jml

Hello, Are there any restrictions in the Turakian Age setting book to do with wizards and armor? I've been looking, but I can't find anything.

I'm setting up to run a Turakian Age campaign that starts in Mezendria. One of my players wants to be a Knight of the Griffin -- bully for him. Players are to be built on 75+75 Heroic. To be a Knight of the Griffin, my player would have to buy his griffin as a follower (81 points) and also buy the Knight package deal (63 points). After paying for the appropriate TF to be able to ride said griffin (2 points), our aspiring knight has only 5 points to play with. I've yet to speak to the player, but I'm certainly not happy with this situation. What are my options?

Re: Gods of Civilization Yeah: Ancient Rome, London, New York, Sharn, Lankhmar -- only really big cities.

Re: Garrote rules? Also two t's in the index.

Re: Garrote rules? Thanks! I didn't find it in my PDF search because it's spelt "Garrotte" on the table and "Garrote" everywhere else!

Gods, elements, forces -- whatever you call them, these are the powers that pull merchants out of bed and drive men to despair. These things are the stuff of which your city is made. Wealth. Waste. Words. War. Wanton. ---- I got these after reading Don De Lillo's Underworld and musing about how waste is almost a force of nature (in fact, a force of civilization). I think these could be used as gods, elements of some kind of magic (in an urban fantasy or swords and sorcery setting) or whatever. I'm unlikely to get a chance to do anything with them in the near future, so I thought I'd share, and instead get the pleasure of watching.

Hello, Despite being mentioned in 5ER and UMA, I can't find a write up of a garrote as a weapon, nor rules to be used in the case of garroting. Do said rules exist? jml

Hello, I feel a little dense for asking this. p249 of 5ER says that "This Area of Effect covers a straight line of hexes, based on the target hex." I don't know how to interpret this on a hex mat. Does this mean that the "straight line" must be in one of six possible directions? (i.e. must the line be perpendicular to the sides of hexagons?) If so, then the implication is that although one could draw a line between two targets, one might not be able to draw a "straight line of hexes" between two targets. If not, what does it mean? No one else seems to have ever asked this, so I assume I'm being slow to comprehend. Thanks, jml

Re: You Only Get One Turn I should have mentioned: if someone else picks it up after you've deactivated it, it will work just fine. You've just used up your only chance.

I'm writing up an artifact in a campaign, and I think I want a limitation. The item grants you Luck, until you do something against the purposes of the deity that grants it. Then it stops working for you forever. Should I put some sort of Charges limitation on it?

Is it valid to use telepathic mind control to get a bilingual person to translate things for you?

Hello, The "Who Goes First" ssection on p360 of 5ER says that when there is "some question as to the exact timing of Actions (for example, a character is trying to Desolidify when someone's trying to hit him), the GM should resolve the situation by having both characters make DEX rolls". However, I'm having trouble figuring out when there could be any question. You act when your DEX comes up in your phase. Seg 8, DEX 18 comes before Seg 8, DEX 17. If your DEX matches someone elses, you roll a d6. Have I misunderstood HERO's time model? When could there possibly be any question as to the exact timing of actions? Thanks, jml

Re: How To Model: Magic adversely affected by cold iron Thanks very much for the cool ideas guys. I've figured out my own take, based on your collective advice, and submit it here for review and feedback. (The "On Stranger Tides" stuff sounds very cool, if only for having magic and pirates in the same setting.) The magic system (working title "Uncanny Astrology") has spells bought individually, with a Required Magic skill roll per arcana. There are other magics in the world, but cold iron affects only this one kind, which gains its powers from the stars. Excerpt: For some reason, not understood by the wise, it is more difficult to work magic in the presence of wrought iron or forged steel. The closer a magician is to a large body of iron, the more difficult it is to cast his spells. Some say this is because iron is the dust to which the stars return. Others claim iron spends its life hidden from the stars in the earth and, though mined and wrought, still seeks to hide from them. By constant exposure and diligent practice, some magicians are able to become better at performing magic around iron. Magicians have adopted the elven habit of referring to all worked iron and steel as "cold iron". Difficult Around Cold Iron (-1/2): A magician in a hex with between 10kg and 100kg of wrought iron takes a -4 penalty to his Magic roll. Every hex of distance decreases that penalty by 1. For every extra 100kg or part thereof, the penalty increases by 1. Every additional large body of worked iron "in range" increases the penalty by 1. Wearing steel armor makes the task even more difficult for the magician, and imposes an additional -2 penalty. Magicians may buy PSLs to offset this penalty.

Hello, I want to have a system of magic where magic is adversely affected by the proximity of cold iron. Now, the effect could either be increased END cost, or some sort of drain, or increased difficulty. I haven't really decided yet. What I don't know is how to model the very fact of cold iron's influence. Should magicians take a Disad? Should it be a Limitation on spells? Should it have any point cost impact at all? Thanks, jml

Hi. Buying Clinging gets your normal STR. Paying extra gets increased STR for Clinging. What is this STR used for?

One of my players asked me why wearing armor allows you to use your Normal Defenses when protecting against STUN damage. I don't really know the answer. By "why" what he meant was "how does this simulate dramatic reality?" Why does wearing armor allow you to use your Normal Defenses when protecting against STUN damage?

You don't need ideas from a no-account punk like myself, but they are fun to discuss. Here's the pitch: a version of Sidekick in hardback on glossy paper with awesome artwork and all of the skills, powers, perks etc. Make it complete, make it classy, make it expensive. To be honest, I haven't even sold myself on the idea yet

Re: Okay, smart guys, a challenge: Bah, you guys are missing the whole Monte Cristo angle -- where are the Tunnelling powers?

Re: Fantasy HERO Recommended Films I know it's a non-issue, I'm simply genuinely curious. I don't even want to argue about it. If Steve doesn't like Dark Crystal, why not? -- that's what I'm asking. I can generally come up with a veritable slew of reasons why I don't like something. I guess it's a silly question, and I'm not hounding for an answer. My curiousity can go unsated. I will mention it no more.

Hello, Mainly a question to Steve. Why is Dark Crystal not included in the fantasy film list? I'm genuinely curious. jml

Re: First Blood -- Impressions Perhaps I am. However, there's enough wit and wordplay around the gaming table already. Also, the campaign that I'm planning on running is to be an epic fantasy campaign. Much of the impact of that sub-genre is based on a certain level of internal seriousness. ...and now, poised on the brink of world domination, Sauron's dentist commits to single combat with his arch nemesis: Anna Sthetic.

Re: First Blood -- Impressions Well, I bought the Bestiary Hero Designer prefabs, rather than the book itself, because it was cheaper, and I wouldn't have to wait for international shipping. Although I'm sure the book is excellent (all HERO books that I've read have been), does it provide anything useful apart from beast stats?

Re: GateCrasher Hero When I saw the name I thought of the dance club in the UK. HERO: Ministry of Sound -- At night, they are bright young things, flitting from rave to rave, dancing the night away. By day, they use their incredible powers to fight crime. And recover from hangovers. Sneak past the bouncer and dare to be a HERO.

After months and months reading about the HERO system, learning the rules, fiddling with characters designs and plotting two new Fantasy campaign settings, I've actually gotten around to having a small, trial session of HERO. I invited most of my roleplaying group around to design some characters and run through a simple combat session. Character design took almost all night -- and they still need more work before they'll be ready for use in an actual campaign. (At one point, I made it clear to one player that I'd never GM a campaign with a PC called Stabby McKnifer.) Being too tired after designing characters, playing Settlers of Catan and Halo 2, we repaired to the next evening. That night, I GMd my first ever HERO combat session. And I was surprised. The pace was much faster than I had expected and everyone had a good grasp of the rules from reading Sidekick. The players won, naturally, with one of their number leaving the battle not with his shield, but on it. I very much look forward to polishing off my campaign and playing lots of HERO. Assorted comments: - One of my villians had the power to strengthen his skin with the power of the earth. I ruled that it's DEF stacked with his mundane armor. I since looked up the rules and referred to Fantasy HERO. From henceforth, Armor doesn't stack. - BODY hey? It's good to have lots of it. Or armor. Or not get hit. Because getting hit with a great sword hurts a great deal. - END. Basically, I need to track it, or get players to track theirs. It seems to be too important as a balance to leave out. I ignored it in this combat. - "Using STR". One of my players asked me what that meant. I went "Ummm... I haven't been able to find out in the rules either. I'm pretty sure that whenever you do something that requires lower-case 's' strength, you use STR, and that you pretty much always use all of it in combat unless you tell me otherwise" - Movement and END. The rulebook says that movement costs 1 END per so-many active points, and this includes your normal movement. I couldn't figure out how much END it costs a regular, base HERO to move 6". - Damage. Beforehand, I figured out the common case of using weapons to do killing damage, but ignored non-weapon killing damage and weaponed normal damage. One of the characters was a martial artist trained in open-hand fighting. Players never do what you expect. - So that's why Phases and Segments have different names! - With OCVs and DCVs changing so much due to CSLs and penalties and so forth, we've decided to use the alternative "(11 + OCV - 3d6 >= DCV) is a hit" system. - Lacking a convenient "Challenge Rating" system like the d20 system, I just built two Heroic characters on 75+75 and gave them some decent equipment. It proved to be a good challenge for the party. I'm going to need some sort of basic algorithm for estimating a challenge though. Average STUN and BODY inflicted per Turn seems like a good starting point. - Awesome. I really can't wait to start playing out this Fantasy HERO campaign. I've promised that I won't buy any more HERO books until I do. (MMM, Grimoire, UMA (is that available?) and Ninja HERO are all on the list). cheers, jml

G'day Steve, Just confirming the rules for determing damage with Martial Strike in Heroic campaigns. Total Damage = Weapon Damage + 1DC (for M. Strike) + 1DC / 5STR over min + 1DC / 2 extra DCs purchased ? So, a great sword wielded by a STR 24 Conan would inflict 2d6 + 1DC + 1DC == 2 1/2 d6 (from memory, I don't have my DC chart on me), assuming that he purchased no extra DCs. I ask because even though this is fairly clearly laid out in 5ER on page 405, I seem to remember reading some sort of exception to the rule earlier on in the combat section. thanks, jml