dugfromthearth

Re: alternate weapon design mod: undreadys -1/4 or -1/2

Correct to a point.

Yes this is extra time essentially. But "ready" is an existing maneuver, so it isn't quite the same.

Also in the pre-built weapons like axes they do not include the effect at all.

So this is a special version of extra time, with the recommendation to use it for weapons such as axe which is not done in the standard equipment lists.

Weapons in Hero are assumed to stay ready once you have readied them. You can use them over and over again. But unbalanced weapons such as axes become unreadied after each use and must be re-readied.

This limitation makes it so that after a weapon is used - to attack or block - it becomes unready and must be re-readied before it can be used again. It makes axes and other unbalanced weapons cheaper but a little bit worse then swords.

Note that this does not have a huge effect in straight fighting as you can ready for 1/2 phs and then attack for 1/2 phs. It does prevent moving and attacking, sweeping multiple opponents, or blocking multiple opponents.

To account for this in the martial arts maneuver creation, a maneuver can be made to ready a weapon for +2 points. Usually it readys the weapon before the maneuver is done (you swing the weapon in a circle to ready and attack in one motion).

The limitation should be -1/2 takes additional half phase each use, but weapons requiring readying once should get a -1/4 takes additional half phase and then can use repeatedly.

I use both, but assuming normal weapons get no limitation, make "weapon unreadys" a -1/4 limitation.

This is based on the spreadable part of the energy blast. It lets a dc be used for a +1 OCV, I don't allow it to be used to hit multiple hexes or targets since melees can sweep for that. So it is a limited form of spreadable.

For weapon design you buy the advantage for 1dc per 18" of blade or striking surface on the weapon. So a dagger is none, a short sword is 1dc spreadable, a 2 handed sworded is 4dc spreadable.

The idea is that for maximum damage you try to hit at or near the tip of the weapon - this gives it the most leverage. But you can aim for further down on the weapon, giving you a better chance to hit (since you have a bigger area to hit with) but doing less damage.

An example of where this really makes a difference is the staff. A staff is a 4d6 normal dmg weapon. As such it is not very desirable. But a 6' staff would have all 4dc spreadable. So instead of 4d6 dmg you could get +4 OCV, very useful for blocking - making the staff a low dmg but good defensive weapon.

The +1/4 is based on not "beam - or not spreadable" for EB's is -1/4 and this is less powerful then spreadable is.

Re: Alternate hit location rules

I'll have to tag this to look at at home.

I've been using the GURPS hit location chart but having the damage multiplier kick in after armor (like it does in GURPS) to make up for the lower penalties to hit locations.

Re: How to build this weapon?

On first thought I'd build it with charges and clips of 1 charge each.

A clip requires 1 phase to change the clip after a shot.

But if you don't want the player to have to manually recharge it, just have it auto-recharge, I would hack a special recharge rule: do it as clips but instead of taking a 1 phase action it takes 1 turn but no action.

Re: Superheroic Heroic games

I do this already.

Fantasy Hero:

fighter: def 6 armor (free), 2d6 hka sword (free), 1d6 rka bow (free)

mage: def 6 forcefield, 1d6 rka fireball

I've never understood why the fighter should get his powers free while the mage had to pay for them. It made people come up with all kinds of free gear to get superpowers.

Making people pay for all of their equipment makes it balanced.

It is also great because then the barbarian who wears no armor is not penalized for roleplaying becaue the other fighters all get free armor and he doesn't.

okay found this on Slate about the movie Eternal Sunshine:

"Particularly traumatic memories appear to be captured by two separate parts of the brain: the hippocampus, the normal seat of memory, and the amygdala, one of the brain's emotional centers. People incapable of forming long-term memories thanks to hippocampal damage can nonetheless form subconscious memories of traumatic events if their amygdala is intact. Someone suffering from the Memento condition would likely have a feeling of general unease encountering a person or a situation that had caused them harm in the past, though they wouldn't be able to put their finger on what was making them uncomfortable."

Would make for an interesting adventure. Character has lost their concious memories but has danger sense based on their subconcious memories. Could be other weird senses as well.

use a multipower

define the standard "loaded" round.

buy the other grenade ammo types as slots with the "additional time full phase" to indicate that it has to be loaded specially.

Not quite perfect, but gives the general idea.

let me try to explain PS skills

John is a locksmith. He learned how to pick locks at a trade school. He buys lockpicking skill.

James is a thief. He climbs into people's homes, steals stuff, and sells it to a fence. He has done this for awhile. James may have lockpick skill, or he may just break windows. Assume over time he learned to pick locks. So he has PS: thief, and lockpick skill

Now when it comes to looking for a place to rob, James can use his PS to check for which one is easiest. His PS will cover things like checking for amount of light, dogs, etc. When he gets into the house, he could roll PS to look for stuff to steal - jewlery in drawers, etc. Both where to find valuables, and what could easily be fenced. Then once he has the stuff he can use PS to contact a fence and sell the goods.

If there is a safe in the house, each could make a lockpick roll to pick it.

I don't think an INT aid is what you are looking for.

nothing stops an INT 5 character from behaving basically normally, they just have a -2 on INT skills compared to an INT 15 character.

it seems like you would want some physical limitations that only apply if the character is away from the group (physical just meaning can't control it, the would actually be mental).

I have found consistently that if you say 8d6 is the min, 10d6 is norm, and 12d6 is max - everyone has 12d6

I prefer no limits, I just have to approve the characters.

For example one character was allowed a 60 str AOE tk - which let him do 12d6 AOE attack. 120pt power.

But he could only do it in full darkness. In daylight he had only an 8d6 attack (he couldn't do AOE in daylight).

I've played a character who had a 15d6 punch with OCV 15 and around 45 PD and ED (most resistant, some hardened), in a campaign where the normal limit was 12d6. But he was spd 4 and had a 0 DCV (psych lim, wouldn't avoid attack). So he was great against martial artists, not great against bricks, and lousy against agents with autofire. He had a teammate who did 10d6 move-bys which were "underpowered" but great against agents (he did multiple move-bys). They worked as a team.

um, Atlantis comparisons to anime were made because the film is a direct rip-off of an anime series. And when I say direct rip-off I mean the characters, plot, everything.

http://www.thesecretofbluewater.com/atlantis-i.htm

I would not put Lovecraft stories as pulp because they are not adventure stories. However, I just looked up "pulp" in dictionary.com and it says:

A publication, such as a magazine or book, containing lurid subject matter.

So I looked up "lurid"

lurid

1. Causing shock or horror; gruesome.

2. Marked by sensationalism:

given that definition I can't say Lovecraft doesn't fit.

Of course given that definition Al Franken's books are pulp.

cover is a great idea

now with a grab you can also do str dmg.

I wonder if you could do a grab-cover with the effect of a grab, but the str dmg is "covered". So if you want you can do the str dmg unless they slip out.

basically you want either backlash, backlash which does dmg even if you break out, or for the grab to be resisted by EGO or CON instead of Str (reflecting that you can break free if you can ignore the pain of doing so).

not sure how to do it with a maneuver.

"Potential uses for a lot of snow: Putting out fires. Entertaining children. Preserving a severed limb. Snow Cones. A variety of truly impractical jokes (filling the heromobile with snow, or Obsidian's room, or an elevator). Creating a hasty crash pad."

most of these are simply entangle.

putting out fires: fire has uncontrolled with limitation it is put out by water (including snow).

Entertaining children: pre attack displaying a power

preserving a severed limb: no rules for this at all

filling rooms: creating walls of snow using the entangle power.

crash pad: this I'm not sure

given that you can buy +1d6 RKA OIF-gun of opportunity to reflect doing more damage with guns because you place shots better in the chest and head, I don't see why you couldn't get increased damage from ranged attacks with a martial maneuver to indicate the same thing. I would not allow that to apply to AoE, but see no reason why an electrified arrow couldn't get the bonus.

here is the historic basis:

armor consists of facing and padding (which might be the same part of the armor but they are two different effects).

Facing is what stops penetration. It is what stops blades from cutting flesh, arrowheads from digging into flesh, etc.

Padding is what absorbs the impact of the blow. An axe blow that doesn't cut through the armor would still smack you quite hard and could bruise you, break bones, stun you, etc.

As the medieval era progressed weapons got sharper (as steel became higher quality) and armor got heavier to counter them.

Now plate armor has a big advantage over flexible armor in that the blow is spread out over a bigger area of padding. But that advantage is not as big as plate's advantage vs pointed weapons and edged weapons. Basically the padding advantage of plate is not as great as the facing advantage of plate.

Plate also has one huge disadvantage compared to flexible armor - once dented plate stays dented. So once a blow overcame the rigidity of the plate, it would buckle. People could suffocate because the plate pressed against their chest or stomach and prevented them from breathing.

Now realistically plate should not be halved against crushing attacks. Particularly because that makes them vulnerable to weak crushing attacks - which plate was not. So it does not give a realistic effect.

This is a basic game philosophy question. Do you prefer a game to be simplified through fewer details or more details.

Example: Attack power

You could have one attack power, and then have adders and limitations for range, killing, avld, nnd, comes back over time not with recovery, based on ECV, etc.

So a drain would be an attack with no range, avld, and comes back over time not with recovery. An ego attack would be an attack with range and based on ECV, etc.

Now you could regard having one attack power as being simpler. There is only one power. Everything else is just built off of that.

Or you could look at it as being more complicated. If you want an HKA you have to construct it, instead of just using the pre-built power HKA.

So would you rather have some "simplified" version with an attack, defense, movement, sense, aid, etc power set and then construct everything from those, or have the full set of pregenerated powers with their own little quirks?

For me, I would prefer to have a simplified system with only a few core powers, lots of adders and limitations, and then a big list of "standard" powers built from them. Much the way Fred includes examples on how to build poison, handcuffs, spells, etc. So players could just use the pregenerated powers or go down to the core level and use the raw powers plus adders and limitations.

I use the simplest system I know of.

every 5pts in a KA is 1d6. Roll dmg as per a normal attack, but only resistant defenses apply as per a killing attack.

Makes it much easier on new players as well.

I would tell the player "I will allow this, but you can expect to have your immortality surpressed or drained at least 1/4 of the time"

then I would drain it about 1/2 the time.

but that's just me.

basically you aren't wanting to do a move through, you are wanting to do a move up and hit. Which would be a 1/2 move followed by an attack. In which case the hex would be adjacent at the start of the attack and be DCV 0.

but if you want the extra dmg from the move through, then you also suffer the penalties of the move through - which includes that the hex was not adjacent at the start of the maneuver.

players choice

I think you are confused

the -1/2 is a -.5 limitation

it is not a modifier to the contortionist or lockpicking roll (I think you think that it is -1 to lockpicking skill and -2 to contortionist)

there is no modifier to the skill rolls.

a key thing to remember is that to be properly medieval, magic and religion have to work.

a "medieval" world in which the players know that priests have no power, gods and devils do not exist, and witches cannot really curse them, would not be anything like the historic medieval world.

Heck just saying definitively to your players that psychic powers do not exist, nor does magic or ghosts, would eliminate a lot of the mindset of the modern world.

specifically a power has an OAF limitation worth -1 if a grab maneuver in combat can take the item away.

for some things such as wings a grab maneuver can prevent the power from being used but not actually take the item away. This is "restrainable" -1/2

so "restrainable" means "obvious accessible but not take-awayable focus"