ajackson

Re: Flash Rebuild

Be nice if there were a 'partial effect' feature for Transform, so by getting 1x body (rather than 2x body) you can get the effects of a 1 level weaker transform (i.e. dazzled, -2 CV). Oh, yet another possibility: Drain 3 stats (OCV, DCV, Int), cannot give penalties worse than blindness (-1/2?).

Re: Flash Rebuild

Major Transform: target to blind target; Recovery Rate: every phase (-2.25). 10 active/3 real per die.

Re: Simplified Endurance Management?

How much is too much depends a lot on the game. 5d6 averages 17.5 STUN. Is that too much for your game?

For most games, yeah. I've been in a game that used 1d6 per 5 active points, and even there it's kind of rare -- in a one on one fight, taking 2d6 damage for a chance to do +2d6 damage (remember, you might miss) isn't a great deal unless it makes the difference between stunning and not stunning the target.

I find that, in games, I'm not generally fond of tracking small chunks of endurance -- you can easily be spending endurance 2-3 times per phase, which is far more often than you do anything else -- but on the other hand, I don't want to completely do away with endurance either -- I'd like to only track 'significant' energy consumption (say, pushing, plus any powers you design to be significant).

One possibility would be just buying most powers at zero END cost, and making a few exceptional powers cost END. There's a slight problem with that in 6e (with the price of END and REC, zero END cost tends to be a bad investment, particularly in heroic games), but it has the virtue of not requiring any house rules (just house rules on how characters should be built). Any other thoughts?

Re: Baseline Weaponry

For crossbows, I find it works nicely to to treat them as having clips of 1 charge each, rather than taking extra time on the crossbow itself. Then loading a crossbow requires the same action as changing a clip (and 16 clips of 1 charge is a -3/4 limitation, or -1/4 if they're recoverable, and makes zero END cost unnecessary).

Re: Repricing CSLs

The problem with this though is that you can add +1 to your OECV or DECV with an 8pt CSL

Not in 6e you can't, but even in 5e the ability to be used for ECV wasn't enough to make an all combat level worth 8.

Re: 6th edition Min Str

Most RPG battles are more like barroom brawls than battlefield battles.

No, in my experience RPG battles are prone to having decent tactics (when you have considerable time to think about your actions, and a clear map view, it's not hard to have tactics that would be very impressive to accomplish in the field), it's just that they're tactics for a small, elite squad. If you took 4-6 Roman legionnaires against 4-6 barbarian warriors, the barbarians would probably win. If you took 100 Roman legionnaires against 100 barbarian warriors, the legionnaires would probably win.

Re: Zones of Control in Hero

If I say I was aware of multiple blocks' date=' but had forgotten them, will you realise I just don't care?[/quote']

If you don't care, why not say so to start with?

Re: 6th edition Min Str

Uh there is a reason why People have a Knife Axe Spear throwing competition and not a sword in the bunch (or maces ) you wanna call an AXE unbalanced?!?!?!?

As a melee weapon it's unbalanced. As a throwing weapon it's probably no worse than a throwing knife -- both weapons are thrown rotating and if they don't hit at the right point in their rotation period are fairly worthless (all of which is to say that darts and spears should have an OCV advantage over knives and axes, though probably a damage disadvantage).

Re: Zones of Control in Hero

Whilst I've bought 6E' date=' I've not read it yet.[/quote']

Multiple blocks have been around since 4e at least, and probably longer.

Re: CO: Control Issues

Would spending the $40 on an Xbox 360 controller make things any better by any chance' date=' or would keyboarding issues remain?[/quote']

I suspect the keyboard issues would remain, because it's not like the Xbox controller disables keyboard command mode, and the focus stealing will still cause you to start doing things.

Re: Zones of Control in Hero

But according to the standard rules you loose your held action at the start of a segment in which you get your next action.

That's an odd change; it used to be (4e) that you could continue holding, but if you used your held action on the same segment as you would get your next action, you lost your next action if you used the held action.

Re: Zones of Control in Hero

Huh. Forgot about that. Requires a held action, but guarding an area looks like it does the job (possibly slightly too well; if you just have a line of guys standing next to one another, all guarding, running up and attacking any one of them will draw attacks vs half DCV from both of his neighbors).

Many wargames have a concept of a 'zone of control', which is basically a small area around the unit through which enemy units cannot move unimpeded; typically they can move into the area and stop, or some equivalent. In D&D this is handled by attacks of opportunity, though I'm not convinced that's the perfect implementation.

The virtue of zones of control is that it means you can effectively protect someone -- if you stand in front of someone, enemies can't just run around you and gank the guy you're protecting. Does anyone have suggestions (or house rules) for how to effectively implement zones of control in Hero? My thoughts generally focus around some form of triggered short-range move (lets you step in front of someone trying to run past, forcing a collision or stop), triggered entangle, or triggered barrier, but none seem perfect.

Re: 6th edition Min Str

So, I made an attempt at porting 4e Min Str to 6e, with some tweaks to eliminate the less coherent features of 4e behavior.

Minimum Strength: -1/2 or -1

Due to weight or other factors, using this power requires you to have a certain amount of strength; normally half the active point cost of the power, counting only those effects that affect the power's damage classes. Strength applied to a power's minimum Strength does not cost End and cannot also be applied to the power's damage (assuming it would normally do so); thus, a Str 10 character using a 1d6+1 HKA (Min Str 10) would spend 2 END for the HKA, none for Str, and do 1d6+1. The limitation is -1 on powers that normally add Strength (HKA, HA), -1/2 on powers that do not (in a multipower, the GM may allow the full -1 limitation on the reserve, and then require non-Strength powers to find an extra -1/2 limit to make up the difference. A good way of doing this is to take Charges plus Costs Endurance on the power. Note that OCV bonuses match the type of the power they're linked to, DCV bonuses must take a limitation).

If you use multiple powers with Strength Minima at once, add those minima together. In addition, if you are using two hands (because of a two-handed weapon, or weapons in two hands), reduce the total minimum strength by 5. It is possible to use weapons slightly in excess of your Strength; take an OCV penalty equal to half the missing Strength, minimum -1.

If a power is only partially limited, only the portion of the power with the limitation is counted into Str Min. Thus, if you want a shortsword that does 1DC more than a normal shortsword, simply buy an extra 5 active points without the Strength Min limitation.

A typical historical weapons multipower might look like this (this is for a 15 Str warrior; a lower Str warrior would use lower DC weapons)

14 Weapons Multipower: Multipower, 41 Active, OAF, Min Strength. All slots cost 1 point.

• 
  Two-Handed Slots: 41 active points; Min Str 15 (due to 2H).
  
• Flail: 1.5d6 HKA, +1 Stun Mod, +2 OCV vs Blocks and Shields, +1m reach (38 active, Min Str 14)
  
• Great-Axe: 2.5d6 HKA, +1m reach
  
• Great-Club: 7d6 HA, +1 OCV, +1m reach
  
• Great-Spear: 2d6+1 HKA, +3m reach (38 active, Min Str 14)
  
• Great-Sword: 2d6+1 HKA, +1 OCV, +1m reach
  
• Maul: 2d6 HKA, +1 Stun Mod, +1m reach (38 active, Min Str 14)
  
• Military Pick: 2d6-1 HKA, AP, +1m reach (38 active, Min Str 14)
  
• Quarterstaff: 6d6 HA, +1 OCV, +1 DCV vs Melee, +1m reach
  
• Crossbow: 2d6+1 RKA, +1 OCV (40 active); 32 clips of 1 recoverable charge, costs Endurance (-1/2)
  
• Longbow: 1.5d6 RKA, +2 level vs range penalties; 4 clips of 16 charges (+1/4), costs endurance (-1/2). Note that it isn't actually 4 clips; rather, it's assumed that arrows can be recovered an average of 4 times.
  Primary Weapon Slots: 31 active points; Min Str 15
  
• Bastard Sword: 1.5d6 HKA, +1 OCV, +1m reach
  
• Battle-Axe: 2d6 HKA, +1m reach
  
• Club: 5d6 HA, +1 OCV, +1m reach
  
• Javelin: 1d6+1 HKA, Range Based on Strength, +1 OCV
  
• Hand Pick: 1d6+1 HKA, AP
  
• Mace: 1.5d6 HKA, +1 Stun Mod
  
• Morningstar: 1d6+1 HKA, +1 Stun Mod, +2 OCV vs Blocks and Shields
  
• Throwing Axe: 1.5d6 HKA, Range Based on Strength
  Off-Hand Slots: 10 active points; +0 to Min Str (changes 1H to 2H)
  
• Parrying Dagger: +2 DCV, Only Vs Melee Attacks
  
• Shield: +2 DCV, Costs Endurance
  
• Two-Weapon Style: add Autofire (2 shots) to any primary weapon.
  

Re: 6th edition Min Str

Very true. The majority of FH players' date=' are trying to play D&D with it. For two reasons - they come from a D&D background, or they can't imagine a fantasy game in any setting other than a D&D one.[/quote']

Um, no. The majority of FH players are trying to play heroic fantasy. In any case, the reason FH is a poor match for grim realism is because it's fundamentally an effects-based system.

Re: CO: Control Issues

There are events that can happen that will steal keyboard focus from your chat window. At that point, all your keypresses suddenly start doing commands. It's horribly annoying.

Re: 6th edition Min Str

Sadly' date=' Harn is more popular than Fantasy Hero, so you may need to get off your high horse there.[/quote']

No, because the number of people playing HarnWorld with Fantasy Hero is probably negligible. I'm not saying that there isn't a role for gritty fantasy, but FH is generally a poor match for it.

Re: 6th edition Min Str

I should point out that you're assuming later periods of history - the Saxons often used axes' date=' as did the Vikings.[/quote']

It seems likely in both cases that they used axes because they had axes conveniently available. The primary realistic benefit of axes is that they're cheap and have non-combat uses, whereas swords are expensive and are a poor choice for any non-combat use. All of which is entirely irrelevant to Fantasy Hero (it could be used in Gritty Realistic Medieval Hero, if anyone ever played that).

Re: 6th edition Min Str

I see where you are coming from and I think you are greatly missing a point.

 

Analgously, your point is: why would anyone wield a 9mm semi-automatic pistol when they could have a rotary assault cannon, a minigun or grenade launcher. Those weapons do more damage, so are naturally superior.

Those weapons also have inherent disadvantages, which are why they aren't used in place of the pistol. This is not true for fantasy weapons. Now, simply forcing people to pay points for all weapons does a decent job of making the weapon distinctions irrelevant, but if you don't want people paying points for weapons, there are no inherent disadvantages of a Min Strength 10 axe over a Min Strength 10 sword that would cause you to use the sword; the axe is just a better weapon.

Re: 6th edition Min Str

Actually, on thinking about it, you could probably do without Str mins entirely, and just say that a stronger person is assumed to use a bigger weapon, while not bothering to change weapon stats (i.e. it's always Xd6). To fix scaling, we add a perk: 'increased max DC', which allows a KA to be increased by 1 over its normal max DC; this sounds like a 1 point per level perk. Consider a structure like this:

Melee Weapons Multipower: 40 point reserves, all powers OAF

• Any Melee Weapon
  : use 1H stats, at +1 DC.
  
  
• Crossbow
  : 1.5d6 HKA, Ranged, 32 clips of 1 charge; +1 PSL vs Range.
  
  
• Longbow
  : 1d6+1 HKA, Ranged, 32 charges; +2 PSL vs Range.
  
  
• Long Spear
  : 1d6+1 HKA, 0 END; Reach +2m, 0 END; Martial Throw (stop thrust); +1 OCV with martial throw.
  
  
• Staff
  : 4d6 HA, 0 END; +1 OCV, +1 DCV
  
  

• Axe
  : 1d6+1 HKA, 0 END
  
  
• Axe, Thrown
  : 1d6+1 HKA, Range based on Str, up to 8 recoverable charges; Range based on Str on up to 20 Str.
  
  
• Club
  : 4d6 HA, 0 END
  
  
• Flail
  : 1d6 HKA, +1 Stun Mod, 0 END; +1 OCV vs Block, vs Shields, and with Trip.
  
  
• Hammer/Mace
  : 1d6 HKA, +1 Stun Mod, 0 END
  
  
• Hammer, Thrown
  : 1d6 HKA, +1 Stun Mod, Range based on Str, up to 8 recoverable
  charges
  ; +1 OCV with Throw; Range based on Str on up to 20 Str.
  
  
• Pick
  : 1d6 HKA, AP, 0 END
  
  
• Sword
  : 1d6 HKA, 0 END; +1 OCV with all attacks, +1 OCV with Block, Disarm, Hipshot
  
  

• Dagger
  : 1 DC killing, Range Based on Str, 0 END; +1 max DC.
  
  
• Shield
  : +2 DCV against all attacks.
  
  
• Stiletto
  : 1 DC killing, AP, 0 END.
  
  
• Two-Handed Grip
  : +6 Str, 0 END cost; increased max DC +1.
  
  
• Two-Weapon Style
  : naked advantage: autofire 2 on 30 active points, 0 END cost.
  
  

Given the low costs of slots, it's fair to simply use WF costs as slot costs, it will be close enough.

In 4th edition, Str Min followed a very specific formula, so all weapons with the same Str Min were roughly equally potent. In 6th edition, this is completely gone -- a small axe (1d6+1, min str 8) is Just Plain Better than a shortsword (1d6, min str 10) (I'm somewhat mystified by how axes in 6e seem to be better than other similar weapons). If you're paying points for weapons, this isn't necessarily an issue (the shortsword is 9 points, the axe is 13), but otherwise it seems problematic. I was thinking of a few ways of solving this:

• Rewrite the weapon tables so all weapons of the same min Str have about the same cost.
  
• Import the 4e Min Str into 6e.
  
• Eliminate Min Str and reduce base weapon damage.
  

The first two options are basically the same, except the first case is just a GM rewrite, the second case has formal rules (for reference, 4e Min Str = Active/2). The third option has the virtue that it makes FH consistent with Champions, but the problem that it's hard to apply to ranged weapons (particularly if it's not an HKA usable at range) and that it winds up being very easy to max out damage (if you want a dagger to do 1/2d6K with a normal user, you need it to be 1 pip HKA, and it gets maxed with Str 5).

Has anyone considered anything of the sort?

Re: Off-world crops?

1. Since most colonies are small' date=' crops should not require a large amount of land to produce a decent yield. Soybean is a good example.[/quote']

This describes most greenhouse crops. I'd start by looking into foods that are currently grown in greenhouses (which includes almost everything in your local grocery store's produce section). It's also worth noting that grains are highly transportable.

2. Water is present on most of the colonies' date=' but the crops shouldn't require a very large amount of it to grow (so rice is out).[/quote']

Enclosed colonies are generally going to use water recycling, and hydroponics are a lot easier to deal with than soil. I'd drop this requirement, except to the extent that rice may be a poor crop choice for other reasons.

3. Outer colonies don't get as much sunlight as the inner ones' date=' so mushrooms would be popular there.[/quote']

All the oxygen-producing plants need sunlight anyway. Outer colonies would just use increasingly large mirrors, though many plants will be happy with relatively dim light anyway.

4. Crops would ideally have industrial uses as well. Peanuts and soybeans are good examples.

There is little reason to use the same crops for food production and industrial production. You probably will be growing soybeans, they're easy to grow hydroponically and provide protein, but I wouldn't expect much industrial production, there will likely be cheaper alternatives.

Re: Repricing CSLs

Note that part of the reason I eliminated the 'large group' vs 'related group' distinction is because I'm not at all convinced that 'all the powers in my multipower' or 'all martial arts' is actually more limiting than 'all ranged' or 'all melee'; remember, the related group can have both ranged and melee powers in it.

Re: Repricing CSLs

I think the Multipower pricing approach is appropriate' date=' and 8 points feels like it's in the game. I think we can extrapolate it further down[/quote']

This is more a question of appropriate limitation values than extrapolation per se -- I had 'large group -1/4, small group -1/2, single power -1' and you have 'large group -1/4, medium group -1/2, small group -1, single power -1 1/2'. It's difficult to tell what's the correct limitation value; the game tends to use advantages for flexibility, not disadvantages for removing flexibility.