CTaylor

Re: 6th Edition Hero System I'd add a couple of powers and change how Transformation attack works. The main change would be the addition of CURSE as a power, a sort of reverse Aid, where you give people negative abilities - disadvantages usually - with a limited duration. Stuff like unluck Dice, etc. Another change would be the addition of another aid-like power called GRANT that gives powers the character doesn't have. The cost structure and mechanic would be the same as Aid, but it would not allow the adjustment power advantages to affect more than one power at a time. If you look at the reasons people reject the ability to use Aid to give powers, the concerns are ALWAYS that it is too powerful because of these advantages. Get rid of them, get rid of the problem. The transform change would look like this: Adding wings to someone and turning them into a salt shaker have the same cost, for widly different potency. Further, very trivial effects, such as turning someone's eyes blue instead of brown cost as much as knocking them out instantly, which seems a bit excessive. Thus, a new system would be useful, one with an additional level of granularity. Cosmetic Transformation: 3 points per D6 Examples: Turn someone's eyes green, their hair curly, change a pattern on a shirt, make money cleaner, make the air smell nicer Minor Transformation: 5 points per D6 A simple change that does not alter substance; Examples: Turn someone's skin brown, their hair bald, change the design of a shirt, make change from money, make the air free of poisons Major Transformation: 10 points per D6 A significant change that does not greatly alter basic substance; Examples: Turn someone's skin transparent, their hair into celery, change a shirt into a leather trenchcoat, turn money into equal value of gold, make air into a noxious gas Total Transformation: 15 points per D6 A complete change of any kind; Examples: Turn someone into an ashtray, change a shirt into a dragon, make money into ten filled coffee cups, make air into an equal volume of liquid acid. This would allow the character to change someone's soul, mind, and body all at once.

Re: Creating a "Turn Undead" Power I use a game mechanic instead of a power. All undead (and most demons) in my game have a vulnerability to the presence attacks of holy men. Some have x1 1/2, some have x2. I have ruled that if you get more than EGO+30 on a target with x2 vulnerability, it simply dies. A "turn undead" is simply a presence attack by a holy man, and some holy rituals increase this END significantly for the attack.

So... there's Endurance Reserves that gives a battery of power to use to use various abilities from. What about other stats? Would a Stun Reserve work? Get hit, the Stun Reserve takes it first! Sure, it would have to cost more (1/5 Stun perhaps) but you could use this for Body as well. You can't kill me, I have a talisman that eats up the damage first! I know that's a weird use of the power, but that's part of the fun of Hero games, really. I apologize if someone has brought this up in the past, I haven't kept up much since the email mailing list died, sadly.

I think I understand this but I want to make sure. If a power has Delayed Effect on it, and is used, then the delayed power persists even if the character is knocked out. None of the limitations on the power used to prepare this effect apply when the power is activated, according to the rules. Say this power was in a Power Pool. If you change the powers in the pool to not include the Delayed Effect power, can it still be used? I would suspect yes, given the above information.

I did a search and could not find any on thoughts about what the next edition of Hero could include, leave out, change etc. Is there such a thread? If not, perhaps we could talk about the ideas here.

The Indirect advantage doesn't seem to have this as an option, I want to buy a power that fires down from directly above the target. I want it to do this every time, not be variable, is that a +1/4 advantage like "fires from you toward the target from a fixed point" or a +1/2 advantage like "fires from you toward the target from a variable point" or a +3/4 advantage like "fires from anywhere toward anywhere?" It seems like it would be a +1/4 advantage, but it seems to violate the logic behind that design (controlling knockback direction).

If someone buys Usable as an attack on a power, does that give them control over the power instead of the person "given" that power? In a related question, if a Usable By Others power is put in a Multipower or Power Pool, and the points are shifted to another power, does the UBO power stay in effect still? Or is it a "metapower" that grants the person the ability to fly, etc, and thus when it goes away, their powers go away? This isn't real critical, given the many limitations on UBO (range, line of sight, etc) for it to shut off so easily, I just wondered.

OK some related questions about Aid: 1) Can you use Aid to give someone an adder to a power they already have, for example non combat multiples to running? 2) Can Aid be used to enhance a power such as Damage Reduction from 25% non resistant to 25% resistant? My gut says no, because that's a different sub-power, as it were, but I want to check. 3) Can Aid be used to extend powers assumed by Life Support? What I mean is this: Everyone can hold their breath or go without sleep a given amount of time, the construction of Life Support assumes this, and has steps to extend that time, until sleep is no longer required, for instance. Thanks for your time

Re: Fantasy Codex You can order from Paypal to the alphawolf10@hotmail.com address, or send me an email at that address with your info and send me a money order or check. I'll fire off the book to you as soon as possible when I get the payment. The website has all the information you need, but it's 25 dollars plus 3 for shipping costs.

Re: Fantasy Codex Just wanted to nudge this to remind people that the Fantasy Codex is still available for purchase, and that volume 2 is under production at the moment. Volume 2 will have Castle, Commerce, Dark, Demonology, Illusion, Mystical, Summoning, and War magics in it, plus a load of new monsters in the bestiary and a large section on how to use magic in your campaign, how to build spells wisely, and thoughts on using spell pools, and more!

Aid powers, according to the rules, cannot grant powers a character does not already possess. Is then this construction legal: -Grant a power to someone using the "Usable by others" advantage, such as 1 point of Power Defense or 25% Damage Reduction -Aid that newly granted power, since the character now possesses that power -Shut off the Usable by others power Since Aid is an instant power, it's effects linger after the power is turned off, fading as normal. Just curious, since I'm working on a few spells that do this...

Re: Fantasy Codex The Fantasy Grimoire had quite a few basic spells from D&D in it I noticed, so at least some of the conversions should not be too challenging. Some of the effects or powers might be difficult to model, given the different philosophy of D20 over Hero.

Re: Fantasy Codex The webpage I linked has information and you can email me at alphawolf10@hotmail.com if you need to know more!

Re: Fantasy Codex One could also do conversions of existing computer games, such as Might and Magic or Everquest, for example. I started work on one of these then gave it up because it was going to be enormous and I'd never have used it.

Re: "Fantasy" withoiut Magic No, it ceases to be fantasy without magic. Magic is what makes it a fantasy setting rather than simply historical or science fiction. Elves, Dwarves swords, monsters etc all fit just fine in sci fi, or even alternate history. You have to have magic or it's simply not fantasy.

Re: Fantasy Codex Always room for more books out there, especially source material for fantasy! I've got quite a few planned, but so far the sales haven't been earth-shattering. This isn't the world's best time to introduce a product of this sort (people tend to be out of money this time of year) but I wanted to strike when I had the money and the opportunity, and it's not like the books will spoil like apples.

Re: Fantasy Hero Grimoire review discussion One of the notes I put in the Fantasy Codex is that spell rolls (and all required skill roll powers) are typically higher than other skills in a campaign simply because of the modifiers for each spell. 18- is extreme for stealth (and usually pointless) but for a mage, that's not an unreasonable roll. A good rule of thumb I've found is take the most difficult spell you can cast or know, and add that roll modifier to 11-. That's what your skill level should be at as a minimum for a player. That said, people tend to overlook the low level spells for the more gaudy, spectacular spells. It's not as impressive to trip your opponent so he falls off a cliff instead of sizzling him with a lightning bolt, but the end result is usually the same and the trip spell is probably much cheaper and easier to cast. Real magical power will often come from cheaper, more utility spells than big damage combat spells. The problem comes mostly from philosophy - magic in a lower end heroic game will usually be far better as enhancement, support, and utility. Everybody wants to blow up the world, but you won't have the points for that, and if you do, it will be hellish to cast that spell in any case.

Re: Fantasy Codex Well... yeah I am editing that for the second printing. It's a bit confusing because the total Codex in both volumes is actually over 1000 spells, and that single codex has just under 500 spells (not counting variants of individual spells). It's not very clear so I want to clean it up.

Re: Fantasy Codex The webpage with more information including ordering info and screenshots of some pages, plus more detail is at http://www.kestrelarts.com/codex.html

Well, I got the first volume of the Fantasy Codex done, it's a huge collection of spells and notes on creating spells in a fantasy setting, plus a full spell system for GMs to use in their games if they want. A bestiary at the end for the creatures summoned or mentioned in the spells is included - in total over 170 pages with loads of new art. Why do I mention it here? Well, because it's officially licensed by Hero Games, and I thought I'd drop a note to spread the word about the product since it's part of the extended family, as it were. As Steve Long put it "...this isn't so horribly done that it makes us cry." My email address is alphawolf10@hotmail.com if you want more info!