Nelijal

Holy snikeys, and my friends think I'm anal! I may just print this out and tell them we're going to start using it, just to see the looks on their faces. If you're also into programming, you should work for Microsoft, you'd fit right in. Or maybe you already do?

No, just the vast majority of us. Episodes I and II have very good stories, but it has become obvious that George Lucas just isn't that good of a director. He should perhaps stick to the creative side of the projects and get someone else to direct--too bad Stanley Kubrick is gone.

You are correct: http://www.fox.com/firefly/info.htm

I concur. I looked forward to Firefly each week much more than Enterprise. Talk about good character development, the individuals that made up the crew were what made the show. Too bad the people at Fox didn't have the foresight to give it a real chance. Anybody remember the first season of TNG? It totally sucked, but it got better and the series wound up going for seven (?) seasons. If anyone other than Gene Roddenberry had done Episode at Farpoint, someone surely would have put a bullet in the series' head right then to put it out of its misery. As for the original question, I hadn't considered a Firefly HERO campaign, but it shouldn't be difficult. There's nothing too outlandish to convert, the ship is already designed (just needs HERO stats), and there are plenty of plot hooks and NPCs already in place. I even have the perfect player for Jane Cole.

Is it allowed to upgrade variable cost skills after play starts, using earned XP? For example, spending 1 XP to upgrade a KS2 to an INT-based KS3, or spending 3 XP to upgrade a CSL5:HTH to a CSL8.

Thanks.

Re: Re: Re: As I had stated earlier I thought everybody new that.

Does TUV cover animals as vehicles?

I should not have implied that swords were never made of iron. (Mr. Clements quotes instances of sword blades being bent during battle, and the wielder straightening it instead of discarding it--a nod to the value of any sword.) I meant to suggest that advances in metallurgy would have been seen first in swords in order to accommodate longer blades that would not easily bend or break. I do not doubt that bladed weapons were at one time or another made of iron. To keep the right frame of mind, I would also suggest that all our posts on this subject are conjecture. As I have said before, I wasn't there. I enjoy bouncing ideas back and forth as much as the next guy, but it is easy for such debates to degenerate (e.g., the "Speed Chart" thread in the Fantasy Hero forum--a nice thread gone bad). Speaking of that, this thread was originally about the TV show Conquest. Yes, it is an interesting show, but I also would take the info presented with a grain of salt.

Can we make an exception for GMs beating their players with the book? Sometimes, a good FREd bashing is just what the doctor ordered.

My apologies. I double-checked the previous posts to make sure I was spelling it correctly, but I copied the previous misspelling.

I like the Lord Liarden/Steve Perrin idea as well. And if you want to be a HERO purist, roll a d6 and take the segments in pairs. That would also be slightly faster, I believe.

My starting point was a bar that would weigh 2.0 lb, which came out to be 2.3mm thick. As for iron vs steel, I would question whether swords of any length were made from iron; Mr. Clements suggests that one of the things that created the mystique (and expense) of the sword was that for such a long blade to be usable, it had to be good quality metal with a good spring temper to avoid bends and breaks. Other weapons (axe blades, spear tips) did not require this. Blade quality varied, of course. I personally cannot say for sure as I was not present at the time. My intention was not to state more than I really know (ahem), but to offer an example to counter to wide notion (everywhere, not this forum) that all weapons and armor of the period were unbearably heavy. Some are fascinated with extremes, the bigger the better, the more interesting the story. Then again, maybe I am just a blowhard. Never been accused of that before.

I'm going to have to write that one down for the next time magic is a common element in one of my games. I like it.

Re: As I had stated earlier I know how you feel. I'm also irritated by all those other people who think they know it all. . .

Don't discount the obvious source (speaking from experience). The Internet. Using search phrases like "history of flashlights" or "history of european airlines" could be surprisingly productive. A while back, on a whim, I searched for "world building" and "constructed language" while researching my current campaign. I wasn't expecting much; I mean, who in the world would post such stuff as that? I had no clue there were that many other geeks out there.

I would add Ronin to the list of movies that reflect the Modern & Realistic idea. Unlike 007, who is always above local law enforcement (especially in the Deep South), the characters in Ronin actually have to run when the police show up. And, holy snikeys, the police actually do show up just a couple of minutes after a firefight starts. What a concept.

IMO, the weapon and armor data should represent the good and bad points of the equipment, 'balanced' or not. Some weapons and armor weren't balanced. Whether players just minmax the weapons table or actually roleplay their choices is a campaign issue, not a rules issue. I second this wholeheartedly. A much overlooked aspect of armor, although probably because it would add a bit of complexity to combat. I've only seen this mentioned in the Palladium books and in RoleMaster combat (though I am far from being well-read all the game systems out there).

How about the old witchcraft adage that whatever you do comes back to you threefold (remember The Craft?). Just because you can destroy a castle with one shot doesn't mean you should. Consider what modern science calls the conservation of matter and energy. Nothing is actually created, the mass+energy in the Universe is constant, so if you generate a non-natural concentration of energy in one spot, that energy has to have been pulled from somewhere else. The simplest example of this is a rain dance. Yes, you may save your village from drought, but you have just deprived someone else of the rain they needed. Unlike in D&D, nothing is free. This would take some up-front work to maintain a consistent cause and effect relationship, but it would then be largely self-regulating. A powerful mage would have to consider the repercussions of playing with strong magic.

For those looking for Martial Arts with weapons, might I suggest The Ultimate Martial Artist? For price lists, travel times, feudalism, and so forth, I have been using Chivalry & Sorcery the Rebirth. I don't mean to plug another system on a HERO board, Steve could even use these books as references for FH. The system revolves around Medieval Europe, and the detail is mind-numbing. Want to build a castle? Decide what kind, get out a calculator, and you'll know how long, how much, how big, how everything (the 3e Game Master's Handbook is best for fortification information). The chapter on travel is excellent (you can't get as far as you think you can). Wage and price lists are extensive. The problem with C&S is that the rules themselves are sometimes very obtuse. The rules for actually learning and casting a spell cover only 1 to 1-1/2 pages; I've read those rules several times and still have no idea what they mean. As for world creation, that sounds like a good subject for its own book. A volume that would be a resource for all genres, whether creating a continent for a fantasy campaign or a solar system for sci-fi. Let's see: geology, plate tectonics, ecology, meteorology, climatology, water cycles, astronomy, cosmology, orbital mechanics--hmmm, what am I missing? Oh yes, what do I want to see in Fantasy Hero? A fantasy version of Star Hero: lots of options and examples; suggestions, culled from literature, history, and mythology, for different ways to approach magic and 'monsters'; how did Romans fight? how did knights & peasants fight? how did Ren duelists fight? how did Romans interact? how did knights & peasants interact? how did Ren citizens interact? Y'know, everything, and in a 128-page booklet that's easy to carry around and costs $5.00.