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Funksaw

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Posts posted by Funksaw

  2. Animation or Comics?

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Animation or Comics?

     

    To be fair, Animation is a much more expensive process than comic books, and always will be - though to a collector, seeing the Animation on TV vs. paying $3.50 for a 24 page issue with 10 pages of ads in it might make thing seem a bit... different.

     

    I believe you'd get more mileage out of comics if you sold them in quarterly issues instead of monthly issues that are pretty much nothing, but you'd also get more mileage out of comics if you put them on the Web. The jump by either Marvel or DC to the web is long delayed as they try to wring the last bits of money out of the cash cow, but with rising paper and distribution costs, it's going to Web only soon enough.

     

    But I digress; Planetary or Transmetropolitan, Swamp Thing and the Sandman - they would not make it into animation, and we see what happens when Hollywood gets it's hands on graphic novels. (I still can't decide which is more of a stomach-turner, Keanu Reeves as John Constantine, or Jack Black as Green Lantern.)

  3. Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

     

    I love it! :thumbup: Sometimes' date=' you need a fresh player to remind of the silly things we used to do (though, I never asked to buy equipment while in a cave).[/quote']

     

    I do remember when I played my first game of D&D. I refused to enter the wizard's house because I was worried about being accused of breaking and entering. Since the wizard had the only magic item that could defeat the bad guy, I managed to derail the plot.

  4. Drain STR on Objects?

    in HERO System Discussion

    Posted

    This is a "How do you model this power, power?"

     

    If you have a character who, in comic book logic, can control inertia, what if you want to have him throw a car? One way to do this would likely be STR + Telekinetic STR equal to the STR required to throw the car.

     

    But what if you built it a different way? Is there any way to "Drain" mass from an object for the purpose of lifting it/hitting it?

  7. Lack of published material

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    Re: Lack of published material

     

    I will agree that Fantasy HERO settings tend to be very generic; this is simply that there is a much larger market for d20 Fantasy and additional material for D&D.

     

    Luckily, however, HERO's really, really easy to convert most of these settings to; just that it can be daunting to convert the entire setting. Just convert your PCs and your NPCs in your campaign, one at a time.

  9. Is HERO an ideal or even an adequate game for those new to RPGs? Should it be?

    in HERO System Discussion

    Posted

    Re: Is HERO an ideal or even an adequate game for those new to RPGs? Should it be?

     

    You know, the more I think about it...

     

    Here's the thing - any game can be an entry-level game if you have an experienced GM willing to explain things to you.

     

    But some gamers come into the gaming industry without prompting from friends - they hear about it elsewhere. And they usually start with either D&D or with WoD/Vampire.

     

    That's just market externalities for you.

     

    But HERO might actually be in a good position here, relatively, because of Sidekick, a complete ruleset for under $15.

     

    When I started RPing, Vampire at $30 was exhorbitant; nowadays, Vampire costs $60... if you include the WoD core. D&D costs $90 -- yes, you can just play with the player's handbook, but we're talking about people who don't have friends in a gaming group to set the game up with them.

     

    Sidekick, at $15, is a very, very cheap game these days. GURPS Lite is free but it's not really a full system (especially after 4th ed.)

     

    I do think that a HERO Lite product would help to sell both Sidekick and HERO System 5th, partially because a free download showing how easy the system can be when pared down works helps dispel many of the myths. (For example, before I got into it, I somehow got it into my head that GURPS was a post-apocalyptic game, not a generic system... I may have confused it with RIFTS.)

  10. Why do we have skills?

    in HERO System Discussion

    Posted

    Re: Why do we have skills?

     

    Why do you prefer the Power build to giving James Bond a high enough level in PS:Skiing to allow him to ski backwards' date=' or Holmes enough skill in Deduction to pull off his trick? After all, both can be acomplished using the Extraordinary Skill rule, and the exact penalties for both could be worked out.[/quote']

     

    Mostly because of these three reasons:

     

    Once you get into the "flatly impossible if this wasn't fiction" area, it's very difficult to determine exactly -how many- points you need in order to do a particular impossible thing. To ski backwards while shooting ninjas with a wristwatch, do you need to succeed by 20? 25? 30? (or difficulty -20, -30?) Once you get to "beyond very hard" it's hard to determine just -how- impossible it is. Buying it as a power eliminates the arbitrary; indeed, even buying it as a power with RSR gives a very specific roll to do the impossible.

     

    Secondly, once you get into that "flatly impossible" area, it makes an intuitive sense to call your rules from the "powers" section, rather from the skills section, which represent things you could concievably see a person doing.

     

    Thirdly, power builds put control into the hands of the player, rather than the GM. "I'm so stealthy that I can effectively dissapear," when codified into points, means that you can use the power anywhere, anytime. Otherwise, the GM will have to make a judgement call whether or not a successful skill roll will allow you to do what the answer is.

     

    Or to put that last point another way: Buying stealth as a skill means that you can hide in a convenient dumpster. Buying stealth as a super-skill means there is ALWAYS a convenient dumpster.

  11. Is HERO an ideal or even an adequate game for those new to RPGs? Should it be?

    in HERO System Discussion

    Posted

    Re: Is HERO an ideal or even an adequate game for those new to RPGs? Should it be?

     

    HERO isn't a bad system for new gamers but it certainly might be one of the most daunting, from the MASSIVE book to the terminology, to the math, etc.

     

    GMs have to be very patient with new gamers and say: "Hero is designed to be very, very flexible, which is why the book is big, and it's designed to be front loaded, so that once you're done creating your character, most of the hard work is done, and you can just enjoy playing."

     

    It would not hurt for the GM to create the character with the player looking on and going over it step by step...

  17. [Cosmology] The ur-Stone. (Thoughts wanted.)

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    First, there were the ur-Men; the beginners, the ones before all. They were alone.

     

    The world they lived in was wild and chaotic and this displeased the ur-Men, so they created the ur-Stone; a way to control the chaos, and they fashioned bodies with forms. They seperated matter from thought, dark from light, earth from sky, life from death, and time from endlessness.

     

    They did not banish the chaos, for they were not that foolhardy. They, instead, harnessed it, segregated it.

     

    They created a stone so heavy that the most omnipotent of them could not lift it. Inside the stone, they placed all that was without order and without reason.

     

    "Here," they said, "is infinite possibility."

     

    "Elsewhere," they defined, "is immutable reality."

     

    They called the stone a name lost to prehistory. We call it the ur-Stone.

     

    They lived in a paradise of their own creation; a land with order and reason, but with but a desire, they could grant themselves what they needed. They had a power that made them gods on earth. They had a magic - a far greater magic than we now possess.

     

    And then something happened.

     

    Perhaps they called on the power of the stone once too often. Perhaps loftier, higher gods than they grew angry at their hubris. Maybe chaos is simply too wild to keep contained all at once.

     

    The stone split into three, along the seams of the three realms: the physical realm, the ephemeral realm, and the spiritual realm.

     

    The ur-Men were now powerless and the ordered world that was created was now their prison - as it is ours. The ur-Men searched for generations for the three pieces of the stone.

     

    The fragment of the body - the Athelete's Stone - flew into the sky, and so the ur-Men who searched for it live in the trees. Over millenia, their decendants became the Elves who search for the stone of body through their own personal physical perfection. Each generation, they believe, draws nearer to it.

     

    The fragment of the mind - the Artisan's Stone - burrowed into the ground, and so the ur-Men who searched for it also lived underground. Over millenia, their decendants became the Dwarves who search for the stone of mind through the intricate technologies that they've developed. Each generation, they dig deeper down and build cleverer and cleverer devices, and they too believe they draw nearer to it.

     

    The fragment of the soul - the Philosopher's Stone - fled to the four corners of the earth, and so the ur-Men who searched for it also spread to the four corners of the earth. Over millendia, their decendents became mankind as we know them today, and search for the Philosopher's Stone with rituals, celebrations and festivals, building works of great art and the civilizations to enjoy it - they live, and they too, say they draw nearer to it each generation.

     

    Men, Elves, and Dwarves were not alone in the world.

     

    First, there were the shadow races; the dark reflections of what we are. Some say that they came into being when the stone split, others that the ur-Men had a shadow race. Others believe that those who sought the stone and found it were twisted by it.

     

    The Beast-Men, or Orc, bourne of the soul-stone, are all of Man's destructive natures laid bare, rejecting art, beauty, and civilization for the darker side of humanity - unbridaled savagry and destruction.

     

    The Dark-Elves, or Drow, bourne of the body-stone, know only that the strongest can survive, and therefore that the strongest shall lead. In regiments and warfare, they seek to dominate all other life. The exist only to control others and to rise in their society to control more - a meritocracy of malfeasance and of military regimentation.

     

    The Lost-Dwarves, or Goblins, bourne of the mind-stone, are twisted by their search for knowledge beyond, and devise lethal traps - physical traps, traps of diplomacy, tricks, and pranks, while seeking out forbidden knowledge and do dark things in the pursuit of their twisted, mad science.

     

    There are also the mixed races - Halflings, produced when Elves and Dwarves bred; Elvenmen, the offspring of Elves and Men, and Gnomes the children of Dwarves and Men, and a whole host of other races.

     

    And there are the shattered races - twisted mockeries, usually more monster than capable of rational thought, created by a magician, alchemist or scientist merging together life from disperate parts.

     

    And that is how life began.

     

     

     

     

     

    (Why, yes, I did just create an elaborate backstory as an excuse to have Wuxia Elves, Gadgeteer Dwarves, Evil-Empire Drow, Mad Scientist Goblins, Barbarian Orcs, and all the dungeonpunk fun, turned up to 11.)

  21. Answers & Questions

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: Answers & Questions

     

    A: Everyone should be able to function on 3 minutes of sleep.

     

    Q: A bureaucrat worked in a corporation, and he saw a person fall asleep at his desk, and watched him fall asleep for 3 whole minutes. Then a co-worker threw a wadded up piece of paper at him and woke him up. Seeing that the bureaucrat was watching, the tired employee worked twice as hard as before. What was the bureaucrat's conclusion in his report?

     

    A: Final Ansi/ISO Standard C++... your mother!

  24. A question of getting into Fantasy Hero GM(s) and Player(s)

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    Re: A question of getting into Fantasy Hero GM(s) and Player(s)

     

    I'll confer a few things I think you might find useful.

     

    1. Start with low points. Perhaps 50+25 or 50+50. If you think this is underpowered for your world, just give out more XP each session early on. What this does is limit the amount of work the players have to do to create a new character since there are less points available.

    2. Create racial, professional, AND background packages. Make all the professional packages have the same cost. Make all the background packages the same cost. This worked very well with my players as the professional and background packages added up to about two-thirds the cost of the character. I think the background packages work well to give the characters an extra dimension, something that D&D sorely lacks. Skills like PS: Lumberjack, KS: Trees, etc make the characters truly unique.

    3. Create a list of talents. Try to make up talents that mimic D&D feats that you feel make sense in your campaign. When a fighter sees "flurry of blows", he probably knows what that'll do. Provide the point cost, a brief description, and then the techinical writeup.

    4. If you have a player with martial arts, create a table showing the OCV, DCV, and damage of each martial maneuver. For all players, write the OCV, DCV, and damage of each of their weapons including any constant CSLs with a note below of any variable CSLs (like the 3-pointers, some 5-pointers, and the 8-pointer). This lookup table will make things go MUCH quicker in battle.

     

    Good luck. I was faced with the same problems a few months ago, but I think my players are greatly enjoying the campaign (and the beer).

     

     

    I tghink it might be a good idea to create a "Fantasy Aids" tag (like thus: "[Fantasy Aids] Feats", "[Fantasy Aids] Spells,") in the forum, so that people can indeed go straight to a-la-carte power buying instead of "build your own."

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