Andrea

Re: Age of Sail: Sailors and Officers Skills I agree completely that there's no much amount of freedom if you are a lesser player in the English Navy. I lean toward the officer status or, as you suggested, the wealthy adventurer ( or a spy like Maturin). Obiouvsly if you play in a more loose organisation ( like the Ottoman Navy or the infant American Navy of Nelson's books) you can get a certain amount of freedom because the rule are not so strict. As for the skills, my main goal is definying all the details then I will surely put most of them in packages, but I really don't want to lose the technical feeling that is a basic part of this setting (IMHO). Thanks a lot Andrea

Re: Age of Sail: Sailors and Officers Skills Someone who likes Rolemaster:D The idea of creating many skills is related to the fact that, IMHO, a book on a setting should be as complete as possible, even just to give an idea of the skills that might be involved in such setting. Then everyone can play the character that suits him best (and the Master). Your Sailor, for example, would be great on any boarding party but I would not put him in the crew of the cook or the purser Moreover I don't think that you are really required to roll for "food preservation" often but Rigging Mastery is another story. Thanks for the feedback Andrea

Re: Age of Sail: Sailors and Officers Skills Mmmh.. Yes and No Yes I'm going to get a lot of distinction among the skills because I really like the Rolemaster approach of having almost all the skills mapped out for all the predictable situations of gaming. Moreover I think that Maritime setting are very adapt to a skill detailed approach( but this is just my feeling) And no because I do think that most of the skills you see presented were quite distinctive. I agree that the average sailor is good in many of the skills aforementioned but among officers there's a great difference in how good a Captain is in Sail Trimming and a Boatswain ( with the latter often more skilled) and I'd like to maintain that difference in my game. But obiouvsly someone can take all the skills and throw them away, using only navigation: depends on the level of realism that you'd like. And about Celestial Navigationvs vs. Stargazing... Correct observation but my intentions were to separate the "gut-based" navigation of some of the sailors and petty officers ( who knew very basic facts about moon and other stars) from the educated science of Charting and Triangulation that was taught to Officers. The Observation of Stars is very ancient, I think, while the Celestial Navigation was official only from 1793 ( the definyning works began in 1714 !!) As Brian Lavery says in his fabolous book " It was precisely this skill which separated the sea officers from the petty officers and common seamen". I'll see If I manage to find something better. Thanks to everyone Andrea

Re: Age of Sail: Sailors and Officers Skills Thanks to all of you for your replies I'm willing to describe any of the previous skills if I will able to do that and also create some examples for the different target level. Stargazing for example is not the same of Celestial Navigation because the last one requires the use and knowledge of the sextant. Thanks for your suggestions at the moment I'm using The young sea officer's sheet anchor by Darcy Lever The arming and fitting of English ships of war 1600-1815 by Brian Lavery Nelson's Navy (The ships, Men and Organisation 1793-1815) by Brian Lavery A Marine dictionary and terminology by Various Author All the Patrick O'Brien books All the Hornblower books By the way I'm working out all of your suggestions to make a definitive list. PS Edsel I thought many times about Coopering and I switched to Carpentry but I think that you're right. I'll put it back along with Shipwright Ciao Andrea

Hi, as some of you might know I'm in the process of building a Hornblower Hero web-book. One of the first task is to define the list of skills that are necessary in order to manage most of the situations of the setting. I've defined a list ( with the help of Theanswerman) and I'd like to know what do you think about it. Signalling, Rigging Mastery, Ship Fitting, Sail Mastery, Knots Mastery, Sea Lore, Etiquette, Ship Administration, Naval Code, Gunnery, Ship Construction, Press Ganging, Leadership, Medicine, Surgery, Celestial Navigation, Weather Forecasting, Food Preservation, Cooking, Rowing, Administration, Gambling, Astronomy, Brawling, Cartography, Climbing, Dancing, Diplomacy, Drowsing, Foraging, Heraldry, Navy Organisation, Playing instrument, Oratory, Rappeling, Religion, Star Gazing, Swashbuckling, Trading, Carpentry, Metal Working, Infantry Drills, Weapon Proficiency ( Cutlass, Pike, Long Barreled Muskeet, Pistol), Chart Plotting, Fishing, Naval Tactics, Knowledge Skill (areas) Local Waters, A note: I know that some of the skills can be substituted with the "Professional" ones but I think that having a specific skill can add flavor to the setting. So this is a point that I'd like to clarify with your help. Thanks again Andrea

Re: A template for a Napoleonic-era ship of the line If I ever finish the Hornblower Hero project all the praise should be for thequestionman and all the help he gave me for any question i posted here. I don't know Hero Designer ( I can even admit that I don't know very well what is it...but I'll look around in order to learn it). I only asked if there was someone around that created a Ship of the line and could share with me the Stats and Skill and Foci and everything else. So it's ok for the modified cannon. Just that, I don't want to be boring or use the work others did. I definely try to look at the ship posts on the fantasy area. Ciao

Hi, as I'm in the process of working more seriously to my Hornblower Hero project ( skills are almost all wrote down...) I'm in dire need of a ship template. As the questionman knows here in Italy vehicles books are nowhere to be seen and I don't feel confident enough to start from the poor guidelines in the basic book. Even in this forum I did not find any basic stats for Age of Sail ship ( but I enjoined a lenghty discussion about time and round during combats that was in some way enlightning). So here I am asking if you have something handy ( a copy and paste) in order to give me a rough idea of the stats involved. By the way I'm relating to a early 1800 Ship of the line with 74 cannons, but anything will do really... Forever obliged. Ciao Andrea

Re: Genres HERO GAMES may want to avoid (intended to be humorous) Oh but I do play "Research Hero" anytime I happen to play Call of Cthulhu with that detailed-obsessed guy of our Master. And after all I like it also.. Ciao

Re: Genres HERO GAMES may want to avoid (intended to be humorous) Hi I'm back after a long hiatus from this board in case someone noticed...(which I doubt) I' d definitely avoid: Job Hero ( I do that every day) Husband Hero ( same as above) Soap Opera Hero (After everyone has "bedded" every relatives and friends around the story get a little boring....) Trafic Jam Hero ( Unless you take off the "no killing" limitation...) I'm quite sure that I could come up with something else.... Ciao Andrea

Re: New Victorian Art The fourth image is from The Victorian a Penny Farthing Press comics that I recommend to everyone interested in Victorian Fiction - Steampunk. Ciao Andrea

Re: Batman Begins Mmmh agreed !! A Team Up movie !! Iron Fist and Ghost Rider against Zodiak and the Dragon of K'un L'un. I fear that we might not have a huge potential audience

Re: Second Rate Villains! Dear Enforcer since I'm runnig a very low-powered campaign, Wednesday I'm gonna use Pinball Wizard ( a little dumbed down version) as a villain that is trying to earn some money by kidnapping the son of a Oriental Boss ( that must be protected by my player for different reasons...). So Thank you. Obiuvsly I'll let you know how Pinball fared... thx Andrea

Re: Batman Begins Since I am a huge comics collector ( expecially of the Dark Knight) I'm always a little bit sceptical about comics-movie adaptation. I still remember what they did to the poor Daredevil !!! But I must say that "Batman Begins" is really a great movie: Great Acting, (Liam Neeson is Rha 'as Ghul), good insight of what is Batman, a marvelous Batmobile in Frank Miller's style, an Incredible Alfred by my beloved Michael Caine, an homage to Year One with the Swat team engulfed by the bats ( Ah I still remember the beautiful panel by Mazzuchelli !!), A tiny cameo for Mr. Zzzazs ( a cut for every victim) and no Catwoman or Robin !! This is the best comics-movie adaptation that I ever saw and surely the best Batman movie ( though I love the Burton's ones). A minor flaw: Scarecrow is more frightening than the one we saw on the movie and the "poison-the-water-and-the-city-will-get-crazy" trick is a little abused. Ciao PS We need an Iron Fist movie now !!!

Re: Greatest Western Movies of all Time I'm not much of an expert but for my Deadlands campaigm i followed this recipe: Just take anything from Sergio Leone ( eg.A fistful of dollars) and mix it with Sam Peckinpah ( eg. Wild Bunch), add Clint Eastwood ( eg.Unforgiven) and a touch of some classics ( John Ford would be OK). It worked for me. Ciao PS I'm happy to notice that many people put Quigley Down Under in the list. I absolutely agree, it was a really good movie with an interesting perspective and I'm happy to see that is well considered among the western fans.

Re: Super Steve Yes, this was the first thing that struck me positively when I was deciding to give a try to the Hero System. I think that he's a very dedicated and polite guy and this give boost to all the community. Ciao