Shike019

Re: Favorite Sci-Fi Weapon

I'm giving my votes to the Lightsabre and Reason from Neal Stephenson's Snow crash.

Re: Evaluating The Hero System (Or Any Game System)

Most of my friends are D&D gamers, and I've seen them being subtly affected by the attitude I mentioned above. (or so it seems to me) They buy bestiary after bestiary, but I don't think they'd really consider creating their own original creatures. They buy books of prestige classes, but no D&Der would ever consider creating his or her own new class. And, if you're going to go for one of those prestige classes, you have to follow the book's vision for that class. They buy the new books with an excited attitude of, "Ooh, look what this new book allows me to do!"

 

In Hero, once you have 5er, you can do anything.

 

Zeropoint

That's not entirely true I am a D&D gamer, yes i know, don't hit me over the head please. And I and my friends have often times created our own classes, prestige classes, feats, etc. Also on some of the DND boards at wizards, homemade classes, feats, prestige classes, spells, etc. are posted regularly for crituque by the community, though that particular community tends to be vicious at times.

Re: Tall Ship Plans

Yamato, Thanks. I think I found something (I know that the plans that I have are not necessarily realistic, but they work well for what I'm doing. I actually have the majority of the ship built w/ the exceptions of the masts, sails, and a little bit of the bow. If you all would Like I will take pictures and post them, or I will post some when I'm finished.

Again I made the ship with 1" squares instead of hexes as the squares are easier to draw (and i still play DND).

If anyone has any questions or advice for me, please don't hesitate to say something.

Re: Tall Ship Plans

Thanks all for the great support, I found something that I liked and am building a 3d model out of cardboard to a rough scale of 1"=5'. (I'm doing it in squares because they are easier to draw. Cheers

Re: Tall Ship Plans

Me too, but I thought I'd try and see what I got.

Re: Tall Ship Plans

THanks guys. I tried putting this request up on the d20 boards as well and all I got was attitude and insults. It's nice to know there is a place to go where people actually treat you like a person.

Does anyone know where I can download readable plans for a Tall Ship?

All of the ones I can find aren't readable at the scale they are at, and when i try to increase the size, it becomes distorted.

I'm looking for something along the lines of a spanish galleon.

Re: MetaCyber

Shrike, I love the Generator. I had a questio though. Once someone buys the tuber package, can they improve the random abilities that they recieved. Such as buying their amount of sleep from 8 hours/week to say, none? OR improving their Danger sense w/ things like disriminatory, larger area, improved preception?

Otherwise, it all looks great.

Re: Two-Weapon Fighting

Fighting with two weapons is not like fighting with two independent attacks.

 

You attack someone with the first sword, inviting a parry and get the second one through. You parry with one and thrust with the other. You swing both wide and hope the sucker doesn't stick his sword through you in the confusion.

 

Point is, if I have a point, that using two weapons is really just a more complex way of using one weapon, not a virtual duplication (only to attack with second sword).

 

Now the current rules do not necessarily mirrot that perfectly, but I wouldn't expect them to - that's a lot of ground to cover. Nothing to stop you buying limited skill levels (or even just extra damage) to simulate your particular two weapon style. The TWF skill just covers the very basics - it is not meant as a complete solution.

Probably the simplest way would be with CSL's (only when wielding two weapons) and on any given attack you decide which weapon you are feinting with and which weapon is the actual attack.

Like I stated in my original post, though, I was, more or less, mimicking the d20 version of TWF which would actually be cheaper, and probably easier, to do in HERO using the "second speed score" only for attacking with off hand attacks.

Re: Two-Weapon Fighting

I don't know if this is way to out there, but in DND TWF is a series of Feats (minor powers) that allows for additional attacks, What if the TWF allowed for a second iteration of Speed (only for attacking)(giving a spd 2?? for free) using the off hand weapon? Of course this may be too complicated as well.

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

I recently saw the movie and a few episodes. I very much enjoyed all of it. I'm very surprised it hasn't made a comeback with the success of the movie. Anyhow, this thread is like a year old. I saw a lot of post ressurrection in the DI forums recently. Same guy?

 

Ressurrect Post: Healing BODY 10d6, Resurrection (120 Active Points); Only forum threads (-2)

Actually, I was not a fan of the series (never watched due to lack of cable television or time) I just saw the movie, loved it, and wanted to know if the character had been discussed instead of starting a new forum, I actually searched to find it. I found that the thread hadn't beed discussed since the movie was released and found that I actually had some imput into the possible build of the character.

As for the ressurection post, I do not believe that I have actually posted on that thread.

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly)

FOr those who have seen the movie, I would suggest adding one of the martial arts packages because she does some serious martial arts, not just basic techniques, as well as quite a bit of weapons fighting. Also, she was described as being trained as a "Weapon".

Steve, I don't know if you get this enough, but thank you for giving such a high level of service to herodom. As a librarian it is my job to give this level of service to my clientele, but as a game desinger I personally think it is amazing to see one so dedicated to the fans of his system. I know that the WoTC boards do not provide this level of servce. and the fact that you are answering questions while on the road is, in my opinion, even more encouraging.

So from me, and I would believe all of herodom, Thank you.

Re: Two-Weapon Fighting

Well, let's look at what 2 W F actually gives you under the current system. We'll use the 2 sword guy, not the range guy.

 

It provides limited ambidexterity, which offsets the -3 OCV Off Hand penalty. That's three Penalty Skill Levels when fighting w/ 2 weapons - 6 points (seems reasonable for a tight group)

 

It provides +2 OCV to offset Sweep penalties when fighting w/ 2 weapons. That's two more PSL's, so 4 points.

 

It either allows access to a maneuver not otherwise permitted (like a Martial maneuver, which would normally cost 3-5 points), or reduces the DCV penalty for doing so from 1/2 to -2 (or -1), which is several DCV levels with a limitation.

 

So that's a value of over 10 points which you receive for 10 points. Sounds like a good deal to me.

 

If you want to be able to sweep as a half phase action, that costs a further 5 points. That doesn't sound at all unreasonable to me either.

 

 

 

Well, I know d20 has a mechanic. Their mechanic is that 2 weapon fighting applies heavy "To Hit" penalties (OCV penalties in Hero). That's like Hero.

 

These penalties are reduced if you buy Ambidexterity. They are also reduced if you buy 2 Weapon Fighting. Hero allows you to combine a limited form Ambidexterity with 2 weapon fighting. I would allow full Ambidexterity at a discount for a character who had 2 weapon fighting (3 points to upgrade those three 2 point PSL's to 3 point PSL's). That also seems very similar to me.

 

You can buy some advanced 2 weapon fighting abilities which permit more attacks with your off hand in d20. You can also buy additional PSL's in Hero, so that's similar.

 

In d20, fighting with 2 weapons requires a full attack action, and in Hero it requires a full phase. That seems similar as well. In Hero, you can buy that down to a half phase, and someone probably published a feat to allow it as a partial action in d20.

 

So what's different? Both systems have base mechanics for attacking with two weapons. Both allow the penalties to be bought down in some fashion. Both systems also have a means to attack multiple times with one weapon (Hero has Sweep and D&D has its Base Attack Bonus rules).

 

The major difference is that Hero has dovetailed the two rules. They both provide the ability to make multiple attacks, so why should the rules be significantly different?

Hugh, Very good comparison, I've actually been thinking of a way to adopt the speed mechanic from HERO into d20. There is one problem (imo) with your analysis. In d20 a round (including multiple attacks) is 6 seconds. In HERO a round is 12 seconds. So to accurately compaire the two we should be thinking of how many attacks in the same time span. With this in mind. a f1st-5th level DND character will have the equivilant hero speed of 2. Thus a two weapon fighting character in d20 (with the two weapon fighting tree) gains 1 extra attack per ROUND or an extra 2 speed, or an extra attack per speed increment.

Re: What skill would you use to see if someone is lying?

You see, I think D&D 3.x handles this better. THe "Bluff" skill is used for any interaction that requires duping your opponent, such as feints in combat and lying. The "Sense Motive" Skill is used for detecting lies (which is based on Wisdom, or in HERO would be EGO) as well as general emotive state, weather they are trying to hide something from you, as well as detecting the "feint" form of bluff.

I think the closest thing in HERO to "Bluff" is Acting, you are puting on a performance of either telling the truth or lying, etc. And I'd say either an ego roll, or something of the like to detect the lie.

Re: Learning Curve?

WHAT?!?! I thought 50 plus 30 was 80... what went up in price?

I payed $45 for 5er (damaged copy) and $45 for the CD of HD (use on multiple platforms). For a total of $95 +tax/shipping. The online store has HD selling for no less than $39.99 and that is for the download verson. so buying a damaged book and downloading for a single platform costs $85.

Re: Learning Curve?

Currently buying both 5er and Hero Designer is about $100, so 75 is a great deal.

Re: Learning Curve?

I feel pretty confident in my abilities to understand the mechanical aspects of the systems. The only system that I've played, but still don't understand is AD&D. but i've played both D&D 3.0 & 3.5, as well as other d20 games (sypcraft, Rokugan, etc). And then Hero. I found the d20 systems easier to learn at the outset, but the onlything I found daunting in the hero system was character building and conception because there are almost an infinite number of possibilities. In the other systems i've played, there were only certain ways to play certain types of characters which reduced some of the stress of character generation.

So for all my rambling, I think the steep part of the learning curve with HERO has to do with character generation and power building, the playing part is quite simple.

Re: Regeneration / Healing

Healing 1 BODY, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2) (20 Active Points); Extra Time (Regeneration-Only) 1 Turn (Post-Segment 12) (-1 1/4), Self Only (-1/2) Real Cost: 7 points

If I read the rules correctly, this is how it is supposed to be built.

Re: In The Mood

I think the Louis Prima and Keely Smith version is better, if we're going to step outside the Pulp era recordings.

Steve I fully agree with this assesment.

(huge classical swing/jazz fan)

Re: College Professor Skill Level

This is a Super's game, but unless you describe your character as "inhuman" in some way, such as being a mutant, werewolf or cartoon character, you have NCM. The DM also has an added disad, where if you cannot buy any primary Characteristic above the NCM level. As such, non supers will most likely not have any state above a 20 (which in my GM's mind is the Normal Human Max). With this being said, I thought that a 12- roll is decent.

Re: College Professor Skill Level

Personally I believe that both are necessary for teaching at ALL levels. But that is beside the point. Though i do have some credentials, my father has been a succesful college professor for over 30 years and I am a Librarian at a State University in Michigan.

Do all think that the skills and skill levels I posted earlier are sufficient to obtain a position teaching at the college/university level?

(to reiterate, KS: Eastern Philosophy 12-, KS: Western Philosophy 12-, KS: Zen Buddhism 12-, Profession (Instructor) 12-)

Thanks

Shike

Re: College Professor Skill Level

THank you all for your responses. The character I have has a 12- is both Eastern and Western Philosophy as well as a 12- in Zen Buddhism. He also has a PS: Instructor skill at 12-. I was wondering if these were sufficient to get a position teaching Philosophy.

I was wondering what the consensus is for the KS level and PS: instructor/teacher levels a college/university Professor would/should have?

Re: Experience Points

In the game I'm currently in, we get 3 xp at the end of each session and then bonus xp at the end of each adventure. We are allowed to spend points as we wish but everything must be discussed with the GM prior to spending, of course all power builds, etc, must be okayed by the GM as well. Of course, the GM has an idea of what direction we are all heading in and is working into game our developing of powers, so at some points we actually "use" powers that we don't have for story purposes.

Cheers