Bismark

Re: Ideas for a new fantasy campaign For HERO stats for a the shapeshifting serpent-man race, check out the Silyssen from the Valdorian Age book - should save you some effort.

Re: The Professions of Arms You are indeed correct - they were recruited from non-Muslims and then 'converted' and trained (analogous to other Muslim ghulam-type troops); only when times were bad were they recruited via a draft of the Muslim population. I know I should have mentioned the above in my original post, but I was half-asleep when I wrote it. [i have also loaned out my Ottoman Turk reference book to a friend so he can plan his 16th-century Low Fantasy HERO campaign for next term; bad timing if I need to look stuff up]

Re: The Professions of Arms Janissaries (yeni-ceri - 'new troops') started off as archers on foot - the equivalent mounted troops status-wise being the Kapikulu (transliterations of these names vary, as always... and some foreign characters do not render properly on this board , so I have left off accents). Later the bows were replaced by muskets (tufek) Recognizable by their characteristic white hats, they generally had mail shirts as armour (although they could equip themselves more heavily if they had the cash/looted it from victims, mail reinforced with small plates being popular, especially among officers), sabres, probably a yataghan as well, as whatever their personal choice of 'can-opener' was (some had flails, others maces, still others halberds:thumbup:). Favourite battle formation was formed up behind a rampart with stakes and a ditch in front of it, with the expendable 'grunts' (azab) in front to slow the enemy down while they were hammered by missile fire. In short, they are regular missile troops with unusually high morale, decent bows (let down where AP capability is concerned by the Turkish habit of using light arrows) and far more competent in melee than archers normally are (they had to be good swordsmen as well). In some periods their quality dropped off, but we are talking 'proper' janissaries here, not the inferior versions. That give you enough to work with?

Re: Metal Elementalist? The really old FGU game Bushido has a College of Metal Magic, not surprisingly since Metal is one of the 'elements' in that game (the elements being Fire, Air, Water, Wood and Metal). The game is positively ancient now, but PDFs are still available (Darts of Metal was a fun little spell in that game, I recall).

Re: Another year, another game world Well, I now have the shiny new PDFs of the new Rolemaster Classic core books, all ready to print out, so Stage 1 of the conversion has started...

Re: Democratic Republics in Fantasy Worlds? Depends on the definition of 'competent', really, although the Mesopotamian cities could provide some reasonable infantry, they were mainly for the defence of those cities rather than components of Parthian armies invading Roman territory. I did not mention the Armenian allies as they were also available to the Sassanids (when they weren't flip-flopping their allegiance between Persia and Rome - something they were -ahem! - notorious for). The improvements under the Sassanid regime include trained regular archer units (some mail-armoured), the use of Dailami troops for more than skirmishing (i.e. giving them mail and turning them into the Royal Guard). Even the infamously bad levies (paighan) were useful for siege warfare. [Just as a side-note, my current wargaming army is the 'Little Kushan' - the combination of Kushan Empire troops and the Chionite/Kidarite 'Huns' that intermittently warred with the Sassanids before getting overrun by the Hephthalites; it's fun mixing cataphracts and frothing Hun-style cavalry…] Back on topic , you could try something similar to the republican states of northern India at about the time of the Macedonian conquest (these were of course still affected by the dreaded caste structure, but less so than the kingdoms to the south of them,as the Vedic influence was diluted by Iranian influences). These could be made more 'democratic' in the modern sense of the term without too much of a stretch of the imagination.

Re: Democratic Republics in Fantasy Worlds? Warning: Temporary thread derail and slightly rambling post A distinction has to be drawn between the Achaemenid and Sassanian Persians regarding their approach to religion. Although both Zoroastrian, the former were far more tolerant of other religions than the latter, who had been traumatized by 600 years of foreign rule (first Seleucid, then Parthian) and had added an unhealthy dose of nationalistic zeal to their religion. They even wrote the previous 600 years out of their history, conveniently confusing Philip of Macedon with the Roman Emperor Philip the Arab. The Sassanians also promoted the Nestorian Heresy as a way of limiting the eastward expansion of the Roman Church. On the other hand, they are rather cool (from a wargamer's perspective) and more recent info on them is revealing why they were a serious rival to the Romans (unlike their Parthian predecessors, they actually had competent infantry as well as nasty cavalry). I used a variant of Sassanian Persia (with bit of Samanid dynasty Islamic Persian thrown in) as the basis for the Hargeshite Empire of Vashkor in my Turakian Age campaign a while back. [sort of] back on topic: Even in its good days, Athens was (like Rome) not a safe place to walk around at night (or even in the daytime if you were female and did not have an escort). Something to bear in mind even about democratic societies is the nature of law enforcement. To use the Athenian model again, foreign barbarians (including long-haired scary Scythians) were often used as police because they were regarded as less corrupt than the locals. As regards other forms of violence in fairly democratic societies, the (pre-Northern Crusades) Estonian model was 'interesting'. The legal system was a bit scary - sneaky crimes were not allowed, but face-to-face fights which resulted in the death of one party were perfectly OK - a weak man had no right to his life or property. Hope this helps a little.

Re: Another year, another game world Thanks for the info guys (thanks for the PM, LL). Now to design a Mentalism spell enhancer that just happens to look and act like a helmet () - one of the oldest Rolemaster min-max fiddles known…

Re: Another year, another game world

Re: Another year, another game world Cheers for the link… but thanks to your thread about HERO Conversions/Adaptations ( :D ) I found that link a while ago, and it is what gave me the idea of possibly using Shadow World as my campaign location. I got my old RM stuff back off a friend the other day and it was only then I realised which edition it was - the 1988-89 edition (i.e. 1st edition after they changed it to book rather than boxed set format). Ahh, the memories… Later this month my objective is to start codifying the magic rules for the new campaign, as well as finish my Hero Designer write-up of the Janak (Hue-Eater/Life-Eater) - a very nasty NPC intelligent race.

Re: Essential equipment for a starting mage

In campaigns like mine, where PCs are allowed to start with magic items provided that they have paid the points for them, might I suggest the following set of kit: Helm, gauntlets and archer's belt ('giblet protector'); all bought without the Real Armour Limitation so as not to interfere with Perception , nor vocalisation (hence Incantations:thumbup:), nor fine manipulation (hence Gestures:thumbup:). Result: Armour protection for locations 3 and 13 (the REALLY important and/or difficult to armour ones) with no real downside for the mage apart from the fact that some of his/her precious starting points have been used up on kit instead of spells/skills. [bTW, by 'archer's belt' I mean the bronze/iron plates/scales over leather ones worn by the ancient Scythians - there are nice illustrations of this in the Osprey Men-at-Arms book 'The Scythians 700-300 BC' - particularly Plate B Figure 1, although many other figures have a pretty substantial belt, this guy has 2 - a leather one of normal size on top of the armoured one which is much broader] Of course, if you have the points , by all means buy a haubergeon or even full armour - but it will cost you a lot more than careful selection of vital areas to armour [you could always buy Combat Luck for the rest…]

Re: Another year, another game world I have a copy of Nomads of the Nine Nations (which I have borrowed from a friend) and I have a copy of the only 'canon' SW novel 'Stormriders', which details which supplements have FH stats in them and which do not. Unfortunately, only some of the supplements have been reissued as PDFs… but they do include the Emer and Jaiman supplements . Of course, converting from RM will be made easier by the fact that the friend I borrowed stuff off knows more about RM than I do about HERO, so will be a valuable resource.

With the current academic year (and RPGing season) coming to a close (3 weeks left before our players all have exams), my Valdorian Age campaign is drawing to a close. Having come to the conclusion that the campaign was OK, but not really 'me' (it appears that I enjoy reading S&S much more than running it), I told the 2 players I am expecting to still be here next academic year that next year I would be reverting to 'home territory' (i.e. a High Fantasy-type campaign) and asked them what campaign world they fancied adventuring in. I gave them the choice of: 1. Turakian Age 2. Forgotten Realms 3. Greyhawk 4. Shadow World I really should not have asked - they plumped for the one that involves the most work for yours truly, namely Shadow World. Now I have the job of setting up this campaign and keeping the flavour of Shadow World. The 'interesting' bit will be the magic system - I want to keep the 3 types of RoleMaster magic without slavishly copying the RM spell list system (which would be mucho work). Oh well, here we go…

Re: Raven: Swordmistress of Chaos Ah, yes - The War of Powers... Apart from the unlikeliest event in the series happening within the first few pages (the first bit of, ahem, 'action' between the hero and heroine), it was pretty decent; there was even an attempt to deal with the logistics of trading between a flying city and the ground below (the silk balloons specially made by domesticated spiders - nice idea). I have the whole series (published in the UK as a 2-volume set with each volume containing 3 of the original books) Creepy serpent men - check Nasty monsters - check Classic S&S - style sorcery (think much higher-powered Valdorian Age magic) - check Sudden change of pace from S&S to epic (like the Elric books did) - check Entertaining characters (horny genies, anyone? ) I have actually run Fantasy Hero in that world (about 15 years ago) - it was fun. [back on topic] I only have the second book ('A Time of Ghosts') at the moment, and have only read the first 2 books in total (I read the first book when I was 18 - about the right time for the hot girl-on-girl action, I suppose ). I had the feeling that it was being deliberately cheesy and gently lampooning the genre a little; of course, writing up a Crugoan would be fun. The beastmen would be fairly straightforward, however. Must read the book again so I can get an idea of how to do HERO write-ups

Re: Tuala Morn Discussion : I'm part-Scottish by ancestry - from a particularly backward and savage part (well, at least in Roman times) apparently (just south of the Northern Isles, in fact); hence one of my workmates in my last job referred to me as the 'moss-eating savage'

Re: Tuala Morn Discussion Having had a look at the preview and the reviews and earlier comments, I will almost certainly buy this, even though I normally have an aversion to anything that says 'Celtic' and then appears to be Scottish/Welsh/Irish (living in the UK and playing a lot of Pendragon, this stuff usually elicits a big 'yawn'). My interests lie, like one of the earlier posters, with the Iron Age Halstatt/La Tene period continental cultures (roll on those ubiquitous bronze Montefortino helmets...). One 'plus point' of those cultures is that you can have 'knights' that are a core part of the culture - the noble cavalry occasionally armoured in mail (which is generally thought to be a Celtic invention anyway) with the distinctive 4-horned saddles later adopted by Rome (as were shoulder protectors characteristic of Celtic mail shirts). If you want to throw in a 'curve ball' try the culture thought to be a hybrid of Celtic and Dacian - the Bastarnae. They have light cavalry supported by infantry (specially selected for their fitness and running ability) in what was at the time a 'German' way of fighting (and which usually allowed the German cavalry to win against most Celtic cavalry, who did not use supporting infantry), some 'standard' unarmoured sword, spear + shield warriors, and some armed with the Dacian 2-handed sica battle-scythe (known to the Romans as a falx). Add in a healthy dose of frothing 'win-or-die-trying' attitude, and they could be fun… The suggested use of the rules to enforce a less 'generic' way of character-building and keep things consistent with the genre being emulated is a very good idea, as other posters have previously stated. The use of what appears to be phonetic spelling for the 'beasties' (at least, those in the preview) is a nice touch - previously, I have seen only RuneQuestIII make an attempt at telling people how to pronounce the names of the critters (they spelt the names conventionally, then put the pronunciation in brackets afterwards).

Re: Divide by Three I can definitely see where both the pro- and the anti- viewpoints are coming from. I am (as mentioned earlier) using /3 for my TA campaign, but I doubt that I would use it for any FH campaign that was not a kind of D#D knock-off (which TA is - a rather nice knock-off which I rather like, but still a knock-off). As for the balance issue in FH generally: I remember 1st ed. FH (long before certain people had become creative with Power Frameworks for mages - thanks, Killer Shrike ) where the price of direct attack spells brought about a mirror-image situation to the one moaned about with regard to /3, namely:> "why have a warrior when you can have a warrior-mage?" or "why have a warrior when you can have a warrior-priest?" was preceded by "why have a mage when you can have a warrior-mage?" or "why have a priest when you can have a warrior-priest?". Thief-type characters have changed over the editions and settings, but "why have a Thief when you can have a Nightblade?" has pretty much applied throughout. The excessive price of 'traditional' attack powers (i.e those that do not need Power Defence etc. to defend against, but twhich can be stopped by armour, shields etc.) made the most efficient designs ones that used Drains, Transfers etc. (which caused different balance problems) or those that simply buffed up attacks and defences (after all, Combat Levels [and other Skill Levels] are cheap to buy as Powers, as are Characteristics and - of course - Force Fields). We also had - with serious Limitations on it, but nonetheless we had - Damage Reduction bought as spells (now try dropping that mage with your big axe in one hit - fat chance!). Old Man's comment about Powers not really being balanced for Fantasy makes more sense when you understand that he has also being playing FH since 1st ed. For non-Sword & Sorcery settings (the VA book does a very good job on S&S magic - and it is tweakable for those people wanting to up the power level/ease of use to nearer Elric- rather than Conan-style), there has always been an issue with balance using the systems as presented in the rulebooks - otherwise there would never have been so much effort put in by fans to address it.

Re: Divide by Three Sticking my two-penneth in (and staying well clear of flames - I hope): I have no problems with the /3 rule for high magic settings like Turakian Age (which is what I use it for). I would not use it for S&S or low-magic settings because of the points made earlier about the superior efficiency of battle mages (or battle priests, for that matter) compared with fighters, for instance. Of course, the TA setting also has the various schools of magic, for which a separate skill must be bought; this does cost quite a few points if the mage wants to cast spells from different schools which are of a high AP cost, so either the player has to put in some work convincing the GM that their school of magic should have access to the spell effect they want to use, or he/she has to spend more points buying a Magic skill for a more appropriate school of magic. Obvious limitations of this system are: 1. If the party are 'uber-characters' who take 5 or more schools of magic, such characters could buy their INT {or EGO if they are priests} as high as they can afford so as to take advantage of the increased 'global' magic roll, especially as the points cost of doing so would be in their favour {I would certainly do this if the GM let me - but that's another story } 2. If the players are allowed to mess with the power constructs in the Grimoires or allowed to make their own, they could use the point breaks afforded by /3 to remove all the Limitations from a spell (aside from the ones necessary to qualify for /3). 3. The priestly requirement to base their Faith roll on EGO (rather than the cheaper INT-based skill of the arcane mages) is more than counterbalanced in settings where the priests serve more than one god simultaneously (or whose god has a wide remit) by the wider availability of spell effects governed by that one skill roll. I get around many of these issues by designing the party's characters myself, following their character concepts, but I still have to be careful with min/maxing (something I do by instinct now - I have been doing it ever since Champions II [which introduced me to the concept of points-efficient character design] came out for 2nd ed Champions). Not really an argument as such - just an observation; I would use /3 for TA, but I am not sure whether or not I would use it in another setting (like the Forgotten Realms HERO or Shadow World HERO I have been pondering recently). Oh, and BTW, although I 'cut my RPGing teeth' on OD&D, I also played RQ2 a lot back then (1980-84) and both played and - gasp! - ran Chivalry and Sorcery 1st ed (which, oddly enough, had lots of separate schools of magic, each with their own requirements - I have ripped off several of their spells for FH campaigns in the past), so I am not really interested in duplicating D&D-style magic - just a similar power level.

Re: Character: Kar-Mit Found a picture of the Peltobatrachus (Kar-Mit's 'pet'; for the purposes of my game, I took some liberties with the claw sizes to give it some serious tunneling capabilities (and of course the Mind Link is entirely my own addition), but other than that, here it is... When I have the time I will sort everything out into some proper order and post the HERo Designer files to the HD3 website (together with the rest of our merry band of adventurers).

Re: Character: Kar-Mit Kar-Mit's background (so far - the player is finalising it): Kar-Mit was chosen from an early age to be one of the Chosen of Bhatrak (holy warriors devoted to enforcing religious orthodoxy within the Ran-Tari and acting as champions of their people. [The Chosen are chosen by Bhatrak himself, usually in a vision] He went on a pilgrimage to an old temple far to the south (in the Ulimar Jungle), where he discovered a reclusive hidden Ran-Tari community with strange habits - they "grade" their young (the 'Tads) by chasing them through the breeding pools and eating the ones that are not fit enough to get away. In this case, the elders ate only the 'Tads' heads and kept the tails, which were then ritually grafted onto Kar-Mit's head (and which still wave around as if their former 'owners' were still alive - which freaks outsiders out, for some reason...). That's the story so far folks... enjoy!

Re: Character: Kar-Mit Kar-Mit's pet (as yet unnnamed): this is a Peltobatrachid-like beastie [Peltobatrachids are an extinct amphibian that could live out of water and only needed water in order to breed - they are a sort of amphibian armadillo] The pet is Mind Linked to his master (Kar-Mit) and is a gift from Bhatrak (the Ran-Tari patron god). Val Char Cost 15 STR 5 13 DEX 9 10 CON 0 10 BODY 0 8 INT -2 5 EGO -10 13 PRE 3 4 COM -3 3/6 PD 0 2/3 ED 0 3 SPD 7 5 REC 0 20 END 0 22 STUN -1 4" RUN -4 2" SWIM 0 1" LEAP -2 Characteristics Cost: 2 Cost Power 16 Tunneling 2" through 4 DEF material 3 Extra Limb (Tail) (1), Inherent (+1/4) (6 Active Points); Restrainable (-1/2), Limited Manipulation (-1/4) 1 Life Support (Extended Breathing: 1 END per Turn) 8 Claws: Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 1/2d6 (1d6+1 w/STR) (10 Active Points); Reduced Penetration (-1/4) 5 Bite: Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 1 point (1/2d6 w/STR) 10 Mind Link , One Specific Mind, Psychic Bond 4 +1 PER with Hearing Group and Smell/Taste Group 1 Tough skin with banded horny plates: Damage Resistance (1 PD/1 ED) 4 Horny plates as armour: [Armour] (3 PD/1 ED) (6 Active Points); Limited Power [Only on top of head and around torso] (-1/2) Powers Cost: 52 Cost Skill 3 Stealth 12- 0 Climbing 8- 0 Breakfall 8- 3 Tracking 11- Skills Cost: 6 Total Character Cost: 60 Pts. Disadvantage 0 Normal Characteristic Maxima 5 Physical Limitation: Can only leap 1" (Infrequently, Slightly Impairing) 5 Physical Limitation: Short legs - reduced running (4" total) (Infrequently, Slightly Impairing) 15 Physical Limitation: Ectothermic (Frequently, Greatly Impairing) 10 Physical Limitation: Limited manipulation (Frequently, Slightly Impairing) 15 Physical Limitation: Animal intelligence (Frequently, Greatly Impairing) Disadvantage Points: 50 Base Points: 10 Experience Required: 0 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0

Kar-Mit is a Ran-Tari from the Cormouth Swamp (Turakian Age setting). He is an adventurer (oddly enough) belonging to one of my long-suffereing players. One 'house rule' used is that any Everyman Skills are cheaper to upgrade to 'full' Skills than others (a hangover from my 4th ed days of Package Bonuses etc.). Another one is that I gave him a Martial Maneuver without insisting on 10pts-worth [this is a sort of fudge to simulate something that I could have done with a Fighting Tricks-style ability, but never mind...]; it's actually an ability related to his status as one of Bhatrak's Chosen. More detailed background [nicluding what exactly those Taddy tails are] + his pet/follower to follow very soon (i.e. after I have eaten...) Val Char Cost 20 STR 10 20 DEX 30 18 CON 16 13 BODY 6 18 INT 8 13 EGO 6 20 PRE 10 0 COM -5 4 PD 0 4 ED 0 4 SPD 10 8 REC 0 28 END -4 27 STUN -5 5" RUN -2 4" SWIM 0 6" LEAP 0 Characteristics Cost: 80 Cost Power 1 Amphibious: LS (Extended Breathing (1 END per Turn) 1 END per Turn) 2 Strong Leaper: Leaping +2" (6" forward, 3" upward) 2 Webbed Hands And Feet: Swimming +2" (4" total) 5 Ran-Tari Eyes: Nightvision 4 "Grippy" hands/feet: Clinging (normal STR) (10 Active Points); Requires A Climbing Roll (Extra -1 to Skill Roll for each limb not being used for the clinging; -3/4), Restrainable (-1/2) 1 Toughness of the Chosen: Damage Resistance (1 PD/1 ED) 7 Chameleon powers: Invisibility to Sight Group , Costs END Only To Activate (+1/4) (25 Active Points); Limited Power: Only works while stationary and not wearing clothing/armour (-1 1/2), Concentration (0 DCV; -1/2), Activation Roll 14- (-1/2) 2 "Taddy tail" dreadlocks: Extra Limb (1), Inherent (+1/4) (6 Active Points); Limited Power Only 5 STR (-1), Restrainable (-1/2), Limited Manipulation (-1/4) Powers Cost: 24 Cost Martial Arts Maneuver 4 Quick Shot -blowgun: 1/2 Phase, +1 OCV, +0 DCV, Range +0, Strike, +2 DC Martial Arts Cost: 4 Cost Skill 2 Stealth (Everyfrog) 13- 5 WF: Common Melee Weapons, Common Missile Weapons, Blowguns 2 Survival (Temperate/Subtropical) 13- 3 Animal Handler (Aquatic Animals, Reptiles & Amphibians) 13- 2 Concealment (Everyfrog) 13- 2 Breakfall (Everyfrog) 13- 3 Linguist 2 1) Language: Aarnese (fluent conversation) (3 Active Points) 0 2) Language: Ran-tari (Ardunan) (imitate dialects) (5 Active Points) 2 3) Language: Vestrian (fluent conversation) (3 Active Points) 2 Acrobatics (Everyfrog) 13- 3 Tracking 13- 1 KS: Flora And Fauna of swamps (Everyfrog) 11- 2 Climbing (Everyfrog) 13- 2 +2 with Stealth (4 Active Points); Only In Swamp/Marsh/Fen Environments (-1) 4 +2 OCV with Blowpipe 3 Shadowing 13- 6 Penalty Skill Levels: +4 vs. Hit Location modifiers with Blowgun 0 PS: Reedweaver 8- 0 PS: Leatherworker 8- 3 Traveler 1 1) AK: Aarn and environs 8- 1 2) AK: Cormouth swamp and environs (Everyfrog) (2 Active Points) 12- 1 3) AK: Ulimar jungle 8- 0 4) AK: Vestria 8- 2 PS: Brew Poison 11- 1 Mimicry 8- 3 Faith 12- 2 First Aid (Everyfrog) 13- 3 KS: Herbalism And Healing-Lore 13- Skills Cost: 63 Cost Perk 12 Peltobatrachid Follower (60 base points) Perks Cost: 12 Cost Talent 3 Environmental Movement (Aquatic Movement) 2 Trackless Stride 6 Combat Luck (3 PD/3 ED) 3 Combat Luck (3 PD/3 ED) (6 Active Points); Requires A Faith Roll (-1/2), Only When Serving The God's Purposes (-1/2) 3 Bump Of Direction Talents Cost: 17 Total Character Cost: 200 Pts. Disadvantage 0 Dependence: must immerse self in water at least once per day Takes 1d6 Damage (Common, 1 Day) 10 Psychological Limitation: Scorns "Civilized" People And Practices (Common, Moderate) 10 Distinctive Features: Waving "Dreadlocks" of grafted-on 'Taddy' tails (Concealable; Always Noticed and Causes Major Reaction; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses; Not Distinctive In Some Cultures) 20 Psychological Limitation: Devotion To The God And His Purposes (Very Common, Strong) 10 Social Limitation: "Barbarian" (Frequently, Major, Not Limiting In Some Cultures) 0 Physical Limitation: Human Size 0 Normal Characteristic Maxima Disadvantage Points: 50 Base Points: 150 Experience Required: 0 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0

Re: Fantasy Hero Problems and advantages Count me in... As for solidifying ideas about projects - that will have to wait until tomorrow as a feel my bed calling me (it is 2.45 am where I am, after all) and my higher brain functions are shutting down...

Re: Fantasy Hero Problems and advantages Good point well made, Von D-Man! Well folks, we as the HERO community have the talent to help DOJ support Turakian Age in a manner more in keeping with other, bigger publishers, but do we have the will (or the time for that matter?). Where certain projects are not viable for DOJ to do on their own (the Celtic Bestiary was an example of this - though a chunk of it will be incorporated into Tuala Morn), maybe we could do a lot of the donkey work (or even - - create a licenced add-on). Scenarios would almost certainly have to be done via the licenced route (and probably as PDFs, for that matter) if they were going to be "properly published" as it were, because of the financial considerations- the earlier suggestion regarding publishing stuff as HERO Plus sounds like a viable idea. We have plenty of creative types in this community, judging by the posts I have seen in the last 2 years. We also have a few history geeks, which certainly helps when "fleshing out" kingdoms that have identifiable historical analogues. I can also add in a few extras (I can help out with the non-sentient monster shortage, for instance). Also I do layout/typesetting for a living. Customised layouts are perfectly possible (which would -if I had the choice - be fancier than the standard DOJ one but NOT one of those hideous style-over-substance jobs that appear far too often on the shelves of my FLGS). There would obviously have to be the usual oversight for an add-on (like, for example, a "HERO Bestiary II" - type project) to make sure that the power levels of supposedly similar monsters are not to divergent (which can happen because different GMs use different power levels in their campaigns - I started off using [100+50] TA characters and am now using [150+50], which impacts what sort of challenges the party can face down). Again, we have some artistically-gifted members, so we can at least make things look professional in the art department. I am aware that a lot of us are getting on in years () and Real Life tends to intrude quite a lot, but there is that saying: "if you want anything done, ask a busy person", so there you go... You already have one willing volunteer :D