Lucius

Different Powers? I'm surprised no one has mentioned the most obvious thing to do to differentiate them - make them different in terms of Detects, Dispels, etc. That is, a Dispel Arcane will not affect Divine powers, a Suppress Divine will not effect Arcane powers, etc. Beyond that, a lot depends on what you WANT. Lucius Alexander (-: :-)

Winter in Maine My "bias is duly noted." Right. A bias based on reading the game, knowing the game, playing and running the game for years. I guess if I observe that winter is cold in Maine, based on the three winters I spent there, my bias about Maine will be duly noted. On the other hand, although the climate of Maine is unlikely to change, I am aware that I have never played the current edition of D&D. The one bias that SHOULD be noted is that my comments refer only to the older editions. I don't know enough about the latest version of the game to comment on it. Maybe it's totally unlike the game I knew. And maybe Maine had a warm winter last year. Lucius Alexander Ask the palindromedary, it was there too.

I'VE GOT IT!! I have the solution, Yamo. All magic users start at about half the base points of other characters. So if the standard is 75, they start with 35 or 40. Maybe use a 35 or 40 pt "perk" just to be a mage, to balance that out. Disadvantages are the same, but the first 10 to 25 pts don't count (not sure yet where to set the number.) These first few disads wil probably be things endemic to magery anyway, like an aura detectable by other magi. Then, mages get DOUBLE experience points. This will help approximate the D&D style magic user, feeble at the start but progressively more and more outpowering his comrades. If you really think that is too low for starting points, make magick a multipower. Lucius Alexander (-: :-)

Re: HEEEEEEEELPPPPPPP! is not a useful title.... Some observations and suggestions. As has already been pointed out, Hero is an inherently (if imperfectly) balanced system. Game balance in D&D on the other hand is a joke. As has already been pointed out, at 1st level the mage is pathetically weak compared to the fighter, at high levels the reverse is true. I think it was you who pointed out elsewhere that a high level fighter might translate to 500 pts and an equal level mage to 1500. If this is true, the only problem is that the mage should not be thrice as costly - he should be fifty times as costly, as he's fifty times as powerful. Okay, okay, so I exaggerate. But I hope you see the point. Now, to deal with your perception that buying each spell one by one is too expensive. First, the world-shaking spells probably DO have heavy limitations. Take the D&D wish for example. Aside from Extra Time (D&D spells are all bought with Extra Time, Focus- spellbook, etc, and are Delayed Effect) and Incantations, it entails aging three years and permanent loss of a point of CON. That is a serious Side Effects limitation, a Transform powerful enough to take effect automatically, with lots of overkill, because it should be basically impossible to "heal" from it. If for some reason you think a wizard should be able to resculpt continents or afflict every living Dwarf with a rash or exterminate all the cockroaches on the planet instantly, and do it any time he wants without a strain and without limitations that make the spell "buggy" then yes it's GOING to be expensive - if it's not it's NOT BALANCED. One way to have this kind of magic and have it work is to give away lots of XP in limited ways. Say, an adventure nets the fighter a magickal Cloak of Flying or Ring of Seeing in Darkness worth X amount of points, and the mage finds a tome that gives him X amount of points to spend on spells. Another limitation to consider is "duplicated power." I have seen this used elsewhere for powers that are easily duplicated without expending character points. Prime example, a fighter gets weapons for "free" so a wizard's attack spells get a limitation to partially compensate for the fact that he is paying for what other characters get automatically. Also you can just plain hand out more experience points for faster growth. That means non-magi also grow powerful quickly, but then, that does mimic D&D. Another suggestion. Consider writing up for each power you want available a "Generic Version" that includes very high levels of Variable Advantage and Variable FX and Variable Limitation. Then slap on a limitation (-2 perhaps) "Every specific manifestation requires a Familiarity with Spell Skill." Make the skill cost perhaps 1 pt per 10 pts active, possibly less if extra limitations are taken. This may make the first spell of a given type cost more, but then subsequent similar spells cost less. Don't allow fixed slots. Make all slots "multi." Possibly use some of the other suggestions, such as having prerequisites, that others have put forth. Consider having a magick skill roll (think of it as a "saving throw" perhaps) and each slot requires a seperate skill - this will considerably increase the cost of each "spell slot" in a way that is related to power (bigger spells take larger minuses so the mage will buy more skill) but not too closely related (especially if you allow a five point level, possibly limited as a penalty skill level, that applies to each - then each just costs the basic 3 pts over and above the actual slot cost) It is also possible to beef up the active cost, and consequently the real cost, with appropriate advantages. Difficult to Dispel for example, or Uncontrolled Continuous for defenses. Change the slot costs. Perhaps instead of 1/5 and 1/10 make it 1/2 and 1/4. In this case consider reducing the cost of the multipower pool itself. QUOTE]Originally posted by Yamo 4. Variable Point Pool: Too expensive, too abusive, and too slow in play. Even if you limit it to only pre-approved spells, the "Cosmic" Advantages required to make it as useful as I'd like in combat still adds a massive +2 to the cost. How can I have a decent 100 point starting mage when basic proficiency with magic (say, a meager 20-point VPP) is going to run him 90 points? And improving it would take ages and probably just lead to the frustrated player giving up an leaving for a system where he can at gets better at magic on a regular basis. Too expensive? Try allowing limitations to affect pool cost as well as control cost. Or as someone else suggested, make the pool free - it's part of the world, but you need the control cost to use it. Given that characters get equipment free, this may not be too unreasonable. Especially if fighters have martial arts and other non mage characters have some cost efficient options. Ignore the rule that powers in a Variable Pool are limited in active points to the pool cost. I've never paid attention to that rule. Multipowers limity by active cost; Variable Pools limit by REAL cost. I'm not sure what you mean by needing it to be "cosmic" to be useful in combat. That's only if you want to CHANGE THE POINTS AROUND in combat. A combat-useful, combat-ready spell loses none of its utility if it happens to be in a Variable Pool, just as a gun is still a gun if it's in a Gadget Pool. Too abusive? Require each power a player wants to use to not only be pre-written and pre-approved, but works off a seperate Required Skill Roll. Or require a Familiarity. Especially if the pool is free, they ought to pay points here. Then you are hopefully neither "too cheap" or "too expensive" in addition to eliminating the "dial a spell" effects. Too slow? See above under Too abusive. Especially if you drop this idea that it has to be "cosmic." If they're not making up powers, or re arranging points, in the middle of the game, it should not slow things down. Finally, consider using a hybrid system. I once ran a game with a spell college, but one spell was a multipower - because that was the only way I could mimic the effect I wanted. Perhaps some combination of using multipowers for some things and seperate buy for others, or variable pool and multipower, or some other combination, will get you just the kind of magick you want. Lucius Alexander (-: :-)

Kamitic Sorcery "What about Egyptian sorcerers or wizards? My searching did not prove to fruitful in this area. I mean Hollywood has sensationalized an Egyptian wizard in the Mummy, but is there any basis? I think the flavor of wizardry would be similar, perhaps the wizards are priests, I am not sure." Perhaps you need to just keep delving. Although the Gods were important in Egypt, I do not think it follows that all magick is necessarily "divine" in the D&D sense of "Deity granting a favor or delegating power to an Accredited representative." It may interest you to know that the term "hermetic" (which you may have come across in reference to thaumaturgy) derives from the name Hermes Trismegistus, meaning Hermes Thrice Great, which was the Hellenic translation of the original Kamitic God-Name Thoth (usually written accompanied by a hieroglyph meaning "great" repeated three times.) Thoth/Hermes was credited with (among other things) literally writing the Book on thaumaturgy. The apocryphal Emerald Tablet supposedly begins with the words "That which is above is as that which is below, and that which is below is as that which is above, for the purpose of the performance of the wonders of the One Thing" often summarized as "As Above, So Below." Which brings us to the supposed astronomical significance of the pyramids. The idea that they were trying to create a map in stone of the heavens is actually pretty shaky - the arrangement of the three pyramids near the Sphinx resembles that of the three stars of Orion's belt, but as you search farther afield than that, the correspondances grow quite strained. This is not to say that astrology had no place in their world view, of course. And in your fantasy world, anything can be true that you want to be true - including a system of ley lines and nexus points (probably marked with pyramids, obelisks, or the like) that reflect the patterns of stars in the sky. Also including whatever concept of "pyramid power" or other magick geometry you care to use. The Kamitic civilization really pioneered geometry, especially plane geometry, and surveying. That is because the annual Nile flood often washed away fences and other boundaries and completely transformed the face of the land. Redrawing boundaries each year required mastery of geometry and measuring. They may never have developed an idea of "ley lines" but I don't think the concept would have been alien to them. Of course, the most important aspect of the geography was the Nile. Given that this river and the deposits of fresh fertile soil it made at each annual flood was The. Most. Important. Fact in the life of ancient Egypt, without which the whole civilization would have been inconceivable, and given their tendency to Deify anything and everything, it has been asked why the Nile was not a God to them. Personally, I think it was just too cosmically big and important to be Deified - it would be like a fish worshipping water, or you and I worshipping the concept of three dimensional space. Yes, wizards will likely be priests. or priestesses. So will a lot of other important people. A noble is quite likely to hold at least an honorary priesthood of some sort at some point in their career. Remember that a priest in this context is not like a D&D cleric, nor even exactly like medieval clergy. Being appointed high priest of a given temple might entail ruling the associated town, commanding the local garrison, collecting taxes, supervising public works, judging important criminal cases..... Magickal power will not necessarily correspond to rank in the heirarchy, although there is like to be SOME correlation for a couple of obvious reasons. Magick may or may not be subtle - I don't remember reading of fireballs and forcewalls, but there is for example an account of a priest moving aside the waters of a lake to expose the lakebed so as to retrieve an ornament dropped overboard by one of the Pharoah's handmaidens. And this, by the way, was a thousand years before the time of that most famous prince of Egypt, Moses, who reputedly parted the Red Sea (or should I say, for whom that sea was reputedly parted.) A lot of the magick of Egypt was a local manifestation of concepts ubiquitous to magick of all cultures. Consider this tale - Isis wished to learn the True Name of Ra, the Sun God and King of the Gods. She formed an asp out of mud moistened with Her own spittle and left it where Ra would pass on His way to board the ship He sails across the sky each day. Bitten by the serpent, Ra fell ill. Isis agreed to heal Him, but said She could only effect a cure if She knew His True Name. Ra whispered His Name to Isis. Isis restored the God to health, but She also now was able to command His power as well as Her own. We see how important Names are. Knowing the True Name of a person, place or thing gives one an ability to effect it - to heal, to harm, to change, to control. Knowing one of the Secret Names, or still more the one True Name, of a Deity, allowed one to use the Power associated with that name - not necessarily according to the Named Being's own will. Similarly, the ideas usually called "sympathetic magic" - the Laws of Similarity and of Contagion - apply here as anywhere else. Consider such things as the shawabtis, the images of workers put in tombs that were supposed to act as actual servants in the afterlife. And Isis had to use Her saliva to animate an asp because it was part of Her and conveyed Her powers - in particular the powers pertaining to any living thing, such as sensation (to percieve Ra, the target) and motion (to strike.) "Hieroglyph" literally means "sacred writing" and writing was indeed a sacred art. Glyphs and symbols, on scrolls, on walls, on amulets, etc. are likely to be very prominent if you want an "Egyptian" flavor. A simpler form of writing, the demotic script, eventually evolved - you may want to charge one price for demotic literacy, more points for hieroglyphic literacy. Remember that even if you don't allow mere literacy to convey magick power, it still carries considerable advantages and should probably cost at least the 3 pts a normal skill does. Items such as scarabs, ankhs, and other amulets or charms are also going to be common (The old Focus limitation, usually inaccessible.) Apotropaic items are likely to require no skill roll, END, or conscious effort on behalf of the bearer - they were expected to automatically work against whatever danger they were supposed to avert. The very word alchemy is said to derive from the Egyptian name for their own country. Alchemists, if you have them, should probably specialize in 1) metallurgy - on creating special or magickal metals and alloys. 2) medicine, healing potions and poultices. Or 3) poisons and antidotes. Interestingly, I hear one papyrus blames sickness on "invisible worms." Living things too small to see. Hmm. I wonder if there could be anything to that idea. Some comments about the culture, apart from the occult aspects. The Kamitic culture endured for at least three thousand years before Christianity and Islam swept away the last traces of it, consigning the remnants of the once Great Library to be fuel for the public baths. That is long enough for even a God to grow old and senile (that's why Osiris replaced Re as leader.) Although profoundly conservative, the civilization DID change during that time, and new ideas arose. One must be careful when speaking of "ancient Egypt" to note that what was characteristic of one Dynasty, such as pyramid building, was not characteristic of all. From the First Dynasty, when Upper and Lower Egypt were united, it seems to have been a remarkably unprejudicial culture. Many of the Upper Egyptians were people we would classify as "Black" and the Lower Egyptians we would call "White" and while the culture was severely stratified by class, color doesn't seem to have been a factor. A slave was a slave, a noble was a noble, regardless of what color skin either had. And the Biblical experience of Joseph, the talented outsider who rose to high authority, was more characteristic than that of the Hebrews under Moses (although as I noted, the civilization changed over time and was no doubt more or less tolerant at different periods.) Those who try to claim the ancient Kamitic people as purely "Black Africans" are only acknowledging part of the truth. I consider this a valuable fact. Because when anyone sounds off about racism being "natural" or "inevitable" it is useful to be able to shut them up by taking a three thousand year history to the contrary and shoving it down their throat to prove that they're full of what the scarab likes to lay her eggs in. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary considers the routi the most interesting thing in ancient Egyption art - and devoutly hopes never to meet one.

Kamitic Sorcery "What about Egyptian sorcerers or wizards? My searching did not prove to fruitful in this area. I mean Hollywood has sensationalized an Egyptian wizard in the Mummy, but is there any basis? I think the flavor of wizardry would be similar, perhaps the wizards are priests, I am not sure." Perhaps you need to just keep delving. Although the Gods were important in Egypt, I do not think it follows that all magick is necessarily "divine" in the D&D sense of "Deity granting a favor or delegating power to an Accredited representative." It may interest you to know that the term "hermetic" (which you may have come across in reference to thaumaturgy) derives from the name Hermes Trismegistus, meaning Hermes Thrice Great, which was the Hellenic translation of the original Kamitic God-Name Thoth (usually written accompanied by a hieroglyph meaning "great" repeated three times.) Thoth/Hermes was credited with (among other things) literally writing the Book on thaumaturgy. The apocryphal Emerald Tablet supposedly begins with the words "That which is above is as that which is below, and that which is below is as that which is above, for the purpose of the performance of the wonders of the One Thing" often summarized as "As Above, So Below." Which brings us to the supposed astronomical significance of the pyramids. The idea that they were trying to create a map in stone of the heavens is actually pretty shaky - the arrangement of the three pyramids near the Sphinx resembles that of the three stars of Orion's belt, but as you search farther afield than that, the correspondances grow quite strained. This is not to say that astrology had no place in their world view, of course. And in your fantasy world, anything can be true that you want to be true - including a system of ley lines and nexus points (probably marked with pyramids, obelisks, or the like) that reflect the patterns of stars in the sky. Also including whatever concept of "pyramid power" or other magick geometry you care to use. The Kamitic civilization really pioneered geometry, especially plane geometry, and surveying. That is because the annual Nile flood often washed away fences and other boundaries and completely transformed the face of the land. Redrawing boundaries each year required mastery of geometry and measuring. They may never have developed an idea of "ley lines" but I don't think the concept would have been alien to them. Of course, the most important aspect of the geography was the Nile. Given that this river and the deposits of fresh fertile soil it made at each annual flood was The. Most. Important. Fact in the life of ancient Egypt, without which the whole civilization would have been inconceivable, and given their tendency to Deify anything and everything, it has been asked why the Nile was not a God to them. Personally, I think it was just too cosmically big and important to be Deified - it would be like a fish worshipping water, or you and I worshipping the concept of three dimensional space. Yes, wizards will likely be priests. or priestesses. So will a lot of other important people. A noble is quite likely to hold at least an honorary priesthood of some sort at some point in their career. Remember that a priest in this context is not like a D&D cleric, nor even exactly like medieval clergy. Being appointed high priest of a given temple might entail ruling the associated town, commanding the local garrison, collecting taxes, supervising public works, judging important criminal cases..... Magickal power will not necessarily correspond to rank in the heirarchy, although there is like to be SOME correlation for a couple of obvious reasons. Magick may or may not be subtle - I don't remember reading of fireballs and forcewalls, but there is for example an account of a priest moving aside the waters of a lake to expose the lakebed so as to retrieve an ornament dropped overboard by one of the Pharoah's handmaidens. And this, by the way, was a thousand years before the time of that most famous prince of Egypt, Moses, who reputedly parted the Red Sea (or should I say, for whom that sea was reputedly parted.) A lot of the magick of Egypt was a local manifestation of concepts ubiquitous to magick of all cultures. Consider this tale - Isis wished to learn the True Name of Ra, the Sun God and King of the Gods. She formed an asp out of mud moistened with Her own spittle and left it where Ra would pass on His way to board the ship He sails across the sky each day. Bitten by the serpent, Ra fell ill. Isis agreed to heal Him, but said She could only effect a cure if She knew His True Name. Ra whispered His Name to Isis. Isis restored the God to health, but She also now was able to command His power as well as Her own. We see how important Names are. Knowing the True Name of a person, place or thing gives one an ability to effect it - to heal, to harm, to change, to control. Knowing one of the Secret Names, or still more the one True Name, of a Deity, allowed one to use the Power associated with that name - not necessarily according to the Named Being's own will. Similarly, the ideas usually called "sympathetic magic" - the Laws of Similarity and of Contagion - apply here as anywhere else. Consider such things as the shawabtis, the images of workers put in tombs that were supposed to act as actual servants in the afterlife. And Isis had to use Her saliva to animate an asp because it was part of Her and conveyed Her powers - in particular the powers pertaining to any living thing, such as sensation (to percieve Ra, the target) and motion (to strike.) "Hieroglyph" literally means "sacred writing" and writing was indeed a sacred art. Glyphs and symbols, on scrolls, on walls, on amulets, etc. are likely to be very prominent if you want an "Egyptian" flavor. A simpler form of writing, the demotic script, eventually evolved - you may want to charge one price for demotic literacy, more points for hieroglyphic literacy. Remember that even if you don't allow mere literacy to convey magick power, it still carries considerable advantages and should probably cost at least the 3 pts a normal skill does. Items such as scarabs, ankhs, and other amulets or charms are also going to be common (The old Focus limitation, usually inaccessible.) Apotropaic items are likely to require no skill roll, END, or conscious effort on behalf of the bearer - they were expected to automatically work against whatever danger they were supposed to avert. The very word alchemy is said to derive from the Egyptian name for their own country. Alchemists, if you have them, should probably specialize in 1) metallurgy - on creating special or magickal metals and alloys. 2) medicine, healing potions and poultices. Or 3) poisons and antidotes. Interestingly, I hear one papyrus blames sickness on "invisible worms." Living things too small to see. Hmm. I wonder if there could be anything to that idea. Some comments about the culture, apart from the occult aspects. The Kamitic culture endured for at least three thousand years before Christianity and Islam swept away the last traces of it, consigning the remnants of the once Great Library to be fuel for the public baths. That is long enough for even a God to grow old and senile (that's why Osiris replaced Re as leader.) Although profoundly conservative, the civilization DID change during that time, and new ideas arose. One must be careful when speaking of "ancient Egypt" to note that what was characteristic of one Dynasty, such as pyramid building, was not characteristic of all. From the First Dynasty, when Upper and Lower Egypt were united, it seems to have been a remarkably unprejudicial culture. Many of the Upper Egyptians were people we would classify as "Black" and the Lower Egyptians we would call "White" and while the culture was severely stratified by class, color doesn't seem to have been a factor. A slave was a slave, a noble was a noble, regardless of what color skin either had. And the Biblical experience of Joseph, the talented outsider who rose to high authority, was more characteristic than that of the Hebrews under Moses (although as I noted, the civilization changed over time and was no doubt more or less tolerant at different periods.) Those who try to claim the ancient Kamitic people as purely "Black Africans" are only acknowledging part of the truth. I consider this a valuable fact. Because when anyone sounds off about racism being "natural" or "inevitable" it is useful to be able to shut them up by taking a three thousand year history to the contrary and shoving it down their throat to prove that they're full of what the scarab likes to lay her eggs in. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary considers the routi the most interesting thing in ancient Egyption art - and devoutly hopes never to meet one.

Glorantha The world of Glorantha from the Runequest game. One of the most detailed and fascinating settings ever. The myth, the magic, the cosmology, it was incredibly detailed and it all WORKED. A lot of it could probably be emulated in Hero too. Lucius Alexander And the verdict is - innocent! Feed them to the palindromedary!

Haiku, what else? Thank you all - nice to know I'm not the only haikuke. Or whatever one calls a composer of haiku. Bazza - I think I tried it a few times in high school and college, but I really took off with it last year in a thread in the Fantasy Hero section. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary ate my haiku!

Suggestion Just a couple ideas. 1. Specialists pay for a perk, then get a break on spells they specialize in. "Mage type Z" pays X amount for a perk, then all spells of type Z automatically take a limitation worth Y. 2. (probably better) Mages have to take Disadvantages defining what they are bad at, and then have to take an Advantage on spells they are supposed to be bad at. 3. Combine the above two ideas. Maybe you have to take an advantage on a spell if you haven't paid for the perk for that specialty. I agree that it's worth figuring out mechanics to cover this sort of issue, not that I'm ever likely to use them if I'm running the game. I'm more likely to say "that spell makes sense for the character" or "it doesn't" not "you can do it BUT not as efficiently." And for my tangent - Killing Attack should be an Advantage on Energy Blast or STR, not an absolutely free way to get a kind of "Attack VS. Limited Defense." Lucius Alexander Off on a tangent on a palindromedary

Starting a Character You are bound to get a lot of responses. I would say, start with the background. Or if not with "background" then with something you know you want your character to do or be. Then start reflecting that character conception in the system. For a beginner it is very hard to get started without a little guidance from whoever is running the game - if your conception doesn't include a lot of weapon skill and you think a DEX 14 and one level with sword is just enough to hold your own with a goblin or bandit while the other players do the bulk of the fighting, and then you find the average goblin has a DEX of 8 and no levels, and tends to go down with one or two blows of your shortsword, you have failed to embody your character conception (and discovered you could have put those points elsewhere.) If you think a Riding skill of 14 or less makes you a Master Horseman, you will be disappointed if every knight in the tournament has that much. More experienced players may "start with points" and think out their characters largely in terms of what points are spent where, but that is not necessarily a BETTER way. The character you really love is going to be the one based on one or more really cool ideas. I encourage people, especially new players, to always "save" a few points back. That way if you suddenly realize that your ninja didn't take climbing, or your barbarian didn't take tracking, you have the points to cover it. A novel approach might be to start with disadvantages. What kind of drawbacks might you WANT for a character? Hunted by whom and why? If he is compulsively truthful, what kind of trouble has that gotten him into in the past? Don't worry that it took three hours to make a character - even an experienced player might possibly take that long for a complex enough character. It will get easier as you get more familiar with the system. Lucius Alexander Palindromedary Enterprises

Another Haiku Series It happened to me Jobless homeless veteran 'Nother statistic Logistics, English, And Religious Studies, odd Assorted degrees Past Mensa member I may be unemployed, but I ain't no dummy My health is fine, thanks Where's the disability? Sound mind and body Can't blame addiction Shun smoking, booze, dope, only Haiku's my habit No arrest record My only convictions are Of the moral kind Those lazy poor lack Courage and initiative Tell me that quaint lie War and aftermath Seventy hour weeks: Goldbrick! Uniformed slacker! Virtue does no good I'd try booze and crime if I Didn't have conscience See me in the street Not I who avert my gaze Which of us feels shame? Lucius Alexander And the verdict is - innocent! Feed them to the palindromedary!

Take Two Tabloids and Call Your Players in the Morning Get subscriptions to the tabloids. You know, those weird things at the supermarket checkout that look kind of like newspapers. Mine them for ideas. Lucius Alexander Enquiring palindromedaries want to know

I'm Impressed Impressive Bazza Syllable count's off - so what? I bow before you You honour my name Recalling my namesake's change The grace of the Goddess "Change is. Touch is. Touch us. Change us." Lucius Alexander Pretentiously poetical Pagan on a palindromedary, and uses too much alliteration too!

Elven Immortality I thought of this recently while reading one of L'Amours' westerns. He was describing spring in a high alpine valley and remarked "flowers that grow that high in the mountains don't have time to fool around." Similarly, in the Arctic, where the winter is lightless and utterly frigid, all living things take advantage of the long, long days of summer to get all their business done. I think more ephemeral sentient beings must strike Elves that way. Sure, a Human can become as skilled and knowledgeable in a few decades as an Elf who may be centuries older, but the Human HAS to learn much in a short time if their pathetic short lives are to amount to anything worthwhile at all. After all, if you have forever, it must be easy to procrastinate. To put off tracking down that text, performing that experiment, practicing with the bow. Also, someone else on this thread raised a good point, that an Elf has time to learn and even more time to forget. Not to mention time for skills and knowledge to get out of date. That two centuries your character spent learning to intimately know the ways of the Woodland of Weir won't help much in the farmlands and cities that now stand in their place. Aside from buying the appropriate Life Support, the way to reflect the advantages of longevity might include - Scholar, Linguist, and other "skill enhancers." Reflecting that the character is probably "relearning" a lot of information when picking up a new skill. Some generic "lore" skill such as "Elf Lore" "History" or "General Lore." Basically, a skill giving some chance to know anything the G.O.D. thinks the character might know. Like any very "general" knowledge skill, only a very good roll will yield much detail. Skill levels, such as 10 pt overall levels or levels with all knowledge. Cramming, perhaps with a limitation that it will only help to "remember" a "rusty" skill if you can convince the referee the character used to know it. Finally, Elven immortality is something to consider when considering a character's motivations. Young Elves may be psychologically similar to Humans, and older ones may be motivated to adventure by boredom or frustration with limited prospects in their own society. Which brings up another topic. What motivations do you see for Elves and similar characters? Lucius Alexander ubiquitous palindromedary

Feats? What Feats? Just a quick note about the comment "We all know what they are in D&D" Uh, actually, we don't. I have never played any version of D&D that included something called "feats." Maybe that tells you how long it has been since I played D&D. Lucius Alexander I don't think the palindromedary ever played D&D but it ate a Monster Manual once.

Haiku Hero Zeropoint - I don't think you're doing too badly. The one haiku succeeds in getting the "look again" or "double take" response because it makes the point that more honor may be found in a heroic, and painful and trying, life, than in a heroic death. As for the other, I see nothing wrong with incorporating words like "alkaloid" into poetry. I have certainly used the word "palindromedary" in a haiku. As for whether Lilith does "iajutsu" poetry, I would say she tends to do so. From what I have observed, she tends to dash off verse without much forethought. But just as one masters the fast-draw only by repeated practice, it is easier to compose any literary form when one has in fact made a study of it, understands its principles, and ideally has had some practice. I have done "iajitsu haiku" sometimes - I once carried on a flirtation for several hours in which the woman and I exchanged almost all of our remarks in haiku. I WISH I had a record of all we said that evening.... As I understand it, in Japan they do NOT adhere to a strict 5/7/5 count of syllables. I think that was perhaps an attempt to carry over into the Occident rules that pertained to number of brushstrokes or somesuch? Of course, if you really want to learn the facts you can probably find them out there on the internet. Our local "alternative" newsweekly publishes "Haiku News." I am not sure where they get them - perhaps it is some nationally syndicated feature. But I wrote them an email - Reading haiku news War and peace in our time, but It's abridged too far One of the editors, a Jim Poyser, wrote back "Brilliant!" I asked "Can I quote you on that?" "Only if you do it in 17 syllables." So I wrote Nuvo's Jim Poyser Says Lucius Alexander Writes "Brilliant!" haiku Lucius Alexander Cleverly I park My palindromedary In the center line

CIV II An idea I've never used yet but think would work - Use the Civilization II computer game. It will create random worlds for you with up to 7 races or peoples. It can be customized at any level from a completely random world, to editing the map square by square. You can give it a size to go for, maybe specify some things like landmass type (continents or lots of islands?) climate, age of the world, etc. The game requires one civilization to be the "Player" civ, but you have the better editions, like the Gold edition or Fantastic Worlds, you can place your starting unit in an out of the way place, protect it, and stay out of the way as the six computer controlled civilizations interact "naturally." With Fantastic Worlds, you also get a lot of choices of exotic civilization names and lists of cities. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary reveals that Lucius once named a civilization "Hoosiers" and its leader "Dan Quayle" just so when he won he could fall over laughing at the announcement "The whole world hails DAN QUAYLE THE CONQUEROR!"

Haiku Zeropoint - Giving the lie to your name, you make an excellent point. There are a thousand stories in those seventeen syllables. I'm not going to name names or repeat haiku that were written by others, but something that surprised me on the old board was how heated the discussion got. One person in particular was inspired to write a haiku about a son who grows up to be a coward - he saw not only the idea of a proud father with high hopes, but the potential that such hopes could be disastrously disappointed. Another person who was under the impression that _I_ had written the haiku, and that I had written it about my own son, not only leapt to defend my family honor but was rather insulting to the author of the "coward" haiku - he was deeply offended at what he saw as a callous sullying of a father's joy. And most of this discussion, mind you, was taking place IN HAIKU. I'd probably be trying to cast these remarks in haiku too, but I'm still recovering from a long fever and I'm just not sure I'm up to it. Yet. So I intervene and explain that 1) I didn't write it, 2) Who did. But since people were making it personal, I did explain that the woman who wrote it was at one time my wife, and that she did in fact have a son - my stepson, who I am proud to say we have recently learned is soon to be a father himself. I still remember some of the haiku I wrote that time He came to me with Half man's growth and years, more than Half a man's manhood. I summed up his character with Better man than I Excels even his father Beats twenty of you. I decided to let him in the discussion and mailed him a copy of the discussion to that point. He responded A sword remains sheathed Its owner is a coward? A narrow view He said he didn't care if I attributed it or not, so I'll just use his nickname, Rusty. I thought it was a good response, but not in the same class as his mother's original. Speaking of which, she has written several haiku since. Most recently - Water lilies float Beneath my daughter's fingers She only sees the frog. Again, she can be reached at lilithsilvermane@yahoo.com if you wanted to comment directly. To put her son-hearth-sword haiku in further context, she actually wrote it when she was about 14 or 15 - a good many years before her son was born. So as I asked Is it about him Or every son ever born Each child's first small steps? Lucius Alexander Well mounted I ride My palindromedary Even through haiku

Scaling Characteristics Okay, first of all, some characteristics DO scale in a logrythmic fashion like STR. BOD, PD, and ED do, and it should take only a little thought to see why that must be the case. For one thing, there used to be a chart for the BOD of living and unliving things based on mass (I would assume it's still there in HERO5, but my gaming stuff is now unavailable) and the BOD goes up by one for each doubling of mass. Also, if you imagine people hitting something with no DEF whatsoever, you will not that a STR 5 person does on average 1 BOD with a punch, a STR 10 does 2, a STR 15 does 3, etc. So BODy scales in the same way STR does. Again, if something has a DEF of 2, and your STR is 15, you will do on average 1 BOD with a punch. If the DEF is raised to 3, you need to hit with twice the force - a STR of 20 - to do any damage on an average punch. It stands to reason that CON, STUN, and END would scale in a similar way, although that is much less precise. For instance, if 2 END is enough to let a 20 STR hit once, one would think it would be enough END to power a 10 STR for four hits - and that is obviously not the case. Finally, I think INT is a really messed up characteristic in this game. I try to remember that it has nothing to do with IQ or anything else we would usually mean by the word "intelligence" except maybe processing speed. Lucius Alexander Inevitable palindromedary

World Building Unless I missed it, no one has suggested what I think is a very basic idea when it comes to writing up a new world - Find a world you like and base yours on that one. Of course you won't want to slavishly imitate someone else's creation (unless you and your players are agreed that you all WANT to play in Tollkein's Middle Earth or in Xanth or wherever) but you can take an existing fictional world (or even a nonfictional one - say, a campaign based on feudal Japan or the Roman Empire) and base your own world on that. Then you start by looking at the aspects of the world you A) really want to emulate and/or have to have to even get started. For instance, say I want to emulate Andre Norton's Witch World. I start by narrowing the focus - let's say I want to use the Dales. That automatically gives me some handle on topography/geography (a region of hills and dales between a sea and a mountain range/plateau) and on the cultural/political/social/economic realities (each Dale is, at least nominally, independent, heriditary aristocracy, etc.) I decide on some changes to make - say, I call them the Vales instead of Dales, and say there is a greater degree of cultural and political difference from one to the next than in Norton's works (to give the players a greater diversity to learn about and deal with.) The place names are relatively simple English names like Greatvale, and named after geography (Rivervale,) first settlers or founding heroes (Olarsvale,) important events (Shattershieldvale, named after a hero slew a monster there that had shatterred his shield with its first blow) or other significant meanings (Griffonvale, named for the dangerous creatures that still nest in the cliffs above and sometimes are bold enough to snatch a sheep; Toadvale, after an incredibly ancient and perhaps prehuman statue that looks more like a toad than anything else; Horsevale, after their chief export; etc.) All of this is stuff I'm making up off the top of my head as I go along. At some point, if you already know who will be playing, you will want to consult them. Find out what kind of characters they want to play, what kind of adventures they want. This will tell you where to start. If they want political intrigue and you are willing to give it to them, you need to create the personalities involved, the alliances and factions, decide what laws and customs have a bearing on the acquisition and usage of political power. If you have a bunch of Robin Hood fans and want to run that flavor of adventure, you need to decide how to define a status of outlaw or outcast (Are they hunted to kill, or to capture, for example) who opposes them (Is there an established office such as sherrif, with constables on call? Ronin or landless knight types, hoping by capturing an infamous outlaw to rise in status? Mercenary bounty hunters one step away from outlawry themselves?) and so forth. If nothing else, talking to players can help solidify your own ideas ("Nah, no way I want to run some political campaign, I guess I'll run with the outlaws in the woods. So I can put off for another day deciding on names and titles for the Great Lord's cheif retainers, and have to decide right now if there is a right of Sanctuary and what constitutes Holy Ground....") At best, players can do some of the work for you. But the important thing, if you really want to do it, is to start SOMEwhere. Start with geography, pull out an atlas maybe and copy some real place. Start with mythology. Start with some specific cultural institutions you want to have. Then fit the next pieces into what you already have. Lucius Alexander (- : :-)

This Pool Needs a Lifeguard At the very least, this player needs to pay the control cost for a Variable Power Pool. If you like, maybe you can balance the ability to count real points rather than active points against the limit against restrictions like "all spells must be pre-written and pre-approved," requiring some sort of in-game research or adventuring, perhaps requiring each spell to have a SEPERATE skill roll.... Lucius Alexander Opinions expressed by Lucius Alexander are not necessarily those of Palindromedary Enterprises, its management or employees, or the palindromedary.

Blackout has written "Or, perhaps, a modified version...using the to-hit roll to determine what location is hit (though I can see that causing a problem in increasing the chances of a successful hit smacking someone in the "vitals")." Okay. DON'T do that. My CV is 5 pts lower than that guy's. I'm not likely to hit - but if I hit at all, it's in the HEAD? And somehow no one EVER gets hit in the foot? Forget it. Personally, I'm all in favor of using hit locations, but perhaps not all the time. If you fall in a pit or get hit by lightning or a catapult stone or hit a pixie with a mace or have to fight a swarm of rats, I could consider it "generalized" damage. (The damage you do to the rat you hit, that is - the rats are attacking your feet and legs.) Now, what you COULD do if you want to put a little work in it, is create a compromise system that IS based on how well you hit, such as - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Vitals - any roll that was made by 10 pts, or any roll of 3 Head - any roll made by 8 or 9 pts, or any roll of 4 Roll hit location - any roll made by 5 to 7 pts Called shots - anyone can try a called shot at any time. All other successful hits - "generalized" damage. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Or maybe ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Damage multipliers for location do not apply. Stun multiple is half the points the roll was made by. Called shot - considered impairing if any STUN is done, disabling if 2 or more BOD is done ("impairing" could just mean they dropped a weapon and lose a phase drawing a new one.) Roll was under half what was needed to hit - roll for location, apply impairing and disabling rules by the book. Roll was 10 under, or roll of 3 - ATTACKER CHOOSES location. Roll was 8 or 9 under, or roll of 4 - DEFENDER CHOOSES location. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Personally, I just use the hit location rules as written in most cases. They can be overused - how is an explosion going to hit just your foot? - but I have to disagree with those who say not to use them at all. Lucius Alexander I never did write a hit location chart for a palindromedary

Haiku, General and Specific Zeropoint - Regarding your comments about haiku generally, I present two haiku I wrote for the old boards. Quatrains with rhyme schemes Stumble awkwardly, words forced; Haiku flows freely Haiku flows freely Just enough discipline there To make elegance As far as using haiku to comic effect, if I am not mistaken that is part of its heritage - one of the earlier Japanese forms haiku evolved from was often used for comic poetry, or so I have been told. Also, note that even a comic poem can have something serious to say, as in this one I wrote about the Hero System that is dense with wordplay but does - pardon the expression - make a point. One must count points, else Pointless the rules, but know that Points are not the Point As for the haiku under discussion My small son's first step Above the swept hearth is hung A warrior's sword It is astute of you to suspect that it is not as clear and straightforward as one would at first suppose. It is both clear and opaque - that is, it speaks clearly to many people, but what it says to each tells more about that person than about the writer. It is, in a word, evocative, which is why I regard it highly as poetry. The reason I put it back out here for discussion is that there was an interesting and lively discussion going on about it before - and in fact, it inspired several other people to write their own haiku. The author is Lilith Silvermane (she can be reached at lilithsilvermane@yahoo.com) so at once the assumption often made that it is a man's poem is confounded. With that much context - that a woman wrote it - I wonder if anyone's view of it changes? Lucius Alexander Cleverly I park My palindromedary In the center line

Hm, so far only one response. Interesting you say "Nordic." Someone else seemed to see something like that. Lucius Alexander Inevitably The palindromedary Where I go, it goes.

Art of Elf Defense All my gaming stuff is in storage so I can't post details, cut I worked up two seperate martial arts for Elves. One was Sidhe Sword Mastery (sorry, couldn't think up a cooler name than that) and included both the 1/2 STR element on many manuevers, and the +5 STR element. This is technically illegal, but I A) created the art before I noticed that rule and assume it should not be a major problem because the different STR modifiers apply to different aspects. The bonus STR is for the purpose of meeting a STR min for a sword - This is how Elves (I was using the "slightly less tall and strong than Humans" model) were able to use the Elven Long Sword (equivalent to a Human Broad Sword, STR min. 12) The STR penalty is for the purpose of determining extra damage. In other words, an Elf with STR 10 using a dagger of STR min 5 can't add any damage because his STR is only 7 for that purpose. Among other things, this is meant to curb the tendency for Elven sword users to buy up STR, since it is neither necessary (to use bigger swords) nor helpful (to do damage with smaller swords), or at least, not necessary nor helpful to them as swordsmen. It also reflects what I see as an Elven tendency to rely on balance and a sure grip on the sword rather than brute STR. I may eventually create a ranged art for the Elven Bow, since that seems in character for Elves as I see them. The other one I created was a "sport based" art that I have given different names to, but am currently calling by the simple straightforward name "Circle and Stick." It is a one on one competition in which one person stands inside a circle (one hex in game terms) and another, armed with a staff, tries to knock his opponent out - out of the circle or out cold. The rounds last 12 seconds (usually, a watching crowd counts it out..."one....two...three...") The unique twist there is that it is a combined armed and unarmed art - some manuevers have the default of staff, and others (like the dodge) have the default of unarmed, because some are the moves used inside the circle, and some are the moves used outside the circle. A 1 pt wpn element allows the use of all manuevers in either case. Another version of the same game is played by Trolls. The rules are the same - but the styles are completely different. To an Elf, the point for the person in the circle is to avoid being hit. To a Troll, the point for the person in the circle is to take the blows without falling - out of the circle, or unconscious, or both. Each race claims to have invented the game and accuses the other of missing the point..... Lucius Alexander (-: :-)