Hierax

For Fantasy Hero I'd like to put some more emphasis on Sword & Sorcery Showdowns sort of like Western gunfights and Samurai swordfights but between Warriors vs. Warriors, Wizards vs. Wizards, and Wizards vs. Warriors (Zatoichi meets the Man with No Name meets Conan meets Mordenkainen). I kept putting this off waiting for the new Western Hero to come out to base it off of, but since it never has, and sadly looks like it never will, there doesn't seem to be any point to delaying any longer. I'd like to provide a wide variety of modifiers for use in these Showdowns -- bonuses and/or penalties for the character's inborn talents, learned skills, as well as specific types of equipment and spells being used. Fast Draw and High DEX and/or Lightning Reflexes are obviously going to be used a lot. I've touched on some options for Initiative in the Weapon Speed and Casting Times thread but Fast Draw is related. The goal here is to give tough tactical decision choices and add flavourful variety to these Fantasy showdowns. What sort of modifiers would you give to weapons and spells for purposes of Fast Drawing and/or Initiative to differentiate them from one another?

Re: Spells As Skills CSL and +DC: Maybe it's just my own pet peeve but Adding Damage is much easier if you use Base Points instead of Active Points (like Range does in H6e now). IMO it's ridiculous and needlessly complicated to have Active Points figure into Adding Damage like they do -- it adds nothing to the game but hassle and takes away logic and simplicity, sad that H6e didn't take the opportunity to expunge this blight from the game system. Particularly here in a Spell Skill system like this that de-emphasizes Active and Real Points, I think it would be far better off with +2 CSL = +1 DC plain and simple. YMMV.

Re: Spells As Skills I like it. Good to see your Blog materialize in the Forums. It provides a succinct way to present the most important spell information. Here's a few thoughts about Spells as Skills: However, creating spells with full write-ups (Active Point/Real Point and all the modifiers) is not mutually exclusive with this Spell Skill system though; spells can still be created using the full write-up approach but bought as Skills by some characters and as powers by others. In some ways a Skill System (past a certain point) can be seen as another kind of Framework to reduce the cost of buying spells, just with the added bonus of being more concise. With using the Weapon Familiarity (WF) version, maybe Spell Familiarity (SF), a parallel Combat Skill Levels (CSL) structure would be useful to put into place with similarly broad/general categories. In fact, you could use this sort of structure even with the spells that do require Skill Rolls as well as those that don't. Expanding upon this, you could use the CSL structure to be considered more generally as Casting Skill Levels and have the bonus apply to the Skill Roll and link this to the WF: WF/SF 1-pt: Fireball, Skill Roll at standard CHAR/5, CSL 2-pt: +1 with Fireball, CSL 3-pt: +1 with Fire Spells (Small Group), CSL 5-pt: +1 with Elemental Spells (Large Group), CSL 8-pt +1 with All Spells. This way you pay 1 point for each individual separate spell and then more points to be better either with that spell or with a group of related spells (these cost points are chosen to stick closely to the existing WF/CSL cost structure, but may make a large variety of spells too cheap as is, but is easily adjusted to taste). If you want to lower the buy-in cost of each individual separate spell you could use similar cost structure for the groups WF/SF, and allow several spells to be learned at once (effectively lowering the individual separate spell cost): WF/SF 1-pt: Fireball, Skill Roll at standard CHAR/5, WF/SF 2-pt: Fire Spells (Small Group), WF/SF 3-pt: Elemental Spells (Large Group), WF/SF 5-pt: All Spells. This would be like a Framework equivalent making multiple spells cheaper. You would adjust the cost increment of the WF/SF levels to match how cheap you want how broad of knowledge to be (these cost points are chosen to stick closely to the existing WF/CSL cost structure, but may make a large variety of spells too cheap as is, but is easily adjusted to taste). As for restricting which/how many spells are available to a spellcaster at a particular time, spells with a Focus could enforce the availability of spell components as a control. Memorization could use a Talent like Cramming as sort of a Skill VPP.

Re: Weapon Speeds and Casting Times Thanks for the feedback guys!

Re: Blocking and relative strengths Yeah, that matches up with my real life martial experience also. But if cinematicaly the GM wants something else that makes STR a factor, then go for it. The important thing is you get the game you want.

Re: HERO SYSTEM MARTIAL ARTS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Cho!

Re: Alas, no more Independent! I like Independent and for more than just items (as mentioned earlier). It worked just fine for those of us that used it, removing it from the system was a mistake. Universal Focus is a bigger problem than Independent letting other people use the power without paying for it -- that should be an Advantage like Usable By Others. Personal and Universal focus should have different values IMO. This could be especially abusive with the Hero rule of +5 points for a 2nd of the same power, why not have a wand of fireballs for everyone in the party and hit the opposition with a bloody artillery barrage!

Re: Fantasy Hero with 6E Nah, Ningauble has a good health care plan

Re: Kamarathin 6E HD Files Thanks for keeping things updated!

Re: Beginner's Martial Arts Maneuvers In addition to the Cheap 1-pt Martial Arts there was an Everyman Martial Arts (or somesuch) floating around on the boards (in some previous incarnation) that had a list of 0-pt martial maneuvers. I can't find it at the moment but know it's around somewhere.

Re: Divine Magic System: Incarnism Great work on the Incarnates -- keep it coming!

Re: Beginner's Martial Arts Maneuvers Here's something on 1-pt Martial Maneuvers that was available on the Hero Games website a while back: sorry for the formatting but the new boards don't accept HTML formatting so no nice table like the old old forums had: -- http://www.herogames.com/cheap.phtml Created: 28 May 1998 -- Revised: 28 May 1998 -- Cheap Martial Arts: Martial Arts for Heroic Non-Martial Arts Games by Anthony Jackson I am, in general, a fan of the Martial Arts system in the HERO System, but there's one place where I find it just doesn't fit very well: low-power heroic games, where martial arts are not intended to be a significant focus of the game. In such a campaign, you tend to notice two problems: Martial arts are expensive. Most martial arts cost around 20 points, which is a lot of points when you're building characters on 50+50, or even on 75+75. Martial arts attacks are powerful. A 15 STR martial artist can kick for 7d6, which is more than they do with a two-handed club, and works well for kicking down walls, shattering stone, etc. The GM may not want martial arts to be that powerful... Thus, I came up with an alternate maneuver list -- intended primarily for the heroic (rather than super-heroic) game. All maneuvers have a cost of 1, and are given the same names as their higher-powered equivalents; for a 'cheap' version of a particular martial art just use the same maneuver names as is given for standard martial arts. The result will be quite a lot less powerful, but will otherwise closely resemble a standard martial art. Maneuvers are constructed with Ninja Hero, and are legal except for violating the normal minimum cost for maneuvers. For anyone who wants to use these maneuvers, I suggest the following restrictions: No Martial Damage classes. No mixing 'cheap' and standard maneuvers. You may not wish to allow both in the same game. A player must spend at least 5 points on Martial Arts. If you allow using 2 Combat Levels for extra damage, I suggest you also allow spending 2 Combat Levels for anything else a Martial Damage Class would give (such as +5 Strength with a Martial Exert). Now, the maneuver list: NameOCVDCVNotes Basic Strike+0+0+1d6 Choke Hold-2+01d6 NND, grab, STR does not add. Crush+0+0+2d6, must follow grab Defensive Block+0+1block, abort Defensive Strike-1+2strike Fast Strike+1-1+1d6 Flying Tackle-1-1 Fmove, you fall, opponent falls, take 1/2 dmg. Grappling Throw+0+1+1d6, target falls, must follow grab Killing Strike-2+01 pip KA (1/2d6 w/STR, usually) Killing Throw-2-11 pip KA, target falls Legsweep+1-1target falls Martial Block+1+0block, abort Martial Disarm-2+0+5 STR to disarm Martial Dodge--+4dodge, abort Martial Escape+0+0+5 STR to escape grab Martial Grab-1-2grab, +5 STR to hold Martial Strike+0+0+1d6 (same as basic strike). Martial Throw+0+0half strength, target falls, +v/5 Nerve Strike-1+01d6 NND, STR does not add. Offensive Strike-2+1+2d6 strike Passing Strike-1-1+v/5, Fmove, half strength Reverse-1-2+5 STR vs grabs, grab Root+0+0+5 STR vs shove, block, abort Sacrifice Disarm+0-2disarm, +5 STR to disarm Sacrifice Lunge+0-2Fmove, +v/5, take half damage. Sacrifice Strike+1-2+2d6 strike Sacrifice Throw+2-1strike, you fall, target falls Shove+0+0+5 STR to shove Takeaway-2-1+5 STR, grab weapon Takedown+0+0strike, target falls Weapon Bind+0-1+5 STR, bind

Re: Fantasy Hero with 6E I'd love to see Long's Lankhmar with all 7 eyes! Grashnak, 6E isn't so different from 5E (or 4E for that matter), the character generation points are slightly different but in actual play you can pretty much just use the Characters/Monsters/Items/Spells etc. as is and it'll work out fine -- e.g., if a spell is a Forcewall it'll work fine as is or you can take the time to convert it to a Barrier. I'd say build the player characters with 6e and as the GM save time and just use whatever you need from 5e as is unless you have the time to convert it to 6e and even then maybe only bother for ongoing characters and effects, for one off monsters/npcs etc. the players won't notice the difference.

Re: Slashing Advantage for Weapons - Variation on Alternate Armor Piercing (H6e-APG.1 Take a razor vs. a curved dagger vs. a straight dagger vs. a hand axe or a scimitar vs. a longsword vs. a battleaxe -- all "cut" but have different wound characteristics vs. flesh and vs. various armor types. How do you represent this sort of thing?

Re: Weapon Speeds and Casting Times Weapon Length is important indeed, that's why the Length/Reach rules do apply (FH-5e.186; H6e2.201-202). However, at closer range Weapon Speed applies and the Weapon Length/Reach rules sort of deal with this too (and for most people that bother with Reach/Length rules at all this will be enough) but Weapon Speed is a more detailed way to apply this Length penalty not solely on the basis of Length/Reach of the weapon, also on the mass and weight distribution and various grips, etc. Some of the weapons have multiple uses/grips/applications -- e.g., 2-handed swords can also be used in a grip with one hand part way up the sword which has a very different application than 2 hands on the hilt swinging in terms of speed and reach/length, same applies to a staff: a 2-handed swing has a long reach, a 1-handed swing has a longer reach, but it can be used as a 2 handed middle-gripped for fast blocking and/or short strikes as well. It depends on how much detail one wants, Weapon Speed is on the high-end of detail in a way that supplements the existing reach/length rules.

Re: Slashing Advantage for Weapons - Variation on Alternate Armor Piercing (H6e-APG.1 hey, no problem, better to have a good idea twice than no idea.

Re: Slashing Advantage for Weapons - Variation on Alternate Armor Piercing (H6e-APG.1 Yes, good idea, I quite agree; those are already some other parts of the system -- each type of protection is a -2 Limitation (= 1/3 cost) -- that's the Armor side of the equation -- e.g., Heavy Chainmail is 8rPD vs. Cutting/Chopping/Edged attacks, 6 rPD vs. Puncturing/Sharp/Pointed Attacks, and 4rPD vs Blunt/Bludgeoning/Smashing attacks. This thread is looking at 1/3 of the weapon side of the equation -- the Slashing ability of edged weapons: Some particular weapons of the general types have different advantages of varying levels: no Advantage, +1/4 Advantage or +1 DC or +1 OCV, +1/2 Advantage. The Weapons are balanced in terms of Active Points but get different specific abilities. Blunt Weapons get +0, +1, or +2 Increased STUNx; Puncturing Weapons get +0, +1/4, or +1/2 Armor Piercing; Cutting Weapons get +0, +1/4, or +1/2 "Slashing". (Penetrating is used for Magic). Yes, many weapons do get multi-powers for different modes of attack. That's the larger context of where I'm going but exactly what the game effects of this "Slashing Advantage" are what I'm looking for feedback on here.

Re: Morrow Project We used to do this sort of thing with Gamma World (facing mutants and ancient tech) and even did one with Shadow World / Spacemaster (facing magic and ancient tech). I always liked the battle-armored trooper configuration myself: Battlesuit: Armor, fully sealed lifesupport (including built-in water & food recycle & limited supply), built-in medical auto-dispensers for wearer, auto-repair for suit, helmet with built-in full sensor array, communications array, jet/jump or gravitic hover mobility unit, force field generator built-in, onboard computer with addition access link to base computer, fusion power cell and solar back-up batteries. Big Gun: combination re-configurable, gauss projectile (shotgun, semi- and full-auto assault rifle, sniper rifle) and energy, grenade launcher, flame thrower. + 2nd Backup gun. Little Gun: side arm version of same. + 2nd Backup gun. Melee Weapon Big: solid metal that can project energy/force field, on back. Little Melee Weapon: belt/boot version of same. + 2nd Backup weapon. Standard Supply Pack: extra ammo, energy cells, food, water, portable shelter, tools, etc. PCs start out kicking ass but as their resources dwindle and are damaged they become more and more low tech.

Re: Slashing Advantage for Weapons - Variation on Alternate Armor Piercing (H6e-APG.1 what is bmg phy?

Re: Weapon Speeds and Casting Times Yes, that's what I've been trying for spells (as part of a RSR-like Limitation along with some Extra Time portions for Sword & Sorcery games), but I wanted to try something a bit different for weapons linked more to the weapon type. But thinking about it again now that you mention it maybe it would work for weapons too...

Re: Slashing Advantage for Weapons - Variation on Alternate Armor Piercing (H6e-APG.1 What about draw cutting vs. chopping/hacking cutting? A shallow but long draw cut slice would have a different effect against an armoured than an unarmored target than a chop/hack cut would -- Reduced Penetration there would be appropriate for a draw cut. Perhaps extra damage as a partially limited power could work for that.

Re: Firearms in fantasy? FWIW, Joel Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame series (The Sleeping Dragon etc.) also has Gunpowder and a magical knockoff of it. Basically, some Fantasy RPG players get sucked into their character's lives but with their own knowledge and one of them is an engineering student who brings gunpowder to the world.

Re: I'm building a gold dragon on 350 points I'd do Armor Piercing or Penetrating and AoE on the Fire Breath and making it Killing Damage instead of a Normal Blast. Maybe even have multiple slots of the multi-power for it or a variable limitation slot for flexibility -- those would make it feel more Dragon-like.

Re: Slashing Advantage for Weapons - Variation on Alternate Armor Piercing (H6e-APG.1 Personally, I like Killing Damage for Weapons more (for a variety of reasons) and am currently only using Normal Damage for Club and Staff weapons. But if a player wanted a Mace built as a Normal Attack I wouldn't be opposed to the idea -- I have Maces as Killing Damage with Advantages. But that's a topic for a thread on Blunt Weapons, here I'm interested in Cutting/Chopping/Hacking/Hewing/Slicing/etc.

Re: Slashing Advantage for Weapons - Variation on Alternate Armor Piercing (H6e-APG.1 That's what I'm working on changing, each weapon type will be different and will have different effects vs. different armors, etc. This Slashing thing is just part of a larger overhaul/update for 6e.