The Hyborian

Re: Fuzion Fuzion wasn't so much a bad game system as a marketing disaster. I never actually played it, I do remember reading the rules years ago (was is downlaodable? I have vague memories of getting it off the internet somehow.) If neither Interlock nor Hero had existed it might have develeoped a following, but being the bastard offspring of two game systems it didn't please the fan base of either game much, and had trouble gaining any momentum. The Hero purists felt like "their" game had been taken from them and replaced with something else, the Interlock fans just wanted to play cyberpunk, and other gamers who wanted a "universal" system probably went off to try GURPS. It just never found its niche.

Re: I smell something fishy How about Danger Sense with a limitation - Must be based on observable information. (-1/4?)That way it doesn't let you know about the invisible sniper, the bomb under the car, etc. but it does let you quickly look over a situation and pick out things and put conclusions together. Just my $.02.

Re: Fantasy Campaign Guidlines: Please comment (stupidly long) Thanks for the feedback Cap.

Re: Thinking About DARK CHAMPIONS BATTLEGROUNDS Some locations that one might reuse: Outdoor shopping center/mall. (Think Century City Mall in L.A.) Some kind of generic mansion and grounds. Parks. Factory. Industrial Lab. College Campus. Downtown business district. (perhaps not the whole thing, but some maps for villain going beserk in the financial district are helpful.) City Hall. Country Club. Someone already said police station/headquarters. Airport. Small Locations: Fancy resteraunt. Dive Bar. Dive/transitent Hotel. Gym/health club/boxing club/martial arts school. Underground club/rave. Generic small retail/false storefront. Just brainstorming.

Re: Pirates versus Superheroes This may be one of the strangest threads I have ever read. It doe bring up the issue of supers vs. normals. Unless the supers are really low level supers, its not ever going to be a contest. Even for supers who usually fight "normal" criminals, a.ka. Batman, the regular street criminals are a warm up exercise. The chalange comes from figuring out the crazed archvilian's plot (ala Joker) or from taking on other metahuman opponents (ala Killer Croc or Bane). A comic where Batman only took on muggers and crack dealers would get really old really fast. Consider the following exchange. Pirate: Arrggh, I draw me cutlass matey. Super: I activate my 25 PD forcefield and fire my 12d6 area affect energy blast. Pirate: Suck me scuppers, lads, Im a crispy stain on the quarterdeck. arrrgh. Even a couple of supers with decent defences can whipe the floor, er, deck with a whole truckload (make that boat load) of normals. So, if you really wanted to persue this campaign (hey, it takes all kinds) then you have to come up with some kind of severe limits on the supers. Perhaps stricly limit the amount of resistant defense they could have. Its a whole different story if those musket balls dont bounce off. Or perhaps keep them from having powerful attacks. But without some sharp artificial limits even lower powered supers are going to crush agent level humans with fairly crappy weapons period equipment.

Re: Limiting new players (balance ques.) One of the great things about the Hero system is that when you have a power gamer on your hands you can always build a nemisis for him that can kick his hind end and do it on 50 fewer points. Your player is Mr. Dexterity with combat values off the charts? The nemisis buys his attacks with 1 hex area affect (dcv 3) or maybe mental powers (forgot to get any ego defense?). Your player is Dr. Brick, with defenses in very direction? The nemisis has a NND that the player doesn't defend against. If you really, really want to humiliate your players, build a well coordinated team with complimentary powers and good tactics, make them all cost less than the players, and watch the smackdown begin. The point being, power is always relative, and everyone has a weakness. The only thing that I would veto in character creation (ok, not the only thing, but the main thing) is unbalancing power ideas. By unbalancing I mean they seem to be more effective than the point cost would indicate. But if that is not the case, I dont see the problem with letting your players build someone who is really, really tough, or incredibly skilled. Its part of the genere to an extent. Let your bricks feel like they are the toughest dude in town, and the martial artist lurch around saying they are "the fastest man alive". Thats part of the fun. There are always ways to come up with challanges for them. I would stick with your 75 activ point cap, however. And maybe put a limit on maxium total OCV for characters at creation, but otherwise I say let them spend the points.

Hi all, I thought I would post the notes I have writen for the campaign I am working on. They are for a high powered fantasy campaign, and Include some home brew combat rules and special perks for gaining powers. My intention is to keep things cinimatic rather than highly realistic, but not swing so far away from realism that it becomes low powered supers. Please excuse the fact that the format is a bit hard to look at, I did a copy and paste from a Word Document rather than type this monster out again, so It looks like a giant lump of text. I have tried to at least put in spaces and line breaks to keep things a bit readable. Hero System Fantasy Campaign Guidelines Character Points: These notes are for a high powered fantasy campaign where players can play epic heroes and powerful magic wielders. Characters are built on a 100 pt. base and a max of 100 pts of disadvantages, with a maximum of 25 pts from one disadvantage category. Character Design: The campaign will use heroic rather than super heroic rules, with some modifications. Normal stats maxima applies (although see the Extraordinary Legacy perk below). Equipment is purchased with money rather than character points (although see the Heirloom Item perk below) Skills, talents, and perks may be purchased normally. Find weakness, lack of weakness, and luck are reclassified as talents rather than powers for the purpose of this campaign. Powers are allowed within the scope of several campaign specific power granting perks. These perks are Magic Wielder, Heirloom Item, and Extraordinary Legacy, as detailed below. Heirloom Item: This perk costs 5 pts. It allows the character to spend character points on a special item that is superior to normal equipment by virtue of magic, superior craftsmanship, or extraordinary materials. This item may have up to 60 active points in powers, and MUST be purchased with the Independent limitation. This perk may be taken no more than twice at character creation, and may only be purchased after creation with GM permission. Normally experience may not be spent to enhance the powers in and Heirloom Item, but with GM permission an in game event may unlock new powers or enhance existing abilities. Extraordinary Legacy: This perk costs 5 pts. It represents some extraordinary background or origin that separates the character from normal people. Taking this perk allows the character to spend up to 40 active pts on powers. These powers must be tighlty tied to the nature of the Legacy. The Indepenant limitation is not allowed for powers purchased under this perk, as they represent powers and abilites natural or intrinsic to the character.. The Focus limitation may still be used if appropriate. Points spend under this perk may be used to purchased Characteristics as powers, and would thus be exempt from the Normal Stats Maxima rule. Some examples: Extraordinary Legacy-Giant Blood might allow the character to purchase Strength and Constitution above the Normal Stats Maxima to represent the character’s Giant ancestry. Extraordinary Legacy-Lycanthrope would allow the character to purchase a 40 point multi-form to turn into a magical beast. Extraordinary Legacy- Intense Martial Training (character was raised in a martial arts monastery, or fostered by a hermit who was a master fighter) might allow the character to purchase Missile Deflection and extra Dexterity. This perk may be only taken once at character creation, and may only be added later with special permission from the GM, and this permission should be connected to an extraordinary event in the campaign that significantly changes the character. Players who want more than 40 active points in powers should consider the Magic Wielder perk. Players may spend experience freely to increase or add powers purchased under Extraordinary Legacy, provided that all the powers remain tightly tied to the Legacy. Magic Wielder: This perk costs 10 points. It represents a character with a special ability to wield magical powers. This can be someone with extensive magical training(the character is a wizard or priest that can cast spells), or who has a magical origin so extraordinary that it can not be simulated with the Extraordinary Legacy perk (the characters is a magical beast such a unicorn or minor dragon, the character is cursed and imprisoned in a set magical armor, the character was intensively trained by a clan of the best assassins in the world for 30 years, etc.) Normally this perk can only be purchased at character creation. Characters with the Magic Wielder perk have either spent vast effort in gaining their powers (years of study and practice) or have extremely unusual origins. Acquiring this type of magical power during the campaign is possible, but very rare. A character might spend 10 years studying magic under a master, but what would the other characters in the group do in the meantime? Gaining this perk during play is a campaign changing event, and should only be allowed by the GM under very special circumstances. A character with the Magic Wielder perk may purchase powers freely, and improve them with experience, within the following restrictions: No power may have more than 60 active points when first purchased. Faster than Light Travel, Extra-Dimensional Travel, and Megascale effects are not allowed without GM permission and a very good reason. All magical powers purchased under the Magic Wielder perk normally have visible special effects, including Mental Powers and Characteristics. Magic use is obvious and appears unnatural to the casual observer. To purchase powers without visible special effect the character may use the Invisible Special Effects advantage. The Gestures and Incantations limitations are not worth any limitation points, and are assumed to be part of the special effect of most “spell caster†style magic wielders. Magic weilding chracters may use the Requires Skill Roll limitation, but it is never mandatory. These powers may not normally be purchased with the Independent limitation (that’s what Heirloom Item is for). Special GM permission exempts as always. Power frameworks are allowed, with some special consideration for Variable Power Pools and Multipowers. VPPs and MPs MUST be purchased with the Slightly Limited Class of Powers limitation (-1/4). Characters will receive the normal limitation points for this. The character must define the scope of their magic or powers in some reasonable way. Examples include things such as Elemental Magic (powers that use the four elements) Psionics (Powers that simulate classical mental powers) Necromancy (powers with special effects centered on disease, death, age, weakness, etc). Alchemy (all powers are represented by potions, powders, etc, sort of a magical gadgeteer) or Natural magic (spells that affect animals, plants, the weather, etc.). These categories should be broad, but not unlimited. Be creative. A more focused limitation (only fire spells, only healing magic, etc) would be worth a larger limitation depending on how sharply it limited power use. The Slightly Limited Class of Powers limitation is normally applied to VPPs, and reduces the control cost. When applying it to a MP use the limitation to reduce the pool cost (the use of the pool is limited) but not the cost of the powers in the pool (the actual function of the individual powers is not decreased). General Magic Restrictions: In addition to the game mechanic restrictions listed above, magic has some role playing limits in the campagin. Any magic powers purchased under any of the power granting perks with the following special effects are not allowed: Time travel, either past or future. Predicting the future with perfect accuracy. Changing a past action to affect the present. Raising the dead or creating genuine, independant life. Speaking with or summoning the dead. Traveling to other dimensions (summoning and extra-dimensional special effecs are ok, but players may not go to another plane of existance.) Extending life beyond its natural span. (There are undead beings in the campaign, but extending human life inevitably results in possession by necromantic forces, and would turn player characters into putrid death obsessed NPCs). Campaign Combat Rules: The combat rules choices for the campaign are intended to be cinematic rather than highly realistic. The campaign DOES NOT use the optional rules for hit locations, impairing, disabling, bleeding, knock back, or long term endurance. There are special campaign specific rules to cover Knockdown, Impairing, and healing powers. Knockdown: Attacks, including powers purchased under any of the Power Granting Perks, do not normally do knock back. If a player wants an attack that does knock back it may be purchased with the Does Knock Back advantage, and further enhanced with the Extra Knock back advantage if desired. Example: A player is designing and Heirloom Item that is a mighty magical hammer. The player wants to send enemies flying with blows from his weapon. This may be purchased as a large attack with the Does Knock Back advantage, just make sure the active point total does not exceed 60 points. Attacks without these advantages, including normal weapons not purchased with points, use the following house knockdown rules: An attack that hits for as much or more body as the target’s full body score before defenses drives the target back one hex and requires a Dex or Acrobatics roll to avoid falling prone. An attack that inflicts 1/3 or more of the target’s full body score in body damage after defense requires the target to make a con check or fall back one hex and take no offensive action in their next phase. The target may still move and make defensive maneuvers. If the target has already canceled to a defensive action for his next phase then an addition phase is affected.. This represents a target’s natural tendency to recoil and protect after being hurt. An attack that does half or more of the targets full body score in damage after defense causes the target to automatically fall back one hex, take no offensive action in his next phase, and make a Dex or Acrobatics roll to avoid falling prone. Note that is possible to be affected by more than one of these categories at once. Example: Fred the fighter has a body score of 10. He is hit for 12 points of body damage. He is wearing plate mail armor that stops 8 body, resulting a wound for 4 body. He automatically retreats one hex and must make a Dex check to avoid falling(he was hit for more body than his full body score), and must also make a Con check or take no offensive action in his next phase (he took a wound that inflicted more than 1/3 of his total body.) Fred has learned the value of a high body score for melee characters. A character is never driven back more than one hex by a single attack unless it has the Does Knock Back advantage. Characters who are pushed back into walls or barriers by knockdown take no extra damage (unless there is some special property to the barrier), but they can be forced off a precipice. (Don’t fight with your back to a cliff if you can help it.) House Impairing Rules: Characters acquire penalties as they loose Body to represent the difficulty in continuing to act when badly wounded. Characters who have 100% to 76% of their full body score have no extra penalty. Characters who have 75% to 51% of their full body score are -1OCV, -1 DCV, and -1 to all skill checks. Characters who have 50% to 26% of their full Body score are -2 OCV, -2DCV, -2 skill checks, and -1 Recovery for the purposes of recovering Stun (long term body recovery is unaffected), and -2 hexes running and leaping. Characters with 25% or less of their full Body score are -3 OCV, -3 DCV, -3 Skill checks, -3 Recovery, and -4 hexes running and leaping. Characters will always have at least 1 hex run speed left no matter how wounded they are, but can become too wounded to leap. House Healing Power Rules: Magical healing is an integral part of many fantasy RPGs. Magic using characters wishing to have a the standard fantasy “heal spell†should use the Healing power specified to heal lost Body. Do not, however, use the special maximum effects rules for the Healing power, but rather the standard maximum effect rules for Adjustment powers, with the exception that the maximum effect can not be raised by spending extra points. Example: Cedric the Cleric has a 2d6 Heal spell. He can restore up to 12 character points, or 6 body, from the wounded character’s lowest body score. Fred the fighter is wounded and has 2 body remaining. Cedric may restore up to 6 body to him, raising him to a total of 8 body. Cedric may use his healing spell as many times as necessary to reach this total (assuming that he has the endurance and/or charges to do so) and does not need to exceed previous rolls to increase the amount that has been healed. He may not heal Fred any further, Fred must heal naturally. Enough time passes that Fred heals naturally from 8 Body to his full 10 Body. He is then struck by an arrow and looses 6 body. Cedric may heal this full amount because Fred’s “lowest body score†is now 2 plus the 2 naturally healed over time. Cedric may increase this by a maximum of 6, bringing Fred’s total back to 10. If Fred was then wounded again (life as a fighter is hard) for 7 body points, his lowest unhealed body score would be back down to 3, and Cedric could heal him up to a total score of 9 Body (3 lowest unhealed body plus 6 for the spell). Another example: Brack the Barbarian has a full Body score of 18. He is wounded down to 2 Body. Cedric may heal up to 6 body points, brining him to a total of 8. From there he heals normally. Enough time passes that Brack heals 8 more body points, bringing his “lowest unhealed body†level up to 10 (2 originally, plus the 8 healed by time). His current Body score is 16. Brack them meets Cecil the cleric, a more experienced spell caster with has a 3d6 heal spell (maximum of 9 body healing). Cecil makes with his Mojo and can heal Brack up to full Body. (10 lowest unhealed body, plus 9 for Cecil’s maximum, which exceeds Bracks full score). If Brack had a full Body score of 20 Cecil could heal Brack’s current Body back up to 19. Characters may purchase the Can Heal Limbs adder, but many not purchase the Resurrection adder. The finality of death is one of the themes of this campaign, and restoring a dead character to life would be a campagin length epic quest, if it is possible at all. The Heal power can not cure diseases or poison, but can heal Characteristic damage done by them. Disease or Poison that is defined as a continuous attack, or an attack with the Gradual Effects limitation, may be purged from the victim with the appropriate Transform powers (Major Transform, turn a sick or poisoned person into a healthy one), stopping further damage, but any damage already inflicted must be healed naturally or through a Heal power for the affected Characteristic. Combat Maneuvers: All standard and martial combat manuevers may be used by the characters. The following optional maneuvers are available: Cover, Dive for Cover, Pulling a Punch, Sweep, and Snapshot. The maneuvers Blazing Away, Hipshot, Hurry, Roll With a Punch, and Suppression Fire are not Available. Club Weapon and Rapid Shot are avialbe with specail house rules. Club Weapon may be used at a -2 OVC due to the awkward nature of the strike. It is assumed that the character is striking with the hilt, haft, or other part of the weapon not normally used to hit the opponent, and is thus more difficult to accomplish. Rapid Shot can be used within the natural rate of fire of the weapon, as determined by the GM. For example, crossbows and slings could not rapid fire due to reload time. Bows could rapid fire up to two shots per phase (more than this and you are looking at a power with autofire, but Extraordinay Legacy-Shoots Like Orlando Bloom is certainly possible). Heavy thrown weapons like spears and javalins can not be used for Rapid Shot, but a character could throw a dagger or throwing axe with each hand. Small very light throwing weapons like shuriken could be thrown in larger numbers if carried in a ready position. Common sense and GM wisdom should be applied. A Note on Half Dice and Damage: To simplifiy dice rolling in combat half dice are not used. Killing Damage increases at the rate of 1 pip, 1d6-1, 1d6, 1d6+1, 2d6-1, 2d6, etc. Normal dammge is increased in steps of 1 dice per dammage class, as normal. 10 pt per d6 powers, such as some adjustment powers, always measure their effects in whole dice. Effects must be purchased in whole dice increments, and powers like Drain or Suppress always decrease effectivness in whole dice increments, rounding the effective value of the power to the nearest whole dice.

Re: Adult themes in gaming, a rant of sorts For me its a maturity question. There is nothiing wrong with some sexual energy in a rpg story, I have seen it work before in a Vampire campaign. But in that case things never really went beyond suggestion and longing. The sort of thing the original poster is talking about is junior high nonsense and lousy storytelling. It generally comes from people whose already limited social skills turn totally to dust when a real live GIRL (ohmygodohmygod) is actually at a game. Just game with people who are more interested in telling a good story. I know that that is about 428 to the 11th power times easier to say than to do sometimes, but select your group carefully. If a group is full of wingnuts, drop out. If you invite someone to your group and they turn out to be a terrible match, have a mature conversation with them and find some other activity to do with them at anther time. (Presumably you liked the person at least somewhat if you invited them to game.) And if a normally reasonable player suddenly starts freaking out on you and thinking with something other than his gray matter, call a short time out and talk it over with people. A good GM is flexable, but should put the breaks on anytime someone derails the game or is destroying the positive experience of another player.

Re: Re-inventing after experience Excellent post, although I would add that one might want to allow for the possiblity of the "radiation accident" once in a while. If a player is bored with their character, or it just hasn't worked out the way they wanted you might allow for an in game reactor meltdown/vat of mutagenic chemicals/alien artifact/whatever that allows them to do a major character rebuild. This should not be common, nor undertaken lightly, but if a player says to you, "I'm really bored with Dr. Mysterious, can i turn him into a brick?" I see no reason not to let him do so. Its not really any differnt than making a new character and retiring the old one, and it increases campaign continuity. Of course as I reread your post I now see that line about "In game justification", which is more or less what I am talking about. Just my $.02

Re: Cure for Cancer (Healing) This is how I am handling disease and poison cure spells for my new fantasy campaign: First define the powers of the disease/poison, typically with either a continuous attack, or an attack with gradual effects. Healing can heal the characteristic dammage that the attack inflicts, be it body, dex drain, whatever. It does not remove the underlying problem, it just repairs the dammage. The disease continues to run its course. A spell that would purge the poison/disease would be a Major Transformation, transform a sick/poisoned person into a healthy one. This does not repair any of the dammage done by the disease/poison, but it stops it from doing any more. For example: A disease might be defined as a drain agaist several charcteristics with a gradual effect and delayed recovery of the points. Heal purchased for the proper stat can give you the drained points back, but not stop the drain. Transform would stop the drain, but not give you points back right away. Of course, the consumate cleric would have both spells in the MP/VPP.

Re: FYI: why more people aren't playing HERO (rpg.net) I am a huge fan of the Hero System, but i can see why it might put some people off. The game lacks an easy "jump in" factor. Its hard to get up and running quickly. This weakness is also the game's strength. Hero calles itself a "toolkit", and that is an apt term. It is an incredibly open ended, flexlibe, fun (some say liberating) system, but it is hard to break into. Lets face it, charcter creation is very dauting without an experienced player helping you out at first. The number of options is staggering. Also, from a GM's point of veiw, staring a campaign is a huge amount of work. There are a ton of options to chose from, use this optional rule but not those, these optional maneuvers but not that one, use this magic system out of the 27 or so available on the web or in published books, or brew one up from scratch. Im working on a fantasy campaign setting myself right new, and my notes on just mechanical issues, i.e. character creation, powers, combat options, etc, are up to nine typed pages, and I haven't even started to discuss the actual setting yet, just rule mechanics. Many people would need an experienced player to mentor them into the game or they would just toss up their hands and go play GURPS instead. So, I guess my hypothosis is that is not "complexity", (hey, if Rolemaster had a fan base any game can), or ease of play (do you know how may freaking times you might have to roll dice to resolve one melee attack in GURPs?) but rather the bugger of a learning curve that you have to master to really make the game your own. Once you do its an incredibly powerfull tool, buts it a bit like saying "here's a computer, just learn to program it and you can do anything you want with it". True, but that's more work than many people are willing to put in.

Re: Fantasy Campaign Ideas I think the best way to come up with setting is to think first in terms of Theme. Whats it all about? What does the story ultimatly mean? Its fairly easy to dream up/steal/paste together fantasy set peices and make a "setting", it much harder to make it all add up to something. Start with what you might want it to add up to. For example I'm working on a homebrew fantasy setting myself right now. There are several thematic elements that I want to include. One major theme is mortality. The campagin world has no ressurrection magic, and no contact with "the other side". Necromancy exists, but extending the lifespan always ends up in rather ickey undead states. Death is inevitable, permanent, and common. A second theme is the idea that the world is wonderous, but also basically hostile. Life is a hard struggle, and its a major challenge to find your place in it and just survive, let alone thrive. Third, religion, although widely practiced, is not a major force, at least in arcane terms. Gods dont show up incarnate, miracles dont happen. Ok, I realize that this may sound a bit like Conan the Existentialist, but the point is that the campaign has a thematic base, a mood and feeling that it is going for, and some ideas to explore in the storytelling. Starting from these themes and ideas you can start building world elements. Enemies might include a death cult, necromancers, and lots of undead. Dealings with other people will always be fought with peril and betrayal. Trust should be rare, and charcters will have to learn how to handle NPCs, either through force, suble coersion, or making them belive that they have something in common. Politics thus might be important. The geography can also echo these themes. There should be areas of wilderness with long fallen civilizations. Travel should be hazardous, but also give a sense of grandure. I see a world of small kingdoms with heavly guarded borders, vast forests, deserts, and canyons, long but profitable trade routes. Theme can also tell you want not to include. I dont see any bloody bloody bloody hobbits in this world. (thank goodness) No small races with a thing for practical jokes. No fairies with little wings and silly illusions. No broad rollng green hills covered with wild fruit trees and happy little singing peasants. No elves with their eternal optimisim and love of starlight. The Wilderness is dangerous, civilzation in scattered, and you cant always trust them not to put a knife in you when you get there. Anyway, this is just sort of spitballing off the top of my head, but you can see the process. Start with theme, and the set peices sort of suggest themselves.

Re: Need feedback on house rules for my new campaign Sounds reasonable to me, just keep in mind that characters are not going to be that impressive at the start of the game. Hero System combat can turn deadly when folks start throwing around killing attacks. A couple of bad dice rolls and you have a player character with a disabling head wound. This is ok if you want combat to be scary, dangerouns, and always serious, but with only100 point characters its fairly easy for someone to end up with an arrow through the eye on the first outing, especially on characters who are not oriented toward physical combat. 75 point goblins will be a significant threat. Thats great if thats what you want, but realize what you are getting into. Also, how common is healing magic? This lethality is greatly offset if there will be a character or two with meaningful healing magic available. If not, you might have a character death or two before they work up a bit in experience. BTW, hi everybody. This is my first post. Im a newcomer to these boards and a longtime gamer.