Lucius

Quicksand: (Total: 112 Active Cost, 41 Real Cost) Telekinesis (30 STR), Area Of Effect (2m Surface; +1/4), Costs Endurance Only To Activate (+1/4), Invisible Power Effects (Inobvious to [two Sense Groups]; +1/2), Uncontrolled (+1/2) (112 Active Points); Limited Power Only to grab, hold, and pull down. Cannot strike, crush, or throw. (-1 1/2), Affects Whole Object (-1/4) (Real Cost: 41) May be escaped in one Turn by making an EGO roll (to not panic) and then a STR vs STR roll. (Uncontrolled requires an escape clause, this is it. ) Lucius Alexander The palindromedary says please see 6th edition vol. 2 p. 152-153

The problem with Drain Running is that someone with little Running can be immobilized, and someone with a high Running will still be able to move. Maybe I should do a search on the word, I'm sure "how to do quicksand" has come up before. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary asks how quick the sand is

This is the system I'll be playtesting. Fortune Points (House Rules) NOTE: These rules are provisional. As Game Operations Director I reserve the right to revoke, alter, amend, or interpret as necessary. Comments welcome, especially after we've had a chance to playtest for a while. What are Fortune Points? Fortune points are a player resource, separate from Character Points, that can be expended in game to gain various benefits for the player characters. They are represented by some kind of physical token, such as poker chips. Everyone Gets Lucky. And Unlucky. All player characters gain 1d6 Luck and 1d6 Unluck as standard traits that don't effect the Character Point total. This stacks with any Luck or Unluck the character has as a Power or Complication. And don't worry, I am writing the rules to deliberately prevent myself from overdoing it on the Unluck rolls. What are Fortune Points Good For? (Note: I reserve the right to veto any proposed use of Fortune Points if I feel it's for the good of the game.) 1. Wish me Luck! Before making a Skill roll, to-hit roll, or similar 3d6 resolution roll, spend 1 or 2 Fortune points. For each Fortune point spent, add 1d6 to the roll and drop the highest die. For a really critical roll I may allow 3 Fortune points to be spent (so you would roll 6d6 and keep the 3 lowest dice.) 2. Close Call! If a resolution roll is missed by only 1 pt, spend a Fortune point to change it to a success. 3. Do-Over: After making a Skill, to-hit, damage, location, or effect roll – practically any time you roll dice – you can spend 2 Fortune points to re-roll. Keep the better roll. 4. Bad Luck? No thanks! If I ask you to make an Unluck roll (for your own character or a character associated with yours) spend a Fortune point to avoid the roll. Must declare before making the roll. 5. Second Wind: Spend a Fortune point to get a “free” RECovery (get back END and STUN equal to your REC.) 6. Not Dead Yet! If at negative BOD spend a Fortune point to stabilize and stop bleeding to death. 7. I Can Take It! Spend a Fortune point to mitigate certain effects of damage, such as: ignore being stunned; turn a a disabling blow into an impairing blow, or ignore an impairing blow (thus 2 Fortune points to completely mitigate disabling) 8. Seize the Initiative! Spend a Fortune point to act first this phase. Spend 3 Fortune points to act first each phase this Turn, or to let all your allies act before any enemies this phase. 9. I Feel Lucky! Spend a Fortune point to trigger a Luck roll or attempt a “narrative edit” (“Good thing I remembered to bring rope” or “This potion is extra-potent” for examples.) 10. Pushing My Luck.... Spend two or more Fortune points, each adds 1d6 for a Luck roll (whether you triggered it or I asked for it) BUT, if you fail to get any lucky sixes, you have to make an Unluck roll (and you can't spend a Fortune point to get out of it.) 11. Cheat Fate? Spend 3 Fortune points to force a re-roll of a dice roll that directly effects your character. This can be a to-hit roll, damage roll, perception roll of a guard if your character is sneaking into somewhere, etc. But you also immediately take a 3d6 Unluck roll or some other random circumstance inconveniences the character (and you can't spend a Fortune point to get out of it.) This is not allowed to put the character in a worse position; if the re-roll is just as bad for the character, there is NO Unluck stacked on top of it, if the re-roll is an improvement for your character the Unluck still can't be as bad as whatever you were escaping. EXAMPLE: the second to-hit roll fails, but dodging the blow puts you off balance, -1 to Combat Values your next phase. 12. Anything Else? Feel free to suggest other ideas. Except hoarding them; Fortune points unspent at session's end are lost. How do I gain Fortune Points ? 1. Just Show up: Every player each session will get a number of Fortune points to start with. 2. Most valuable Player Award: Each session, the players vote an extra Fortune point for whoever they think most improved the game last session. 3. If it Weren't For Bad Luck, I'd Have No Luck At All: Gain a Fortune point any time you make an Unluck roll. 4. How Bad Can it Be? If you voluntarily add Unluck dice to your own roll, each one gains you a Fortune point. 5. A Gift: Any player can give Fortune points to another player at any time. 6. Roll a Three: Roll a 3 for a Skill or to-hit roll and either take a Luck roll at once to see just how fantastic you did, or take a Fortune point. 7. Love your Imperfections! Gain a Fortune point any time a Complication (other than Unluck) comes into play in a significant way. This can be a Complication taken as such for points, some aspect of the character or background that's not necessarily spelled out on the sheet, or even something that's the consequence of a character's in-game actions (example: you offended an NPC who now shows up again in a position to help or hinder the characters. If they remember the insult, you get a Fortune point.) 8. I Have a Great Idea! Come up with a successful strategy or helpful suggestion. “I'd like some more Fortune points!” doesn't count as a Great Idea. 9. The Volunteer Bonus: Ask for an Unluck roll and suggest what in the situation could go wrong, or remind me of your character's Complications, and gain a bonus Fortune point. 10. As a Reward for Anything Worth Rewarding: For a quotable line, exceptionally in-character action, or anything that makes the game more memorable or entertaining. Lucius Alexander Palindromedary Points

How about OompalOompas? Lucius Alexander Or palindromedaries?

I'd probably use Tunneling, yes. By the way, any particular reason you want it exactly 3X6X10? Another option is to have a huge attack with Variable Advantage and Variable Special Effects (Earth-based) and create holes in the ground by targeting the ground with the attack. I'm not sure this couldn't be Tunneling, Usable as Attack, with the Fill in Hole Adder. The problem with pyroclasm in particular is that it might just break the bank in terms of point expenditure. It sounds pretty pyrocataclysmic. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary thinks I'm just fault-finding

You have a point about Breakfall, in fact I remember thinking "what if they fall off their mammoths?" but forgot to include that Skill somehow. There is no reason for them to have Regeneration. Lucius Alexander What if I fall off my palindromedary?

Deja Vu Lucius Alexander The palindromedary says it's deja vu all over again.

How about this? “Hey, did you know it's been over a year since you created the Upgradeable NPC and 'documented your process?' Weren't you going to follow up on that with another character?” “To be honest I forgot all about it. But I need to create a Troll anyway so I'll take notes as I go along, how's that?” As it happens, I possess the excellent Monsters, Minions, and Marauders book full o' monsters from Hero Games, which has Trolls and Ogres who are probably serviceable; also, I am using the Turakian Age setting, and that book also has a write up for Trolls as potential player characters. But I like rolling my own, so I'm going to build from scratch then compare to the book to see if I missed anything obvious or that I'd want to throw in. I'll be using the Hero Designer software for this, and may occasionally reference the way it organizes things, but the process would essentially be the same without it – just slower. A standard beginning heroic character in Sixth Edition Hero System is built on 125 points, plus up to 50 points added by taking Complications. I've been way too generous with my players on experience, so I'm going to add 100 xp to bump these monsters up to about the same level. Since these are monsters and not player characters it won't matter much if I go over budget, or under for that matter, but that's a good starting point. For those not yet aware, Hero is a point buy system in which Characteristics, Skills, Powers, etc. are all bought from a pool of points; you get a certain number for “free” then can take up to a given amount of “extra” points by taking Complications. Instead of tracking experience until you “go up a level” and unlock several new abilities at once, your XP are spent directly on abilities you want just like the character points you start with. Not that I expect these guys to accumulate much experience, but some might survive their encounter with the player party and come back later.. One can start building a character anywhere but this time I want to start with some Powers. I start a list: Large Humanoid. Consulting the Size Templates I see a Large character is suggested to have +15 STRength. I could buy this “normally” as the Characteristic STR, but I am buying it as a Power because that lets me use Modifiers. For those unfamiliar with the Hero System, Power Modifiers include Advantages, which make a Power better in some way but more expensive, and Limitations, which do the opposite. In this case, I don't want Trolls to have to work harder to use all that extra STRength, so I use the Advantage of Reduced END Cost to cut the cost to zero. I apply the Limitations Perceptible and Side Effects: Inconvenient Size. The reason it's strong is because it's big, and being big is not only obvious, it causes a variety of problems. I make a note that anyone looking for a Troll has a +2 to Perception because they're hard to miss. Inconvenient size isn't going to hurt that much, though, so it's what we call a -0 Limitation and doesn't really effect the cost, just helps define how the Power works. The extra STR costs 18 pts. Speaking of hard to miss, I next get Defensive Combat Value +3, because their long reach makes it hard to move in and land a blow, but besides being perceptible and involving their size, I add a Conditional Limitation, meaning there are times the Power doesn't work. In this case, it won't help against ranged attacks, and I take another Conditional Limitation so it won't help against enemies the same size or larger. But in melee with Humans and their ilk, the Troll is significantly harder to hit. With similar Limitatons applied, I go on to get +5 CON, BOD, PD (Physical Defense) ED (Energy Defense) and PREsence (how impressive you are, plus how hard it is to impress you) and +6 to STUN. So far that's 46 pts. Now I fill in the Characteristics that aren't size linked, and here is what the Characteristics block looks like, with explanations: STR 25 Strong enough to pick up a human warrior – AND the horse he rode in on DEX 8 Slow, but I have a plan.... CON 20 Very healthy INT 8 not too dim witted but not quick on the uptake either EGO 8 Not strong willed – could be vulnerable to certain magic PRE 20 Kind of scary OCV 5 “To hit” good enough for a professional soldier DCV 4/7 Knows something about avoiding being hit - especially in melee OMCV 2 Very low “Mental to hit” roll – will probably never matter though. DMCV 4 Slighter harder to target with things like Telepathy and Mind Control SPD 3 Speed of 3 means 3 action phases each turn – same as the player characters PD 15 Reduces physical damage done to the character ED 15 Reduces energy damage (fire, lightning, etc) done to the character REC 5 RECovery measures how fast the character recovers from damage or exhaustion END 20 ENDurance points are spent to take actions BOD 15 This is “hits to kill” STUN 33 This is “hits to knock out” Yes, as much as I love Hero, it goes a little overboard on the number of Characteristics. So far I've expended 82 pts. Now to go back and fill in some Powers related to being Huge that are not Characteristics. I buy 1 meter of Stretching with appropriate Advantages and Limitations to simulate a Troll's extra reach, and Striking Appearance granting a bonus to PRE against anyone smaller than a Troll. I'm getting tired of my players taking out big monsters (even a stone giant one time) with one shot by a combination of high damage attacks (my fault really for allowing them to buy Talents like Weaponmaster) and either a lucky hit to the vitals or an aimed blow to the head,either one of which will double the BODy damage done by lethal weapons. So I design an ability I call “Too Big to be One-shotted.” Too Big to be One Shotted: (Total: 10 Active Cost, 8 Real Cost) No Hit Locations (10 Active Points); Requires A Roll (14- roll; Burnout; -1/4) (Real Cost: 8) On the one hand, this prevents extra damage from head or vitals hits; on the other, the damage for hits to arms or feet is not reduced. A “burnout” roll means the ability works the first time it's used; then each time thereafter it can fail on a roll of 14 or higher on 3d6. Then I add “Too Big to be Easily Hurt.” Too Big to be Easily Hurt: (Total: 6 Active Cost, 3 Real Cost) Resistant Protection (2 PD/2 ED) (6 Active Points); Conditional Power Power does not work against Area Effect attacks (-1/2), Perceivable (-1/4) (Real Cost: 3) This acts as armor, but not against things like fireballs or other attacks where being bigger just means more surface area to suffer. Then I stack another 2 pts of Resistant Defense on top of that for Tough Hide, and when I get to equipment, I'm giving them armor too. This isn't related to being big, so I start a new list called “Troll.” (Just a reminder, organizing abilities in “lists” is my personal preference, not something you have to do if you're building a Hero character.) Trolls in the Turakian Age are also supposed to have Nightvision and a +2 to all Perception, so I add those. These Trolls are native to the frigid northern steppes, so I start another list of abilities: At Home in Frozen Wastelands. Damage Reduction is a Power that allows you to take only a fraction of a defined kind of damage. It comes in three levels: 25%, 50% and 75%. So if you have 25% Physical Damage Reduction and get hit by a club for 4 pts of STUN (after subtracting your defenses) you only take 3 pts – you reduce it by one quarter. If you get hit for 37 pt s of STUN, you only take...ummm...26. Normally Hero is only “complicated” during character creation and actual play is much simpler, but Damage Reduction can slow things down in play if you have to take damage totals and multiply by .25 or .75, which is why when I use it I almost ALWAYS go for the 50% level, because it's easy to cut things in half. So, 50% Energy Damage Reduction costs 20, and after the Limitation for “Only vs cold” it costs 11. Then I add “Life Support: Safe in Intense Cold,” which protects against some of the common penalties of arctic conditions, and more Resistant Protection with Limitation “Only vs cold, snow, ice.” I include Flash Defense; their eyes would be adapted to protect against snow blindness, so that makes sense. I assume they would be accustomed to deprivation, so 1 pt buys the ability to go a week without food if necessary. I want them to see well even in blizzards and hear one another even over a howling wind. Under Enhanced Senses I find “Partially Penetrative” which I buy for Sight Group (normal Vision and Night Vision) and for Hearing, defined as cutting through precipitation and wind. I have now spent 162 pts. Let's consider Complications next. Complications are a character's weakness, flaws, or vulnerabilities. These Trolls have sworn to serve Kal Turak, the major villain after whom the Turakian Age itself is named, so they get the Hunted Complication (in this case, Hunted doesn't mean someone is out to get them, just that they're “keeping an eye on them.” If they disobey orders or betray their evil master, though, someone WILL be out to get them.) This is worth 15 pts. The minions of Kal Turak have been teaching them the depraved habit of consuming their fellow sentient beings, which would make them outcast among normal Trolls; this shameful secret is worth 5 pts. I don't give them a Complication for their size because the abilities they gain for being large already have Limitations to reflect the inconveniences of their size and it's munchkin to take a Complication for something you're already taking Limitations for. Now for Skills. I start a list titled “Barbarian” and buy Survival for arctic & subarctic climes, Tracking, Concealment, Stealth (at the proficiency level only, as it's hard to hide a Troll, but hunters need to have some ability to move quietly or starve,) Security Systems (the Skill for finding, disarming, making, and placing traps; I put a Limitation on it for snares, pits, and hunting traps only.) Riding (I mean to mount them on mammoths) Breakfall (Limited to only for falls from their mounts – they haven't practiced falling off cliffs) and Animal Handler (for the mammoths and for wolves.) So far I have spent 183 pts. Your Running or other Movement measures how far a character moves, when they move. SPD measures how often a character moves. A standard noncombatant Runs at 12 meters with a SPD of 2 and moves 24 meters in a turn. A warrior with SPD of 3 can “buy down” Running to 8 meters and still move 24 meters in a turn. They'll mostly be riding mammoth anyway. Now I'm at 179pts. I increase END to 30, STUN to 32, and REC to 8 by spending 2 pts on each. I buy Power Skill: Troll. Power Skill is, among other things, used for what are called “Power Stunts.” If I wizard knows at least one spell involving fire for example, and has Power Skill, they can try to casually light a candle across the room with a gesture or instantly reheat a cold bowl of stew. In this case I mean to use it for feats of strength or toughness that I may want to try. Now for equipment. In addition to their own hides, the Trolls wear the hides of animals for +2 Defense to most locations, and a steel helm and chain coif protects head, throat, and shoulders with +5 Defense. What would be a large shield for a Human counts as a medium shield because a Troll has so much more to cover. Similarly their daggers could be used as short swords. Each carries at least two or three spears, usable as thrown weapons, and I also give most of them mauls. Then I go back to Skills because I realize I haven't given the Trolls any Weapon Familiarities! That's 2 pts for Common Melee Weapons, 1 pt for Thrown Spears, and 1 pt for the Ankus or bullhook – the goad they use on the mammoths. At 195 pts I think My Trolls are ready to go! Now to write up their mounts..... Lucius Alexander Palindromedary Enterprises

If you have only one Weapon Element for a Martial Art, you're better off buying Skill Levels for the WEAPON rather than Skill Levels for the ART. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary wants to buy Extra Damage Classes for non-Martial Maneuvers

So it's just a question of which you find easiest to understand or explain. Lucius Alexander I find the palindromedary easy to understand but hard to explain

If by "degree of success" you mean "difference between actual roll and the highest possible successful roll" then the answer is 3 in both cases. If you mean something else, you will have to explain. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary says any degree from an accredited institution is a degree of success

A roll of 3d6 has 16 possible results (some much more likely than others): 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 If we say that any roll of 10 or less is a success, and mark successful rolls as bold it looks like this: 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Simply counting them up means you have 8 results that succeed, and 8 that fail. If you want to add 2 to the roll, you get something like this: 3+2=5 4+2=6 5+2=7 6+2=8 7=2=9 8+2=10 9+2=11 10+2=12 11+2=13 12+2=14 13+2=15 14+2=16 15+2=17 16+2=18 17+2=19 18+2=20 If we count any result of 12 or less as success and mark success with bold we get this: 3+2=5 4+2=6 5+2=7 6+2=8 7=2=9 8+2=10 9+2=11 10+2=12 11+2=13 12+2=14 13+2=15 14+2=16 15+2=17 16+2=18 17+2=19 18+2=20 Again, we have 8 possible successful rolls and 8 possible failures. Where's Hugh Neilson when you need him? He's better at this stuff than I am. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary thinks I got the right answer but I'm not so sure.

"So....it's not that the world is out to get us or that it's full of monsters who want to be mean to us, but that it's just so much bigger and darker and colder than we imagine, and things like the warmth of the sun or the brightness of the stars are, are like little candles that will burn out or blow out in a sudden gust of wind, and the end is just darkness that goes on and on and the world and everything really don't belong to us but to weird THINGS that can live that cold and dark and and and....it all makes sense, it's just what I've always suspected. Good grief, I'm so depressed." How soon they forget.... http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/89971-cthulhu-mashup-superdraft-poll/ Only after my initial choice as eldritch horror was rejected. Lucius Alexander And no, it wasn't a palindromedary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike ? Randomly Generated Levels: (Total: 72 Active Cost, 48 Real Cost) +1 Overall (Real Cost: 12) <b>plus</b> +1 Overall (12 Active Points); Requires A Roll (8- roll; -1 1/4) (Real Cost: 5) <b>plus</b> +1 Overall (12 Active Points); Requires A Roll (9- roll; -1) (Real Cost: 6) <b>plus</b> +1 Overall (12 Active Points); Requires A Roll (10- roll; -3/4) (Real Cost: 7) <b>plus</b> +1 Overall (12 Active Points); Requires A Roll (11- roll; -1/2) (Real Cost: 8) <b>plus</b> +1 Overall (12 Active Points); Requires A Roll (12- roll; -1/4) (Real Cost: 10) Turn Based Play: (Total: 20 Active Cost, 6 Real Cost) +2 SPD (20 Active Points); Limited Power Cannot abort, character only acts on own phase (-1/2) (Modifiers affect Base Characteristic) (Real Cost: 6) Stamina Decay: (Total: 4 Active Cost, 1 Real Cost) +4 BODY (4 Active Points); 1 Continuing Fuel Charge lasting 6 Hours (Fuel is Very Difficult to obtain; -1/4) (Modifiers affect Base Characteristic) (Real Cost: 1) Permadeath: (Total: -20 Active Cost, -20 Real Cost) Physical Complication: Cannot be Resurrected (Infrequently; Fully Impairing) (Real Cost: -20) Lucius Alexander The palindromedary says I'm not being very helpful....

But I've been told that you CAN use a 2 pt Skill Level with a weapon with any maneuver with that weapon. Lucius Alexander Skill Levels with Palindromedary Mounted Weapons

One time when a certain player had to miss a session, I had his character captured and the others had to track down the band of Goblins who had him. Start of the next session, I told him how his character had enacted a daring escape, and played out his meeting with the heroes who were following him. Then they all tracked down the Goblins to get that one character's magic bow back. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary says that was also the campaign where we found that if you make magic weapons rare, and a player character loses one, they'll quest to the ends of the world to get it back.

Last October for the "Cthulhu Mashup" draft, my chosen genre to combine with cosmic horror was Children's Literature. My protagnists were the cast from Peanuts. My setting was Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary says that was almost a year ago now.

Okay, now I wanna see what you come up with for "Mein Hut er hat drei Ecken" "Meikefer Flieg" is probably too easy. Lucius Alexander And hat es nicht ein Palindromedary Tagline, es ist nicht mein Post

Malak was a vampire long before Nale was born. http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0874.html Lucius Alexander I've had a palindromedary for about half my life now

Maxwell is a gadgeteer villain in powered armor. His most powerful invention, a device that simultaneously attacks one target with searing heat and another with freezing cold, is the inspiration for his name, Maxwell's Demon being a concept from thermodynamics. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary thinks I should have gone for Gux Unfufadoo

D'Hoffryn is a mutant brick who was named after the demon from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series simply because of a chance resemblance. Strong, tough, fire resistant, and kind of dim, he is easily manipulated by the rest of the team. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary thinks I should have picked Etrigan

Dagon is an ancient Near Eastern fertility Deity. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary points out that He is still ineligible, being a God.

I'm still seeing the invitation, and still haven't taken the plunge. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary is in two minds about it

I'd always assumed Xykon was Neutral Evil.... Lucius Alexander The palindromedary is probably Neutral

We'll make it fit... Lucius Alexander The palindromedary consumes that with a grain of salt