Midas

Re: Centaur Martial Arts Unless the rider is another martial artist. Hmnn: Gladitorial match, centaur vs bronc buster... Also there might be some kind of "Martial jump/move through." I'm thinking of one of the battles in the Narnia movies. The defense forms a shield wall: an attacking centaur charges, jumps up into the air, and lands on top of the defending formation. Move through? Area effect attack? Midas

Re: Doc Savage cover fakes

Re: Relative Size (of stellar objects) Um... http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68388 How close are we to being in Vega's barrel sight? And is Vega one of those stars that spit out Gamma bursts at the end of their lives? Midas

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares See, every rational person thinks Sarah is crazy. She has weird beliefs that nobody else can accept... Trying to save her teenage daughter and infant grandchild from the merciless forces that threaten them... Midas (BTW, must spread the Rep around)

Re: Classic Fantasy Weird. Can't highlight and copy today.

Re: Doc Savage cover fakes

Re: Planets of SF Author Hats Yep. Rukbat III. Don't forget Cottman IV, a high medieval society ruled by a cast of half elves. Andersonworld II. A planet dominated by a stagnant empire on its last legs. Several lean and hungry nations watch carefully for any sign of weakness. Midas

Re: No Horses For You Odd, both that link and this one: http://www.coolminiornot.com/index/whatc/Fantasy/id/197801 Say GW as manufacturer, but even I can see that they are dif critters. I think someone should launch a congressional investigation! Ooops sorry, NGD syndrome. One on one, yeah, but I was considering the Rhino people could field *one* woolly rhino ridden by the Queen, her personal champion, and a drover. Rich tribes could field *two*. The Terror Bird people OTOH could field a small Queen's Guard of perhaps half a dozen birds. All bets are off when nations go to war, of course. Since it is bronze age, I suspect the rest of the warriors would be either light foot with a few pony riders or chariots for the rest of the nobles. What I don't want is a Prax clone (I've done that in another campaign ). Midas

Re: URBAN FANTASY HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See? Two subtypes: Secret and Alternate. Secret is the more well known type where magic is kept from (or denied by) the populace: Serreated Edge, some of Freisner's work, Highlander, etc. Alternate Worlds is like Anita Blake or Merry Gentry, The "Dead Witch" series, or the games from Castle Falkenstein to Shadowrun. In alternate there is no question of whether this is happening In the Real World. Midas

Re: No Horses For You http://www.coolminiornot.com/index/whatc/Fantasy/id/197372 Like this? OK, going with WFP, are riding wolves (for WFB goblins, about half man size); Riding hogs (for orcs); The Tsar rides a bear, but I think that is a special case. Also the savage jungle goblins ride spiders. I'm considering a bronze age campaign with nomadic steppe amazons. I was considering having each tribe have a totem animal, perhaps only the nobility riding their totem animal: http://members.optushome.com.au/cynan/Miniatures.htm Consider the rhino riders, the sabertooth riders, and the terror bird riders. If each tribe kept a few of their totem, and traded breeding stock with other tribes in the clan, would this strain suspension? Midas

Re: Doc Savage cover fakes The Devil Doctor? That would have been a terrific whole series! Fu Manchu would be one of the few villains smart and capable enough to stymie Doc Savage. While his daughter threw herself at doc, it would be interesting to have Fu Manchu romancing Pat Savage . Midas

Re: No Horses For You Here's a photo that will tear your disbelief down from the scaffold and eat it! http://www.coolminiornot.com/index/whatc/Fantasy/id/68599 I have been looking through CMoN for inspiration and I just found that post. Couldn't help but post it. Midas

Re: No Horses For You

Re: Classic Fantasy Forest Primeval. The trees are huge and ancient. It is obvious that nobody has tried to clear this forest in millenniums, if ever. Midas

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs *ahem* http://www.herogames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1626617&postcount=59 Most elves have struck me that way. Hamilton's Seelie are the most up front about it. OTOH, Tolkien's elves were much less so, though they did have their moments: The Nolder weren't Nazies, they were just...um...jerks. Yeah, that's the word. Midas

Re: No Horses For You Because a student might come across something that invalidates the teacher's canned lecture?

Re: Ideas for combat runes OK, that seems to fit: A physical manifestation is where the attack (or other power) has a body, and can be "shot down." Like a missile or a flying surfboard (not bought as a focus, but as the special effect of a flight power). -1/4 Not sure it would work for Tattooed Man, but as a tattoo of a power with the special effect "Rune" it just might. "Power is unavailable if character has unhealed body at the location of the rune." I'll go along with that. BTW, I'm glad somebody else has managed to make it through 5e &5er. I always give up before I find the [Easter Eggs] changes from an earlier edition. Midas

Re: Ideas for combat runes One charge recoverable then? What is Physical Manifestation? Midas

Re: Ideas for combat runes The big dif, as I see it, is that my way doesn't allow the IND limit, while yours almost requires it. You could make it a personal or restricted universal focus, but it would be hard to justify the "I put the 'Rune of Forcefield' on this castle, protecting it from the strongest catapult" without taking the IND limit. Is this a good or a bad thing? Should runes be independent, or should they be considered similar to potions? In all seriousness, what would you call it? For ex Marvel has a weird villain, The Tattooed Man IIRC, who's powers were all based on his tattoos (I very vaguely recall him peeling an anchor off and throwing it at She Hulk -very very vaguely). Midas

Re: Galactic Habitable Zones Smart alec question, honest answer. Much grass, much rep: Hey, I can rep you again. I visualized the following scene: "Stenchnine cloud detected dead ahead, Cap'n!" "Yellow alert! All power to life support!" It was the implication of unknown chemicals that got me. "We don't know what they are, but we've labelled them aromatic because of their spectrum." Midas (I know, I know. If the Enterprise isn't airtight, "aromatic hydrocarbons" are the least of their worries). edit: Would explain the "whoosh" effect, though.

Re: Ideas for combat runes OK, lets go back to the "source of magic" section of FH. Is the power of the rune in the rune, or the caster? You support the former, while I was going for the latter. (I'll expand on this below). Lets use our 1d6 HKA rune for rhetoric. Yes, if the magic is inherent in the rune, then the location of the rune is critical. An active rune on someone's glove would make the glove a "Glove of Punching" or some such. And this is what the runecaster magic system in the book implies. What I consider a rune to be is more the visual equivalent of a mantra. Someone who uses a rune learns, understands, comprehends the concept that the rune represents. The rune itself is more of a variable limitation than a true focus. The caster may concentrate, and bring forth the power of the rune, or he can use the carved rune as visual shorthand of what the rune represents. The rune itself is just a carving, of no power in and of itself. two cents from the hoard of, Midas

Re: Book Recommendation Nah, everybody knows that Mjollner was a pistol carried by a time traveler. Will have to check this book out. Literally. I get most of my worthwhile reading through Inter Library Loan. Midas

Re: Galactic Habitable Zones That's the Roddenberry Barrier. Organic life forms exposed suffer The Banner Effect and immediately destroy each other. "Aromatic Hydrocarbons"?? How do they know what they smell like? Midas

Re: Chtulhu Here the gameworld designer has to decide exactly what/who he is trying to emulate. There is a spectrum of writings on the Cthulhu Mythos from horror to monster hunting. Lovedraft on one edge, through (IMO) Smith, Derleth, Carter, Howard, to Lumley on the other side of the spectrum. If you want to go with cosmically powerful monsters, then just take a look at the total BOD of the character, plus any potentially effective armor, double that number, and call that the amount of area of effect RKA *dice* he just received. However, if you want the characters to have some chance of survival, or just have the proverbial PC-in-waiting to do a "Oh the Humanity!" scene and become the next hero to take up the cause, you need to have range and damage limits. Midas

Re: Chtulhu How would that work? Well, yeah. But in designing, you would do the same thing as with the "Druid's Lightning Bolt" spell. While in theory, the range is "cloud level to ground" in play terms it is from Druid to target, with the indirect advantage. 'sides, anybody out if it enough to summon Azathoth would not be to concerned with the no range limit, or even that the radius was larger than the range. Getting back to the original post, I would suggest using the "spell as skill" system. ie: You don't spend however many hundreds of points on a "summon Azathoth" spell, you spend two points on the *skill* summon Azathoth. In the same way that a swordsman doesn't buy a 1d6+1 RKA before he can pick up a sword, he buys the "familiarity: Common melee weapons" skill. Gets a bit more complicated if the GM wants a skill roll to go with it. I'd say just an EGO roll, with no minuses for the power of the summoned creature. Some of the "contacts" might translate into 5th edition contact rules (they didn't work as contacts in earlier incarnations very well). Midas