Starwolf

Re: The Passing of a Legend.. Andre Norton

Two of her works number among my most favorite, The Beast Master, and Here Abide Monsters. These were two of the first SF books I ever read as a lad. She will be missed.

Re: Narcolepsy

I have this problem, I come awake instantly in combat mode...sometimes with voilent striking at the person/object that awakens me. It's been this way since my early days in the service....combat does that to you, you learn to sleep light and jump at the slightest suspicious sound...or die. Sometimes when I sleep what my sleeping mind interprets as a threat and awakens me seems to depend on what I did the day before, and stress levels. It also seems to be dependant on whether I have been having nightmares.

As to how to model this in Hero...I think the idea about modeling it after a berserk sounds intrigueing.

Re: Anyone done a Dragonstar HERO ?

No but I'd be interested in seeing one if it was! I think that the Dragonstar setting is the only redeeming thing about the whole D20 mess....

Re: Haalkitaine Hackers in Shadow World

Ah the memories...I once ran an epic campaign on Kulthea. I had FH packages for dragon lords, K'taa Viir, and other sundry Shadow World goodies. The only thing we ever struggled with was converting the Shadow World/Rolemaster magic into Hero system. Perhaps with the new FH and the Grimoires I'll start a new version....

Re: TravellerHERO PDF in the works

Why not just create a general KS: Jack of all Trades 8-. And use the house rule that the skill level cannot be increased beyond this. If the character desires a better roll he/she should either purchase the appropriate FAM or skill. You could even make it a prerequisite that the player first purchase the Skill Enhancer - Jack of All Trades, so that applicable skills purchased subsequently would get the purchase bonus.

Re: HERO System question

I kind of use an amalgam system. Some items/spells the players find/capture are instantly usable. Other items/spells may require study/research to figure out how to activate/use. The items/spells that need to be studied are the ones the players spend XP on. I use the XP to simulate the study process.

So a +1 Broadsword would be instantly usable, but a +1 Flaming broadsword would only act as a +1 sword until the user discovered how to activate (paid the XP cost) its flaming ability. I had not considered charging only the difference in XP between the base cost and the extra abilities....consider that concept adopted...

Re: Pulp Hero Cometh

Definately I am refering to the Marvel films in general. I am holding out hope that they will re-do Cap with the same care they put into Daredevil and the X-Men.

Re: Is monster hunting horror?

I once ran a Champions scenario where the group was induced into exploring Hill House (from the Haunting), however I changed the main bad guy into the devil himself (Satan/Lucifer/Etc). He was supposed the be the father of one of the heroes that was trying to reject his devilish side. The tortured souls in the house were trapped and being tormented for not stopping the initial conception/rape of the young boys mother. Now grown to a man and having no memory of ever being there, he and his companions were manipulated into returning to the house....

My players were definately experiencing a sense of horror until they unraveled the mystery behind the house.

Re: A source for Police & Fire Dept. Dispatch Codes?

In my locality how many alarms roughly equates to how many firehouses are dispatched to a scene. So 1 alarm means 1 firehouse (which trucks and how many are dictated by the type of emergency), 2 alarm means respnders are dispatched from 2 firehouses. Using this method a 5 alarm fire is a very bad blaze indeed.

Re: OTR Links

For a more modern movie with a kind of Pulp/Horror/DC feel to it try Van Helsing.

Re: Pulp Hero Cometh

By all means avoid the Doc Savage movie like the plague, but any discussion of the pulp era must include Doc and the Fab 5 from the novels/magazines. IRRC there were a couple of really bad Captain America movies before marvel got it right.

Sorry but I had to jump on this, I am an unadulterated Doc Fanboy -- and regrettably old enough to own a couple of original first print Doc novels, that I bought when they were new

Re: Character Generator?

Revised includes clarifications and explanations that have accumulated in the last couple of years since FRED was released. I would also like to point out that as you use Hero Designer if you click on the define button for items selected, it gives you a brief explanation of what the item is you are selecting, and reference pages in FRED and 5ER.

Re: Starships for the new guy

Checkout the Spacer Online Toolkit under the Star Hero link on the home page. It contains several ships, vehicles, robots, and other cool SF sundries that you can use as examples of how to build your own...or just use them as is, and if you like'em I'd suggest that you buy the Spacers Toolkit book....

Re: Mobile Infantry Drop Capsules

The drop capsules from the book had several features: definately Ablative armor versus heat, Gliding (parachute to slow the capsule), and darkness vs. radar (the ablative pieces acted as a chaff field to obscure the MI Troop from ground to air detection). This al served to get the Trooper close enough to the ground that he could blow the last layer of the capsule and activate his armors jump jets for a soft landing.

Re: PREDATORS -- What Do *You* Want To See?

A couple of super-terrorists or home grown revolutionaries. And perhaps a bounty hunter/super bail bondsman (yes I'll bail you out Crossbow, but don't make me come and find you come time for your trial)

Re: Hitman: Your Next DC Campaign!

Thats too funny! Someone put a lot of work into that game sight. Wait theres a knock at the door.....

Re: Wild West Hero

Heres an idead I have been toying with; The characters are hired to escort a wagon train westward where they must cross Donners Pass to the west of present day Reno Nevada. It is the fall/winter of 1847, another train was supposed to have made the crossing just one year ealier. The Paiute Indians that have been harassing your train have grown strangley silent as you approach the pass. Then one by one people start dissappearing from the train. What are the indians afraid of? Are the missing settlers turning back? If they are turning back, why would they leave in the dark of night and leave behind their possessions?

Re: New and trying to find out this question

Also don't forget that just as a natural roll of 18 always misses, a natural roll of three always succeeds. For example if I only have a familiarity in electronics (for a base roll of 8 or less) and due to lack of equipment or difficulty the GM assigns me a -6 situation mod, I'd need to roll a 2 on 3d6 which is impossible...but if I roll a natural 3 I would still succeed.

Re: Military Hero

Another good reference is an old Vietnam POW rescue mission source book from Firebird Ltd called "Here There Be Tigers". It discussed training, equipment, package deals, weapons, and a campaign style adventure. It is out of print I got my copy from Noble Knight Games. They are listed in the Online Retailers section of this website.

Re: Thinking About DARK CHAMPIONS BATTLEGROUNDS

Definately a prison....

And I haven't seen mention of a Military Base...

Re: stun x

Nope here is how it is computed...Lets say you are using the Desert Eagle .50 from page 243 of DC. You score a hit on location 3 (head shot). Damage is 2D6+1, so for this example lets say you roll 8 body. This gun has a listed stunx of 1d6 which indicates that it has a +1 stun mod (base is always 1d6-1). So to compute stun we use the x5 stun mulitplier for the location plus the +1 stun mod for a total stun multiplier of x6, which gives a damage total on this shot as 8 body and 48 stun. Finally subtract the targets appropriate defenses. Hope this helps...

Re: TRU Challenge

I'd say some amount of fancy would be appropriate...within the Dark Champions framework. In other words most if not all capabilities should come from equipment or training rather than super-powers or magic type stuff.

I was down at the local County Sheriff's office yesterday and they had a SWAT team display. Part of the display was dedicated to a different type of SPEC OPS police unit. This unit was designated a T.R.U. or Tactical Rescue Unit. These men and women are trained to Special Forces proficiency in high risk rescue techniques. They specialize in EMT under fire, High Mountain Rescue, Acrtic Water Rescue, Avalanche Recovery, and other types of high danger emergency services. So here is the challenge....

I thought it would be interesting to see what types of teams, characters, equipment, vehicles, headqaurters, etc, the board could come up with....for a Hero TRU.

Ok....Ready....Set....GO!!!

Re: Newbie Seeks Character Creation Help

Where are you getting the 3's for each slot from?

Oops! my bad...

The cost for each Ultra slot is indeed 6 (it would be 12 for flexible slots) the total cost would thus be 83 points.

Re: Newbie Seeks Character Creation Help

Actually the multipower would be more like:

65 Druid Magic: Multipower

3 u) Animal Forms: Multiform, 8 250 point creatures. 65 points.

3 u) Summon Lighting: 10d6 Energy Blast, 1/2 End 62 points.

3 u) Manipulate Weather: Change Environment 1", Multiple Combat Effects, +5 temperature, -5 temperature, Variable Special Effects: +1/2, Megascale 1 km: +1/4. 65 points.

Defined like this she could activate any one power at a time and the total multipower cost would be 74 points (65 points for the multipower base and 3 points for each ultra-slot).