slaughterj

Though Dispel says held action to use, I likely would allow an Abort as well.

Originally posted by starblaze

Very rarely, there was only one I can remember that was a druid who was a counselor to Conan when he was King of Aquinolia. Kull had this one wizard called Gonar who also appeared in the Bran Mac Morn stories. Apparently he was cursed to live until all the picts were dead.

IIRC, in one pastiche, Conan rescued a wizard Pelias(?), who was good...like I said though, IIRC, it was a pastiche, not an original Howard story, but could be wrong...

Some of this has probably already been said, but I'd like to see:

1. Scalable monsters - e.g., stats for an orc, orc lieu, orc capt, etc., which can effectively be used as different levels of creatures for different point level campaigns (i.e., the orc lieu might be the orc lieu for a 100pt FH game, but be the base orc for a 150pt FH game if so desired).

2. Motivations - overarching goals, reasons to be and act, etc., which can lead to plot seeds.

3. Tactics - a sentence or two regarding general combat tactics of each monster, especially for those with lots of abilities.

Haven't looked at 5ed FH, but running FH under 5e before, I used 4ed FH rules, rather than 5ed Hero rules.

Re: Re: Conan/Kull type low fantasy campaigns: Any good?

Originally posted by Qamar

One excellent source, though tough to find, is the out-of-print GURPS Conan sourcebook. While not Hero, the concepts are easy to port over and it gives an excellent thumbnail view of the world.

Yep, great book, got at least 1 copy of it, and I can probably dig through my big box o' Conan stuff to direct to other things, e.g. the 1980s box set has useful stuff in it (referring to the Conan RPG by TSR), and there's some other out-of-print stuff I've got that's good - like I said, can dig through it to give references to good stuff if people need to know.

Originally posted by Qamar

Monsters also were rare and powerful. No orcs.

Yeah, no elves, dwarves, orcs, etc.! Get Picts and Serpent-Men instead!

Originally posted by AnotherSkip

Cant Somebody get some new lines !?!?!!

Geez, you got a hang up or what?!

Originally posted by GamePhil

"Received".

Aha, knew I'd get it out of you

Originally posted by GamePhil

For the love of all that is good and right, please stop!

 

Seriously, I doubt that the running gag will be well... hmm, no.

Were you going to say well...hung?

Originally posted by Bartman

Uh, oh... I believe a new Hero term has just been coined.

Nah, doesn't quite have the same "ring"

This discussion is really PHucked up...

Originally posted by Yamo

STR costing 1/1 is a system flaw.

 

Why?

 

It's objectively provable that you get numeric benefit in excess of numeric cost. A drastic amount in excess, in this case.

 

That's demonstrably true. How can it not be a flaw?

 

Fix it, then encourage people to change it if they want. Don't leave it broken and then encourage them to fix it. That's not good game design. It's completely bass-ackwards.

Well, STR is far from the only characteristic to which this applies.

For 5pts of STR, you get x2 Lift, +1DC damage, +1 PD, +1 REC, +2.5 STUN, etc. - the last things alone are more than the 5pts for STR. However, CON, DEX, etc. work out similarly, so just changing STR isn't enough if you're trying to "fix" the system flaws. And once you start that process, you have to reevaluate many powers (Growth, Density Increase, Drain, etc.) to see if you have "balanced" your system.

I just let it ride, it's easier that way. And I have players allocate points based on character concept, to curb excesses.

Originally posted by Geryon

Slaughter, if you are in durham, the game I am thinking of starting is going to take place in chapel hill around the beginning of september, if I can get my stuff together in time.

Very interesting. I may have a few others interested as well

We haven't met by chance, have we?

Hey Mr. Negative, you're near me, do I know you? Got any swords & sorcery-style games going on?

I find such swords & sorcery campaigns to be less hack & slash that fireball-slinging, plate mail-wearing D&D.

I've played in and run numerous campaigns set in Leiber's Lankhmar setting which were great fun. No elves, limited armor (guards say "hey, he must be up to trouble"), limited weapons (see armor), mysterious sorceries abound, but less so in the players' hands, etc. To me, these are among the best fantasy gaming out there. Many such campaigns have had no party mages.

Suggested materials: GURPS Conan (and read at least the first 6, if not first 11 or so novels); D&D's Lankhmar setting (on ebay often; 6 original Leiber novels and 1 other)

Lethality (at least among NPCs/mooks) has been high in the FH games I've run/played in, esp. since they usually are light armor situations. Sure, many situations might be where someone hits a mook in the unprotected head with a 2D6K attack, rolling average, and thus doing 7 BODY before x2 multiplier, final result of 14 BODY and 35 STUN, and consequently they are technically k.o.'d before actually dead, but for my games, the above result is plenty dead for mooks, without worrying about using impairing/disabling rules, etc.

Originally posted by Killer Shrike

But thats really shafting characters that have dumped a lot of points into DEX by making thier reflex speed immaterial compared to random chance.

Uh, not sure what you mean here.

1. The Dex roll idea would shaft them more than my suggestion, just like d20 shafts them more. E.g., DEX 20 vs. DEX 10, under my method, DEX 20 still almost always goes 1st, while in a DEX check situation, each rolls 3D6 and compares to 13- and 11- respectively, resulting in usually the DEX 20 going first, but much more frequently than my method, the DEX 10 would go first.

2. Nobody's shafted by the points they've spent in DEX with any alternative Initiative method suggested thus far, because DEX is way undercosted to begin with.

Originally posted by Derek Hiemforth

I think the rub lies in only rolling once for the combat vs. the goal of eliminating static combat order. If you don't want lots of extra rolling, you have to set it for the whole combat, as you say. But if you're going to do that, then to me, you might as well just leave it based on DEX(+LR).

 

It can also mess with other mechanics in the system (like things that happen "on your DEX" in a given Phase).

 

I find that the best way to achieve variance in the order in which actions are taken is to emphasize the drawbacks of having already acted. This encourages people to save their action when they have nothing pressing to do, and results in more variation in when characters choose to do things.

[side note, this is more for discussion rather than me to act on it, I tend not to change rules unless they need it terribly, e.g. Damage Shield.]

Giving a reason to hold is good, and I've found blocking to be effective for lower-speed mooks, e.g., PC cuts down 1 soldier, so the next 2 know he's good, PC goes to swing again but one elects to block! Effectively reducing the PC's DEX below the mooks, each then gets to swing back now

Yeah, I'm familiar with Hurry, didn't seem enough of variation to me.

As for Dex checks, sounds good, but I just want something to start off combat with (probably can do it with Dex checks), but like d20, the results would be highly varying, because the major # would be the die roll, not the ability score.

I know this has come up before, but this just started to bother me again recently

In Hero, Initiative = Dexterity (+ Lightning Reflexes).

This makes for a very static combat organization, little surprises in ordering, etc., though it does make things easier by not having to make another dice roll, keep track of an additional #, etc.

I've seen some suggestions before, but don't recall seeing the one I thought to post here:

Make Initiative = Dexterity + 3D6

Everyone's used to rolling 3D6 (thus easy), rolls will result in an average (thus higher DEXs *usually* will be higher, unlike d20, where people can be all over the place), and only roll once at the start of combat (to minimize dice rolling and complexity), and the 3D6 won't provide such a range to add to Initiative so as to generate weird results (i.e., the 33 DEX speedster will always beat out the 18 DEX brick).

Thoughts?

Originally posted by Old Man

*cough*criticalhits*cough*

Hey Old Man, you might want to get that cough checked out

Good stuff, and I agree with the poster above about wanting to get it when it's complete and formatted

So I gather this is a 3e FH / 5e Hero conversion of 3e D&D, yes? Any plans for 3.5 D&D? Probably won't be too many spell changes, e.g., Haste, but some of those are probably already "friggin close" enough

Originally posted by buzz

Woah, woah, woah...

 

Hawk is on *DVD*?

 

That has to violate some law, somewhere.

Heh, I was concerned a few years ago, because I wanted it on DVD, but thought it wouldn't make it for obvious reasons, but it has been available for 6 months or so

Originally posted by NuSoardGraphite

HAWK THE SLAYER!!!

 

Oh, wait. You said good fantasy movies.

 

Oh well then that excludes Hawk the Slayer.

 

Personaly, its one of my favorites, but even I will admit its far from "good". I just happen to like really cheasy b-flicks.

It's so good I have it on DVD!

Re: what is the best way to balance characters?

Originally posted by nytflyr

heres my delema, and its been knawing at me for quire some time. it deals with fantasy characters mostly, but whenever I want to run a fantasy game i want to encourage the use of other races, however I percieve it as being unbalanced in one way or the other depending on how it is implemented.

 

the first way is a package deal, which you pay full price for, which severly limits the non human character, all for what usually amounts to something like 1pip KA claws and dark vison.

 

the other option is for these non humans to just pay the package cost (abilities-disads), which is percieved by the players of humans to be a bad deal for them...

 

any ideas?

I've used both methods, and from my experience, favor the first way. The second way (unless perhaps done like tesuji suggests) has the same issues that old-style D&D had - why be a human? The first way can be problematic if there are low-use items included in the races' packages, so that needs to be taken into account. Also, be sure to separate out racial packages from cultural packages, and make the racial packages be the must-have things (i.e., elves having infravision), while the cultural packages have what the races might've learned while growing up and let those contents be flexible or provide options in them. Something I do (and some seem to inexplicably disagree with) is that I give Humans and non-Humans all the Disadvantage - Distinctive Features - "Race", e.g., Human, Elf, Dwarf, etc., because the Human will be distinctive among any non-Human, just as the Elf will be distinctive among any non-Elf, etc.

By way of example, here's a link to the races I created in Hero terms based on the Atlantean Trilogy (Arcanum, etc. by Bard Games): http://www.yandros.com/AtlanteanRaces.htm

On there, the racial "powers" are fairly limited, thus the PC's points won't be eaten up much by taking a given race - most are from 0-10 pts. The highest one is the Andamen (a race of beast-men) with 31pts allocated, but only particular players trying to make particular (appropriate) characters would take that race, and make use of the rces's abilities - one might think that 11pts allocated to natural weapons is a lot, but it effectively results in 3 1/2d6K attacks when unarmed (based on 5e attack rules) (1/2d6K no STR bite, 1/2d6K claws which allow STR, but are reduced pen), which isn't too shabby for the situations that warrant it and don't require 1/2 action to draw a weapon or the fastdraw skill.

Originally posted by archer

I've got some old ones from Steve Jackson Games, intended for GURPS. I think they were for 1" = 3 feet scale; I'm not sure if they scale up right for Hero. Can't remember what they were called, though; each map had an outdoor scene on one side and a building of some kind on the other.

If you could post a digipic, that'd be cool, but if not, no big deal - I'll look into SJG stuff online to see what I can find...