net for a few years. They are 4th edition, but mostly still relevant. http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Tom_Carman/download.htm