paigeoliver

Re: Finally figured out what I hate about Star Wars in RPGs Well you can always add another 2 powers to the multipower. A minor transform (structure, to structure with hole), cumulative. A major transform. Object to broken object. I don't THINK I am missing anything else? And before anyone mentions missile deflection, that power belongs to the Jedi, not to the lightsaber. Anyone can theoretically pick up a lightsaber and use it, but only Jedi can deflect blaster bolts with it.

My players have expressed interest in doing a Star Wars game after our fantasy campaign ends. This of course brought on the sense of wrongness that I have felt about every Star Wars RPG and adaptation. The main thing that is WRONG is the lightsabers. They keep presenting them as weapons that do damage. Having just watched all six movies I can certainly say that lightsabers do not "do damage". Lightsabers have one of 3 possible effects against a human sized foe. Death. Limb removal (which comes without any actual damage, since the limbs are removed cleanly and bloodless every time). Miss. Every RPG version of Star Wars I have seen has instead said "lightsabers do xd6 damage". That goes against every single use of a lightsaber in the movies. For Non-Hero use I am simply inclined to create an effects table for hits. That basically contains a lot of deaths, and various limb removals, with maybe a single entry that actually does damage for that one in a 100 swing that only penetrates a half inch. For hero I am seeing Multipower. With two powers, Major transform (missing limb), and major transform cumulative (dead). The cumulative on the "dead" power serves two purposes, it decreases the number of dice when selecting "dead" (thus making it easier to hack off limbs than to kill, and hacking off limbs seems to be common when fighting major foes), and it allows the lightsaber to still fight BIG creatures, those large enough to actually survive a single hit to the body.

Re: V'Ger from the 1st Star Trek movie. I watched this movie last week. Reason from effects. VG'er consists of a character (that chick it transmutes), and a base with a computer.

Re: Missing SW-Brand Mono-Climates I always though mono-climates seemed to be the rule in SF and not the exception.

Re: Converting 4th Edition Very little conversions between versions are needed. 5th edition is essentially a superset of 4th edition. The main difference is that the cost and exact effect of some powers change (oh yeah, and the book is A LOT bigger). Basically, all one must do to convert a 4th edition character to 5th edition is double check his powers and adjust the costs if needed.

Re: Star Trek TOS characters Anyone ever written up the red-shirted ensign physical disadvantage? I assume it would be like this. Physical Limitation "Red shirted Ensign, danger magnet, opponents and danger both intelligent and unintelligent will target this character above others." Common, Total. 20 Points Red Shirt. Susceptability to being off the enterprise in any situation where the plot would allow death. Very common, damage per 5 minutes, 10d6 (Body AND stun). Total 110 points (per 4th edition rules, I don't have 5th edition handy at the moment). Red shirted Ensign: Hunted, dangers of opportunity. -14, More powerful, extensive noncombat influence, Harshly punish/kill, limited geographically to Alien planets. Total 25 Points. All 3 pretty much do the same thing, I like the susceptability one best. Allows the GM/writer to let the Red Shirt live if it serves the plot, otherwise he dies in 5 minutes (just like the show). Plus, I think being fated to die 5 minutes into the mission is worth more than 20 or 25 points. The Physical Limitation version doesn't seem dangerous enough, characters might survive this far too long, while Star Trek redshirts have been known to walk right into bottomless pits all on their own.

Re: Star Trek TOS characters Yeah, but end result is that Kirk is still staring into a little girls eyes like he is about to start making out with her. That one also suffered from a big TOS problem, way too much overlap with other episodes. Oh look another exact clone of earth, what this is like the 19th one (Bread & Circuses and countless other episodes), oh look adults all dead, kids are alive (and the children shall lead), oh look they live forever (various episodes, thinking mainly of another earth clone one, the one with the nice Asians living in the villages and all the white people come and attack and we find out that it is an Earth clone and they are the Americans.), oh no a deadly disease, I hope McCoy can find a cure in time (used at least two other times, probably more like 8 or 9), they stole the communicators (every 3rd episode). The only props I give that episode is that I seem to recall the red shirt living through it. That episode also had plot problems, such as the fact that a good half of the "children" were in their mid teens. That episode COULD have been a lot better, but the few other "children" besides Miri with speaking roles were more annoying than anything else, you didn't like them, you didn't hate them, you just wanted the scene to change to something else. (Well technically other episodes later overlapped it).

Re: Star Trek TOS characters

Re: Star Trek TOS characters Ok, the ones in there are good starts, but the characters are certainly missing limitations. Most of the Trek characters have a bunch of them, but those writeups did not reflect that. I have been watching the entire Original Series on my computer at work the past week or so (can't watch any tonight, forgot the AC adaptor for my laptop, I'd be out of juice before I finished one episode).

Are there any Hero writeups anywhere of the Star Trek original series characters? How about TNG or DS9 characters as well?

Re: Why does the USS Iowa only have a 10 Defense? Really, consider picking up Autoduel champions, and the Cars Wars compendium on ebay. Autoduel champions puts the existing car wars rulesets INSIDE the Hero System, while the Car Wars compendium is very thorough and covers all types of modern to near future era vehicles. You'll need them both if you are serious about the vehicles, Autoduel champs is based on a very old version of car wars, which was seriously expanded by the time the compendium came out. The compendium adds, boats, helicopters, (planes I think), military hardware, hovercraft, and just vastly expands the equipment list and the options for vehicles. Funny thing is that they took the ONLY system slower than Hero, and then stuck it in Hero too!

Re: Why does the USS Iowa only have a 10 Defense? Yes, and they were published too. Its called Autoduel champions, the rules work well (mostly adapted from car wars), but are completely different from 5ER vehicle rules.

Re: Need help with campaign ideas Whenever you are stuck just rip off something else. You have your first faction figured out, right? Good, base the cultures and societies of the other 3 factions off existing ones. If you rip them from Sci-Fi then people will notice, so rip them from Fantasy. I suggest picking 3 of the classic 4 Fantasy Demi-human races for your cultures. Dwarves, Gnomes, Elves, and Halflings. All of them have very detailed cultures that can be read about extensively in cheap PDFs of old version TSR products (Complete Books of Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes & Halflings are really great books). Keep the society and culture but change them, into humans or whatever you need them to be.

Re: Challenge: "Pope" as a Package Deal You might have to put a -1 "Only vs catholics" limitation on most of the Pope's superpowers!

Re: Challenge: "Pope" as a Package Deal The limitations in a Pope deal might actually outnumber the things that do cost points. As far as the package deal. I wouldn't put ANY skills in it. The position of Pope (much like President) certainly SUGGESTS certain skills, but they are not etched in stone. I have known priests whose theological knowledge was astounding, and at the same time I have known other priests whose theological knowledge was astoundingly limited. Bob the parish priest might very well have Catholic theology @ 14- and protestant theology @ 12- along with many other related skills, while Jim the Pope might have Catholic theology @ a mere 11, or even an 8-. I am also not sure the Pope has any actual followers (not in the Hero system sense). He does have lots of contacts though. He definitely has public ID, many watched, several hunteds, a rather unique "Pope" physical limitation (there are so many things the Pope can't do because he is the Pope), I would also say he would get a separate points for a negative reputation (at any given point in time there are literally millions of people worldwide who view the Vatican as the "Whore of Babylon" from Revelation, and who view the Pope as a misled tool of Satan at best, and the Anti-Christ himself at worst. It doesn't get talked about much because it is only socially acceptable to be anti-protestant, but the belief is very common). Next one might be dicey, but if God and the devil are real in your campaign world then the pope would certainly have a Devil-related disadvantage. The devil isn't gonna be leaving the Pope alone, no matter what side the Pope is REALLY on.