Bismark

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? V for Vendetta Pretty solid flick - John Hurt is suitably unpleasant as 'El Presidente' and the leading Party members are all deeply unpleasant. Nice bits of bloodshed here and there... Just one thing - no-one warned me about the scene with the dodgy Bishop: Natalie Portman with her hair in pigtails, wearing a pink and white 'little girl' ensemble (a mixed reaction there - made me feel all hot and bothered for a bit, followed by feeling like a depraved old man...). The ending where the Houses of Parliament go up in smoke is suitably ironic given the low (even by historical standards) opinion that the public over here have of our MPs in the wake of the expenses scandal. Worth seeing - I will add that I have not read the graphic novel, but I have read several of the comic strips from the days when it appeared in a periodical whose name I cannot recall (may have been called Warlord, but cannot be sure as i no longer have any issues). Earlier today I watched Ilsa, She-devil of the SS - one of my work colleagues gave it to me, so I plead 'not guilty'; the less said about THAT film, the better (I am not that keen on seeing lots of women raped + tortured to death [or near to death], even in a campy 1970s film with masses of bewbage...)

Re: Was Fantasy Hero 2nd ed self-contained? How was it? Fantasy HERO 1st ed. was a self-contained game that came out in 1986 and, like the other CHAMPIONS spin-offs of that era (Danger International, for instance) had rules that were similar to but not the same as the original super-hero game. This edition pre-dates 'HERO System' as such. 2nd edition Fantasy HERO (1990) was a genre book to go with 4th edition HERO system and was not stand-alone. 3rd edition FH is, of course, the matching fantasy genre book for the 5th edition HERO rules. 1st ed FH looks quite nice (the internal layout/design says 'Fantasy' more than later iterations), but you will find the rules a little sparse compared to the later versions (you could always import the Advantages/Limitations you like from later versions into the earlier version, though). Hope this helps!

Re: how do you like your fantasy games Mid-to-high-powered games are my stock-in-trade. I have tried 100+50, 125+50 and 150+50 point games so far; 2 years of Turakian Age High Fantasy (the first 100+50pts, the second 125+50); 1 year of Valdorian Age S&S (100+50pts - but with all characteristics starting on 10 and no Skill limits other than no non-combat Skill Levels except PSLs); and 1 year of Shadow World (ICE's world for Rolemaster) High Fantasy (150+50 pts) aping the RM magic system using Multipowers (16D6EB was the main combat mage's standard offensive attack ). The last game showed some promise, but the inspiration well ran a bit dry that year which was why I took last year off from HERO GMing and did a bit of Mongoose RQ instead. All characters tend to have bucketloads of Skills (mainly to fit concept - I have yet to master the art of handwaving a lot of stuff with Professional Skills...) and are min-maxed to the hilt (within concept, of course - mainly to free up points for all those Skills). Nearly all my games use the Hit Location Table, disabling etc. One of my 'idiosyncrasies' (according to one of my former players - Shadowsoul, here's looking at YOU) is my handling of the effects of PRE Attacks; people badly affected by them don't just stand there gibbering or shaking, but also tend to empty their bladder and 'embarrass themselves' in other, rather more smelly ways...

Re: The Clown Guild - The First Clan for the new MMO Inspiration has finally struck - having decided to go with the inestimable 'Chris. P. Bacon' as my character, I suddenly 'saw the light' and thought of a suitable Public I.D. for him. I present: Chris. P. Bacon AKA "THE SIZZLER" (He will be using heat powers a lot, methinks)

Re: The Clown Guild - The First Clan for the new MMO I think an old CHAMPIONS NPC I put together for a 'Assistant editor's Issue' adventure should do the job: Christopher Philip Bacon, Inventor Extraordinaire [Yes, that's "Chris. P. Bacon"...] He was built on so few points that the party had to leave their base to fight him - he did not have enough power to get in... and lasted 1 Phase when the party's Energy Projector character used a totally Over-the-Top RKA on him and sent him into a VERY long sleep (nearly killed him, in fact "Bacon sizzled" - good job the party's medical facilities were very flash...). The poor guy had loads of abilities built into a powered exoskeleton - but they were nearly all on ultra slots with Activation 8- or Burnout Limitations (sometimes both...)

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far Well, as a 'Conceptualist' and unashamed (nay, proud!) 'Min-Maxer', I am perfectly OK with most of the announced 6E changes. The one thing that would have had the hackles rising and the fangs appearing would have been getting rid of the SPD chart (which I have found over the years much less of a pain in the #### than having to worry about Initiative calculations, DEX Rank, Strike Rank or whatever that you get in other games - and I have played LOTS of other games...) - and the chart stays The STUN lottery thingie that made the KA changes almost inevitable has not been an issue for me for over 20 years (since the last time I played CHAMPIONS, basically); I would be interested to see the knock-on effect on the Hit Location Chart (which I use in all my games as they are Fantasy/Sci-Fi with moderate 'grittiness'). As for the probable pricing - I happen to be in the privileged position of being able to write them off against tax under 'Research and Development' (one of the few joys of being in the typesetting/layout industry) The final thing that makes it easier for me to deal with a new edition than some other people is that I currently have no HERO campaign which I am either running or playing in, having 'taken a year out' to recharge batteries and run something else (Mongoose RQ, in fact). I also do not have a huge legacy of characters that would need 'grandfathering' into 6E (unless you count the inch-thick pile of 2E CHAMPIONS characters sitting in a folder on my bookshelf - and they have obviously not been used for a while and are a bit 'sparse' compared to more modern designs, so they would be re-done from scratch if I was 'superheroing' again).

Re: Which Champion are you A result that would surprise none of my HERO players: You are pure evil, and hate personified. You don't care anything about your fellow man, and are guided only by your desire to rule over your inferiors, i.e. everybody but you. 'Mercy,' you ask, prior to grinding an enemy beneath your mighty heel, 'What is mercy?' Take the quiz! My happiness knows no bounds... (Shame I wasn't the first person to get this result though... ]

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

Re: Another "extinct" critter Working from the comment in the article about the original group of 'great appendage' critters becoming extinct in the Middle Cambrian, I imagine they are referring to the Anomalocarids (like Anomalocaris and Laggania), which are a very odd bunch, and whose ancestry is a matter of some dispute (http://www.paleos.com has a good discussion of this). This looks like a cross between an anomalocarid and a crustacean, so I am not surprised that palaeontologists are excited about it (I know I am... ). [bTW, GURPS Dinosaurs once described the 'trilobite-munching' Anomalocaris as having 'a mouth like a camera shutter and no known descendants' - but that book did come out in 1997 or thereabouts)

Re: Star HERO given boost by small furry mammal! Luckily I got all the Traveller HERO PDFs I wanted (the main 2 volumes plus the first Robots title, and a couple of the ship books) before the 'end-times'; several bits from there will be incorporated into my games (some of the aliens will be used as the starting point for the designs of my aliens, for example ). It is still a shame that it had to end , because some of the additions originally planned would have saved me some work doing my own game.

Excellent news HEROphiles (well, excellent news for me, anyway )! Thanks to the mammal in question (Mongoose, in case you hadn't guessed) reviving Traveller (for the mass-market anyway), I can now actually get players for my Star HERO game; the 'trad sci-fi' genre is no longer deeply uncool (thankfully). The universe is a home-brew based on the universe I ran several tournament games in here in the UK (for students, mainly), with the players as the crew of a free trader (which is actually fully paid for - but there are running costs to consider). I am using the 'Venture' (from the Future Armada series of game products) as the party's ship. So far I have 4 players, and of the 3 who have declared the kind of characters they want, not one has asked for a 'gun-bunny' (this is almost unheard-of... I always play the 'combat monster' when I play SF and have never yet seen a group where that stereotype was not the first one picked). Outlines are sketchy so far, but I have (1) a cybered-up super-engineer (2) a mathematics genius astrogator (who looks like he is about to end up as the ship's pilot) (3) someone who is as yet very sketchy, but has the Cyberonics ability (reads the 'minds' of machines and has the nasty side-effect of making them behave erratically). Points values are not yet finalised, but they depend on how lenient I plan to be with the Skills (the less cinematic I make the Skills, the more points the characters will need). I am starting with 175 + 75 and it may go up from there. More news to follow as things take shape - I am hoping to start the game some time near the end of February.

Re: Yet another Fantasy Hero Weapons Thread... Mark 'hit the nail on the head' as usual Something similar is the fact that a lot of central and eastern European cavalry (including Hungarian knights in full Milanese plate), still carried shields into combat long after they had been dropped by most western chivalry: the sheer volume of arrows that a Turkish army could put out (even if only the elite troops - and probably Tatars - would be using a bow/arrow combo that was any good at penetrating decent armour at anything above point-blank range) meant that the chance of an arrow going into a joint or eye slit was high enough that a shield made a very sensible 'insurance policy'. [As an aside, Milanese plate was about 50% harder than equivalent German-made plate armour for a large part of the 15th century - as well as looking really cool, of course. Source: A Companion to Medieval Arms and Armour, Crowood Press; be warned, it is stratospherically expensive ] For a laugh, I checked out how long an arrow would have to be for someone of my build (6'1" tall, 'basketball player'-type) to use a Mongol-style bow draw: 41" including the head... (for comparison, Scythian nomad arrows were about 24" on average, Hunnic arrows 32" [approaching longbow "cloth-yard"-size here]) Something you may want to take note of is that the bow-and-arrow is a launcher/payload combo, so, just as with firearms, the ammo type is extremely important: 1. how heavy is the arrow?; 2. how stiff/flexible is the arrow shaft? (reed arrows absorb the vibration of the loose very well but suck at armour penetration, for example); 3. what type of arrowhead is used and what material is it made of?; and as for the launcher: 1. how efficiently does the bow transfer the energy of the bow draw to the arrow? [which also affects the trajectory - the more efficient bows have a flatter trajectory]; 2. 'Flat' bows are not very efficient but withstand very cold temperatures better than 'standard' bows and a lot better than the most efficient composite types. As with lots of real-world weaponry stuff, complexity is the norm... The hard part is boiling all this stuff down to playable rules. I have been toying with the idea of a 'Negative Piercing' Modifier to cope with those cases where Reduced Penetration is far too crude. [i love this stuff...]

Re: Valdorian Resources There were delays getting Keith's map up on the site, so he emailed a version to me; if you want it, I can send it to you. I also ran a Valdorian Age game at the UK Student RPG Nationals earlier this year and I can make this stuff available as well (HERO Designer files etc.). My party was rather more powerful than the average VA party, but seemed to work well. (Note to self: Must remember how to upload files to this board from my computer - it's been a while)

Re: Sword Oriented Martial Art I suppose this would be an opportune time to plug http://www.thearma.org again; the ARMA (Association for Renaissance Martial Arts) has some very useful info in there about weapon lengths/weights etc., including those lovely 2-handers (complete with an explanation that 'zweihander' is in incorrect term for them). [There is also a wonderfully geeky article on that site about the stresses and strains - in the 'proper' physics sense of those words - put on a sword when it strikes something.] I have seen a quality re-enactment bill unit (about 20 strong); these guys (and girls) like to seriously get stuck into their opponents and have somewhat less restrictions than the SCA (until recently at least, the UK scene was an awful lot less litigious and bothered about health and safety than the US equivalent). The best part was when they got out some padded weapons and turned up a to a LARP session, much to the amusement of us history geeks who loved watching the 'pure' LARPers get absolutely pwned by said bill unit . One of the re-enactors I know thought that medieval re-enactment was too 'soft' and safe () so he started a Classical Greek re-enactment group (gotta love those Greek helmets with virtually no padding inside them at all -time to grow that hair long and bunch it up under the helm boys).

Re: Norse Hero PC builds- feedback welcome A couple more ideas to throw in your general direction: To re-use a post I made a while back, there is always the Brewmaster idea (who creates magical effects from brewing magic beer/mead - I used it successfully in a Valdorian Age game); Also the Skald - a Nordic-style Bard (bring on that harp, baby ); Of course, being from this culture, you would expect them both to be perfectly capable fighters as well (it would be embarrassing if they were not) - their magic is quite low-key, which leaves quite a few points over for 'hacky-slashy' stuff. [Credit where credit is due: both of these ideas come from Swords and Sorcerors; a cultural add-on for Chivalry & Sorcery 1st ed. - which is still sitting on my bookshelf (it's almost a loose-leaf job now, but it's still there ).]

Re: Training away DCV Penalties from Armor Ripping off a skill name from Rolemaster, try "Maneuver in Armor' (I would tend to differentiate for heavy/light and rigid/flexible armour types); As for how much of the DCV penalty to eliminate using that skill/PSL setup; I would tend to let people get rid of all of it except in cases of the clumsiest (not necessarily the heaviest) armour types, where I would allow the character to eliminate most of it, still leaving a final penalty of -1. For armour that is heavy but not clumsy (full Milanese plate comes to mind), if you enforce the Long-Term END rules (and penalties on fine manipulation while wearing gauntlets, PER penalties for closed helmets, etc.), then the old 'game balance' thing (which a lot of people seem to be obsessed with ) can be satisfied as well.

Re: Loyalty To Ziandwyrth I have posted a character below, which you may find inspirational: Not a Paladin of Ziandwyrth, or even a cleric, but a follower (indeed, a follower of my old Turakian Age campaign party's resident 'friendly necromancer', 'Etwas Anderes'), this woman/girl was decidedly odd. Her tutor/master had a morbid fear of badgers (??!!), so she carried a cuddly stuffed badger around and waved it in his face whenever she thought he was being hard on her . She also took great pleasure in seeing him humiliated - not actually seriously hurt (because she wanted to learn stuff off him and actually liked him). She used to wear a mask to cover her face - her COM score relates to her face, not the rest of her body, which would probably equate to COM 14 or thereabouts... (and she wore figure-hugging, translucent dresses, for additional effect). [b]Ophelia - [/b] [b][u]VAL[/u] [u]CHA[/u] [u]Cost[/u] [u]Total[/u] [u]Roll[/u] [u]Notes[/u][/b] 8 STR -2 8 11- HTH Damage 1 1/2d6 END [2] 14 DEX 12 14 12- OCV 5 DCV 5 10 CON 0 10 11- 8 BODY -4 8 11- 18 INT 8 18 13- PER Roll 13- 13 EGO 6 13 12- ECV: 4 13 PRE 3 13 12- PRE Attack: 2 1/2d6 -18 COM 4 -18 5- 2 PD 0 2 2 PD (0 rPD) 2 ED 0 2 2 ED (0 rED) 3 SPD 6 3 Phases: 4, 8, 12 5 REC 2 5 20 END 0 20 17 STUN 0 17 6 RUN 0 6" END [1] 2 SWIM 0 2" END [1] 2 LEAP 0 1 1/2" 1 1/2" forward, 0 1/2" upward [b]CHA Cost: 35[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]POWERS[/u][/b] 13 Luck 4d6 (20 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about a third of its effectiveness (Only when serving Ziandwyrth's purposes; -1/2) - END=0 10 [b][i]Belzorath's Spell Of Waking Dreams[/i][/b]: Sight, Hearing and Touch Groups Images Increased Size (2" radius; +1/4) (25 Active Points); Requires A Sorcery Roll (-1/2), Spell (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) - END=2 13 [b][i]Prismatic Blast[/i][/b]: Energy Blast 4d6, Attack Versus Limited Defense (Sight Group Flash Defense; +1 1/2) (50 Active Points); OAF Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; small topaz crystal; -1 1/4), Requires A Sorcery Roll (-1/2), Spell (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Limited Range (40"; -1/4) - END=5 6 [b][i]Detect Illusion[/i][/b]: Detect illusions 15- (no Sense Group), Discriminatory, Range (17 Active Points); Costs Endurance (-1/2), Extra Time (Full Phase, -1/2), Requires A Sorcery Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) - END=2 3 [b][i]Detect Invisibility[/i][/b]: Detect invisibility 17- (no Sense Group), Range (12 Active Points); OAF Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; finely-ground amber lens; -1 1/4), Costs Endurance (-1/2), Requires A Sorcery Roll (-1/2), Extra Time (Full Phase, to cast, -1/4), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) - END=1 13 [b][i]Spell Of The Diverse Self[/i][/b]: Sight and Hearing Groups Images Increased Size (4" radius; +1/2), -5 to PER Rolls (45 Active Points); Set Effect (duplicates of the caster; -1), No Range (-1/2), Requires A Sorcery Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) - END=4 8 [b][i]Sicard's Spell Of The Varying Visage[/i][/b]: Shape Shift (Sight, Hearing and Touch Groups, any humanoid form), Imitation, Costs END Only To Change Shape (+1/4) (45 Active Points); OAF Expendable (Very Difficult to obtain new Focus; drop of blood from a masquer; -1 1/2), Extra Time (1 Minute, Only to Activate, -3/4), Concentration, thoughout casting (1/2 DCV; -1/2), Gestures, throughout casting (-1/2), Incantations (throughout casting; -1/2), Requires A Sorcery Roll (-1/2) - END=4 9 [b][i]Petros' Spell of Elusion[/i][/b]: Invisibility to Sight Group, Normal Smell, Normal Taste and Normal Hearing (29 Active Points); OAF Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; perfectly clear polished quartz crystal; -1 1/4), Requires A Sorcery Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) - END=3 4 [b][i]Wizard's Hand[/i][/b]: Telekinesis (10 STR) (15 Active Points); OAF (hand-shaped talisman made of precious wood or stone; -1), Requires A Sorcery Roll (-1/2), Spell (-1/2), Affects Whole Object (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) - END=1 4 [b][i]Mending-Spell[/i][/b]: Healing BODY 2d6 (20 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Turn, -1 1/4), Inanimate Objects Only (-1), Concentration, throughout (1/2 DCV; -1/2), Gestures, throughout (-1/2), Incantations (throughout; -1/2), Requires A Wizardry Roll (-1/2) - END=2 4 [b][i]Visage of pure chaos[/i][/b]: Ego Attack 1d6, Trigger: when anyone looks at her real face (Activating the Trigger is an Action that takes no time, Trigger requires a Zero Phase Action to reset, Character does not control activation of personal Trigger, Misfire; +1/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (17 Active Points); No Conscious Control (-2), Gradual Effect (20 Minutes; -1) - END=0 4 [b][i]Blessing of the Laughing God[/i][/b]: Suppress Magic 4d6, Trigger (Activating the Trigger requires a Zero Phase Action, Trigger requires a Turn or more to reset, Character does not control activation of personal Trigger; +1/4) (25 Active Points); No Conscious Control (-2), Limited Power Power loses about two-thirds of its effectiveness (Only when Ziandwyrth wishes; Requires 1 level of Luck; -1 1/2), 4 Charges (-1) - END=[4] [b]POWERS Cost: 91[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]SKILLS[/u][/b] 3 Magic Skill: Sorcery 13- 1 WF: Blades 1 WF: Thrown Knives, Axes, and Darts, Thrown Rocks 3 Faith 12- 0 Bureaucratics 8- 1 Lockpicking 8- 1 High Society 8- 0 First Aid 8- 1 Bribery 8- 2 KS: Principles of Magic 11- 11 Magic Skill: Sorcery 17- 2 Stealth (Everyman) 12- 2 Acting (Everyman) 12- 2 PS: Seamstress 11- 2 PS: Shadow puppetry 11- 2 Concealment (Everyman) 13- 0 Conversation 8- 3 Mimicry (Custom Adder) 13- 0 Climbing 8- 0 Breakfall 8- 0 Shadowing 8- 0 Streetwise 8- 3 Magic Skill: Wizardry 13- 0 Language: Aarnese (idiomatic; literate) (5 Active Points) [b]SKILLS Cost: 40[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]PERKS[/u][/b] 2 Money: Well Off (scholarship) [b]PERKS Cost: 2[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]TALENTS[/u][/b] 3 Magical Talent 6 Combat Luck (3 PD/3 ED) [b]TALENTS Cost: 9[/b] [b][u]Value[/u] [u]DISADVANTAGES[/u][/b] 0 Normal Characteristic Maxima 10 Psychological Limitation: Disassociated from reality (Common, Moderate) [Notes: Other habits: (1) compulsive prankster; (2) always cheerful, even in inappropriate situations; (3) secretly voyeuristic; (4) Friendly; (5) Dainty] 10 Reputation: Dangerous and unpredictable wild talent, 14- (Known Only To A Small Group) 20 Distinctive Features: Horrific mass of swirling multi-coloured polygons for a face (Concealable; Extreme Reaction; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses) 0 Hunted: Aarn Mages' Guild: 11- (Mo Pow, NCI, Limited Geographical Area, Watching, [not counted towards total points]) 0 Hunted: 'Etwas Anderes' 8- (Mo Pow, Mildly Punish, [not counted towards total points]) 0 Psychological Limitation: Must act shy/demure if anyone is watching (Common, Strong, [not counted towards total points]) 10 Psychological Limitation: 'Loyal to Ziandwyrth' (Uncommon, Strong) [b]DISADVANTAGES Points: 50[/b] Base Pts: 80 Exp Required: 47 Total Exp Available: 47 Exp Unspent: 0 Total Character Cost: 177

Re: Gunpowder, Reason and Plot. I <> people who don't phrase their demands carefully when negotiating with me - er, sorry - my characters... (I did like playing Sai ) I might add that one of the main reaons that the party had such a rough time against the cossacks was the fact that we developed a bad case of "can't roll decent combat dice for s##t" after the first couple of phases (though hitting one of the guys in his unarmoured neck with an arrow for 10 BODY was a fun way to start the carnage...).

I recently got hold of a very nice source book on armour; one that has been superseded in some areas (it was originally published in 1967), but which is something of a classic in its field and which (unlike my last find, which was a princely $80 ) does not cost a king's ransom: "Oriental Armour" by H. Russell Robinson, Dover Publications,$16.95 RRP, ISBN 0-486-41818-9. It was the first book to attempt comprehensive coverage of the subject, and covers all the usual suspects (Turkey, Persia, Korea, China, Japan)plus places like Bhutan and the Philippines (brass mail, no less). Lots of nice plates and line diagrams are included - it's well worth the money. I now finally have the pics of all the armour my character (Sai Feng) wore in Shadowsoul's "Gunpowder, Reason and Plot" campaign

Re: Norse Warrior The character write-ups are a real hoot from a 'munchkinising' point of view; forget 'double-dipping' of Disads - more like 'triple-dipping' in some of them. The "Campaign Classics: Vikings" book is of course out of print, but here's hoping that it gets the 'Campaign Classics: Mythic Greece' treatment (i.e. the IP gets sorted out and the book gets scanned and sold as a very reasonably-priced [$8] PDF) -and I still hope that they manage to do the same for "Campaign Classics:Mythic Egypt" as well.

Re: What source material informs your fantasy gaming? Books: Lord of the Rings Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (OK, it is indeed a whiny, over-written angst-fest, but if you can stomach the literary style there are some gems in there) Feist's first series (Riftwar saga) Moorcock's Eternal Champion stuff (esp. Elric/Corum) Fritz Leiber's 'Swords' stuff Dying Earth Most of the works of REH Some Forgotten Realms stuff (Empires trilogy was fun as was Maztica) For more Horror-oriented stuff: Clark Ashton Smith's Hyperborea and Zothique stories A veritable plethora of lesser S&S/epic stuff, some cheesy-but-fun (War of Powers comes to mind - and that's ignoring the soft porn bits...) Lighter-hearted stuff includes Incompleat Enchanter series Turn-offs: Thieves World (after the first few stories anyway - D-U-L-L!) Any of the Myth-series (I found them annoying and trying too hard to be witty, rather than actually being amusing).

Re: D&D 4th Oddly enough, although I was a keen player of OD&D and AD&D1 'back in the day' (I only played 2nd edn about 3 times as I was out of RPGing during most of that edition's 'lifespan'), I bought the core rulebooks for 3.5 mainly out of curiosity and also as a reference for when I am trying to get D&D types to play HERO - it give me a frame of reference to work with so I know 'where they are coming from', as it were. I will probably get 4e for a similar reason (the game itself does not look like it will appeal to me at all - unless I know a really good GM that is running a game of it), and also because I work in publishing (typesetting and layout) and can count the rulebooks as a business expense (). I suppose the good news is that when I roll out a Forgotten Realms HERO campaign (hopefully next academic year) using mainly 2nd and 3rd ed. materials (apart from a converted Kara-Tur set) and play fast and loose with the 'canon',people will be less likely to be anally retentive about it after seeing what WOTC are doing with that setting . I will probably still check out Pathfinder though - just out of curiosity.

Re: What was that? Elvis weapon in LOTR movie. Nice find Theron - that cool Maciejowski Bible picture, which reminded me of a weapon that I should have remembered earlier - the faus or faussal (to use the French names - oddly enough, derived from the Latin falx [odd, that...]). It was like the weapon the mounted character in the brown surcoat is using, but usually looking even more crude (a wider blade to make up for the inferior steel) and used by infantry. There is an line drawing of a figure using one of these weapons in Armies of Feudal Europe 1066-1300 (by Ian Heath, published Wargames Research Group), page 85, figure 28, apparently also based on an illustration in the Maciejowski Bible (sometimes the weapon is depicted with a grip shaped like an umbrella handle). A very similar weapon, whose 'native' name I do not know, was used in Spain during the same period.

Re: What was that? Elvis weapon in LOTR movie. I was seriously considering building "Blue Suede Shoes" in HERO Designer as a magic "Elvis" weapon and posting it to this thread - before I came over all dull and sensible...

Re: What was that? Elvis weapon in LOTR movie. Those Elven weapons are like a falx in reverse - the falx curves forward (the joys of pull-cutting and using the point like a pick), whereas the Elven weapons curve backwards; the nearest 'real-world' weapon I have seen to them (though nowhere near as flamboyant in style) was in the Osprey book 'Medieval Chinese Armies 1260-1520' (Men-at-Arms Series 251, bottom of page 7, second weapon from the right).