CTaylor

Re: Bard effects You just need to remember that you can only use Aid to enhance abilities a player already has, not give them new ones (although with some cleverness, you will realize there are more abilities than you'd initially think - such as life support to hold your breath longer). The cost is high because Aid is kind of expensive (10 points per D6) and most of the effects I suggested are Area Effect selective, which pushes the cost up even more. You could build all these with usable by others and the appropriate modifiers to make them more useful, but it is less convenient than Aid, which is "fire and forget." One way to address cost is to put these abilities in a framework: your bard can pick and choose which to use, but is limited how much or when they can do so. Another is to give them a martial arts-style cost break (building martial arts as written would cost considerably more than the abilities do as maneuvers), as many magic systems do: 1/3rd the real cost to buy the spell.

Re: The "Armani of armour." Probably made up of clothing treated with microfibers of metal, the military has been working on this for a while but I hadn't seen any production of it yet.

Re: Bard effects I did something like that with talents, but you could build them as spell-like abilities. In essence they are presence-based powers that give a temporary aid to nearby characters: In practice they are a bit difficult to use because you have to be fairly near others and often people are spread out, and the effect fades each turn, but that's the effect. I got the idea from an X-Box Lord of the Rings game.

Re: Sunlight Spell I use Change Environment for light spells even though that supposedly breaks the rules. It's the obvious choice, and it works well in terms of cost and area.

Re: Music during sessions? By the way, as cool as it is to have industrial music playing during fight scenes in movies, it doesn't work well in gaming. You can't hear anyone saying their hit rolls, etc. Maybe you could print up signs and hold them up like Wile E Coyote.

Re: What books would you recommend? I would of course suggest my Fantasy Hero Codex packed with spells and spell building ideas!

Re: Music during sessions? See Shrike has the same philosophy I do: soundtracks and game music. Why? Because both are designed to increase drama and set a scene without being intrusive or pull you into the song. You want music that helps you as you run a game, not music people will sing along with and pay attention to.

Re: Music during sessions? Yes, but avoid music with words (unless they are so part of the song they sound like instruments, such as Enya's work). Soundtracks to movies like Conan and Lord of the Rings works well. Just keep it fairly quiet so it doesn't interfere with conversation. Incidentally a lot of game soundtracks have good game music: Everquest's music is all in MP3s on your system for example. Think about cool songs from games you've played like Diablo and so on, they can be useful mixes for music and most games have "fight" themes. I found the music from Morrowind and Heroes of Might and Magic III great stuff for games.

Re: Changing block I agree, that's a great way to handle combat; there's more going on than is visible with the dice and maneuvers, parries and so on. The bad guy misses, its more fun to say he tripped over his beard than to say he just missed. I would presume that avoiding a blow would be a "dodge" in hero, not a block. A block by definition requires some sort of physical interaction between the attacker and the target, as I understand it. My guess is we're disagreeing not in principle but on degree: as I understand you, you are arguing that the force is so reduced that it is harmless, and I'm saying that the force is still there, even if it is harmless. Which sounds more like "you resisted the damage" in hero game terms, than "you ignored the damage." Perhaps it is just a difference in rules philosophy.

Re: What books would you recommend? If you have the 4th edition you're in good shape, to be honest, Ultimate Martial Arts was good then too. The old Ninja Hero was a fine book as well, I thought.

Re: Changing block I doubt anyone, with any form of martial arts, can negate the laws of physics.

Re: Changing block Hm, that doesn't match my experience. Certainly the greatest amount of the force is reduced, but its still there, it's not like you completely ignore all the kinetic energy by redirecting it.

Re: Magic: SFX or mechanically distinctive? I treat magic as a meta-effect, that is it is a single special effect that all magic shares, then individual spells have special effects (a bolt of fire, a 10 ton weight that falls out of the sky, etc). That way you can dispel magic as a special effect, or have dispel FIRE magic as a more specific one. It makes magic slightly more vulnerable to adjustment powers. The first thing you should do is write down how you think magic ought to work in your game, and what it can and cannot do. Make a set of rules then build the spells and magic system around those rules.

Re: Changing block Given that a shield (for example) has basically only one function: get in the way of attacks and protect me, it seems that you ought not buy special powers to get the same effect. I'll take a look at grab and block to see if its closer to what I have in mind, from memory it's not exactly but maybe I can adapt it. In real life when you block an attack, you tend to feel at least some of it (even if you do the martial arts redirect/avoidance block). In hero you ignore all the damage, and attack first.

Re: Hero System 3rd Party Products Elenthar's Tower was under revision, it ought to be available now, unless Lulu messed something up. I have to get my license with Hero renewed but they aren't answering my emails

Re: Changing block Dang I must be wrong then!

Re: Changing block No, only that the present system does not very successfully represent the use of interposing objects for blocking. Perhaps a different maneuver that is easier than block but can only be done with another object, working like this would be more appropriate. Odd how online a discussion of rules can turn into something more like a discussion of one's personal appearance, as if a new idea or disagreement is personally insulting.

Re: Changing block The rules as written require a block roll against the OCV of the opponent, not how well they hit.

Re: Changing block I agree that the parry effect of block should remain in the maneuver, that wouldn't change. But Utech, there's no point in adding armor to someone who successfully ignored all the damage of a given attack.

I've been thinking about how block works and have a few thoughts. First, the house rule part: for years now, we've been using block not as an OCV vs OCV contest (which is absolute) but as an OCV vs DCV hit contest. It works like this: However, more recently another thought occurred to me. Block is still really absolute: if you block you take no damage. Perhaps block ought to work differently. What if, instead of negating damage, block simply reduced the damage taken, based on the object used to block with? Example: That's a nice start, it gives you a reason for tougher shields and doesn't just make damage disappear. I'd like to extend the thought a bit. For each 1 you hit by over the required amount to block, you get 1 more rPD/ED in the block. So if in the top example B rolled to hit a 10 DCV, then he'd get 3 more rPD/ED added to the block value of the shield (its defense). Now, what about people using only their hands or arms to block? You don't have to use another item, that just helps. So there needs to be a baseline, a minimum amount that a block gives, or there's no point in having a block maneuver without some sort of implement like a shield. Here I'm not exactly sure what to do. If you make the initial basic block bonus too high, there's no reason to use a shield (other than the OCV bonus). If you make it too low, there's no reason to block without a shield of some sort, and it is possible to do so. I think the answer lies somewhere in strength and normal damage: it is possible to deflect a great deal of non killing damage with your bare hands and your strength factors into this significantly, it seems to me.

Re: peasent campaign: simple spells If any of the suggestions I posted here are useful, feel free to use them as well; I can't imagine anyone caring if someone collected neat idea freely posted on a public bulletin board.

Re: peasent campaign: simple spells The low end of power building is a lot more interesting to me than gargantuan powers. You can create some amazing effects with just a handful of points, particularly if you are forced to work small.

Re: peasent campaign: simple spells Just a few new thoughts: Jackrabbit: Noncombat acceleration/deceleration (+1/4) on running = 4 points Flea's Leg: Leaping +5" = 5 points and you can jump over a building Swift Mage Noncombat multiples each cost 5 points, that can be pretty handy Swift Steed: +2" running, usable by one other at a time, must retain contact (ride your horse, and he runs faster!) Deep Breath (Life Support: hold breath longer (breathe once per 20 minutes) usable by one other at a time = 5 points) Fearless: (Aid 1/2D6: presence, only for defense so 1 point of Aid adds 2 points of presence) Repair: Minor Transform 1/2D6 broken to fixed (can fix any small object like a boy's pair of glasses or a wand)

Re: When he bleeds, he bleeds vermin Yeah last time I saw a politician cut his finger on a bill he didn't bother reading that happened, it was awful.

Re: When he bleeds, he bleeds vermin A change environment is probably your best bet: some kind of running reduction and perhaps a reduction to presence rolls. You could build it as a continuous, gigantic max summon, but if they are ordinary vermin they probably won't have much combat effect so it seems pointless.