Old Man

The biggest problem I've encountered in detailed worldbuilding is a chicken-and-egg issue. How do you determine the place names of a place without developing a history for it? How do you develop a history without having named anything? How do you work the history backwards from where you want the story to take place?

The most success I've had so far was to start with a really vague 3-way map: cultures, races, and climate, determining in a general way where I wanted them to be in relation to each other. Then, with some idea of what languages I was going to have, I went ahead and just started writing down names for all kinds of common stuff in the various languages. (This is the hardest part for me, because I'm just not good at pulling good fantasy-sounding names off the top of my head.) Armed with the general map and a partial lexicon in each language I am then able to flesh out the histories and cultures.

After that it's just a matter of keyboard time. Once you reach a certain critical mass it gets pretty easy to put down more stuff.

Originally posted by Victor

Alternatively (or additionaly), you could break weapons down into the types of damage they can do (piercing, slashing, crushing, hacking, etc.). Then you can replace the "Strike" combat maneuver with a freebie one for each type of damage, and apply the mods that way... which supports creating odd/exotic weapons better.

A Polearm might be able to pierce and slash, the Lirpa (Vulcan weapon from Star Trek TOS) could Crush and Slash, and a rapier might only be able to Pierce effectively.

Isn't that GURPS? It's a good idea, but I don't see an elegant way to retrofit that onto the existing system. HERO is just a bit more abstracted than that.

Originally posted by Toadmaster

Special features of general classes of weapons

Axes, +1DC

Swords, +1 OCV

Maces / hammers, Penetrating

Picks, AP

Hooked weapons, may use grab manuever only to pull an opponent off a horse or off balance.

We need to give maces some distinction too. I thought about giving them reduced pen, but that would make them useless. So is the +1 stun mult that usually goes to the hammers.

Maybe some kind of permanent plate armor/shield damage? That's my understanding of how they were used. Say each hit with a mace takes off X DEF from the armor, where X is equal to the amount of 'normal BODY' rolled on the dice? So if I'm swinging for 2d6K on average I'd take 2 DEF off your platemail when I hit, in addition to any damage I happen to do to you.

The biggest problem I see is that this drops sharply in effectiveness if hit locations are in use.

You might could do it with entangle, since it now allows you to create things. I'd just handwave the table and chairs and stuff. The only potential problem is that for 75 points it'd be hard to make one that's as resilient as the original sounds.

Originally posted by archer

Apropos of nothing, I have this vision of Colonel Starbuck taking some recruits through flight training.

Didn't Starbuck wind up stranded and abandoned on some desert planet, left alone with some woman? Was that the last episode? I remember it was a real downer.

But somehow he wound up with the A Team so it all ended up okay.

You know that wouldn't work. Have you seen the way gun hobbyists argue about kinetic energy and wound ballistics and energy transfer and hydrostatic shock? It makes the nastiest arguments here look like an episode of Teletubbies. There is no test in the world that will stop those debates.

The problem is one of balance among the players. One point of SPD is about the most effective possible way to spend ten points. At the very least it gives the SPD 4 character +3 DCV and an extra half move versus SPD 3 opponents. As a result, the SPD 4 character sleepwalks through opposition that remains dangerous for the characters who spent their 10 points on strength or dex or levels. That's what makes it hard for the GM--giving the SPD 4 character a hard time without killing off the rest of the group in the process.

Originally posted by JohnathanChance

At last check a Barret M-82 .50BMG rifle was selling for about 3 grand.

That's a pretty good deal. An H&K PSG-1 costs somewhere in the realm of 10-12K$, last time I saw it listed, which would have been over a year ago, maybe two.

Supossedly after one such shot the hunter wanted to check where his bullet ended up and found it not in the skull but in about the fourth vertebrae. That is a lot of bone to punch through!!

Um, how do you go about checking something like that? Did the guy just happen to have his chainsaw with him?

I think that's kind of what he means. In spite of his limiting efforts, the players had a tendancy to "unload" on whatever it was that was threatening them. Then they would take time off to "recharge" and then move on.

To counter this without cranking up the danger level too high I would recommend that the monsters play smart. Like the raptors in Jurassic Park. The send out individual scouts and the scouts call for reinforcement when prey is spotted. Another way to do it would be to have one of the critters get away in order to get help or draw the party into an ambush. The longer fight while not being overly deadly will quickly drain magical resources. Just don't do it all the time.

Because then you get weak characters that cannot go desolid and cannot get full life support

TK says that you can grab, throw and manipulate objects. I was wondering how fast the object in question moves. Meaning that after you grab something, how fast can you get it from one place to another. ex: transporting a team member from the ground to the top of a building.

Hey, every new campaign has to start with a bar fight. It's not just a good idea, it's the law.

I've heard secondhand of a "hobbyist" out here who constructed a single-shot bolt-action .50 BMG pistol from scratch. From what I understand it performed reasonably well, although the muzzle flash was about as lethal as the round itself.

The story goes that the BATF came down and asked him a couple of pointed questions, e.g. "That's the last gun you're going to build in that caliber, ever. Right?"

I have no idea where he gets the ammo.

Betazeds should probably have Mind Scan and Telepathy. I don't know if they really ought to have reduced by range since Deanna was always capable of reading emotions from one starship away, or on a planetary surface from orbit. Then again, it seemed like she was best able to read the emotions of someone who happened to be on screen at the moment--maybe you could work that in. Deanna, at least, never seemed to be capable of reading much more than surface emotions; whether that's some kind of limitation or just low points in the power, I don't know.

I don't remember Vulcans as having telepathy at range--they always seemed to have to put their hands on whoever they were trying to read. But they were capable of far more with their telepathy, including invasive mind reading, suggestion, and backing up their own minds into someone else's. That, coupled with their ability to lift heavy things and get really mad, makes them much cooler than betazeds.

Actually there's three books left after this one. Book 4 was supposed to be "A Dance with Dragons", but it got pushed back to 5; Feast for Crows is up next. I forget what the other two books are supposed to be called.

In other words, the series probably won't be finished until 2009, assuming GRRM maintains his current pace and doesn't see fit to add any more books. This is why I usually don't buy in to fantasy series that are yet unfinished... but AGoT was sooooo gooooood...

Might not be as easy as it sounds--there's a hell of a lot of intrigue and politics in that series, and a distinct lack of non-human foes south of the Wall. But if you've got intelligent players who actually don't have to be led around by the nose, this wouldn't be a problem.

Also, while it's been low magic so far, there are hints that it isn't going to stay that way. But then again the guy averages one book every two years, so your campaign might be over before you have to worry about any of that.

Excellent, excellent books. Wish the guy could write faster, but I won't mind as long as he eventually finishes with no drop in quality...

I think the distinction with the new S&W .50 is that it's a .50 magnum. I don't see how a normal human could fire one without snapping their wrist, but whatever.

The same article mentioned that they're also producing an alloy .44 magnum revolver that weighs 1.5 pounds. See my wrist snapping comment above.

So something like the magik'd culture in Harry Potter. They took a lot of magical items and beings for granted.

Originally posted by Geoff Speare

Of course, Steve has said that he likes the 5E weapon chart as is, so unless my Mind Control ray has finally kicked in, I'm expecting an expanded chart but no significant design changes. Steve, feel free to disagree.

That sounds like a comment from someone who has never played FH. The 5e weapons chart is so totally broken it turned my stomach. Why would anyone ever use anything other than a spear in the 5e world? It boggles the mind. It brings up all kinds of bad AD&Dv1 memories, where the only weapon you ever saw was a longsword.

I was hoping Steve was drunk or stoned when he wrote that chart, but I guess not. If it's not fixed in FH, then that's one less FH book that will be sold. I'll just play out of 1st ed.

Originally posted by mudpyr8

gm1978: I think that is something more appropriate for the Grimoire and won't be in the FH book. The FH book will be about making magic systems, and won't include many spells at all.

That's exactly backwards from how it ought to go. If the objective is to pull new player into the game, it needs to include a pretty good selection of spells so that players can either pick from the list or use them as examples while learning how to roll their own. While I can see the arguments for not having a default magic system and spell set, without them FH will not be a standalone game, and that will discourage new players.

By and large, I think that's okay. Every world is different and there shouldn't be a canon set of spells. That said, we need to see more settings that include not only the magic system, built using the FH guidelines, but all the spells that exist for that world. Then newcomers to the system/world can pick and choose spells just like weapons/armor.

 

Unfortunately, that takes time and effort.

This would be ideal, but there still needs to be enough preconstructed magic in the FH book for new or lazy players.

Mehods of dealing with the combat monster:

1) Situations for which raw damage or combat ability is inappropriate. Oh no, the school bus is out of control and is about to plunge off the cliff! And the dam is about to break! And the chemical plant is on fire! And there's an old lady in the express checkout line with 11 items! Well, that last scenario would be perfect for a 15d6K, but you get my drift.

2) Totally outclass the combat monster. As the GM you have unlimited points, so why not unleash an unstoppable juggernaut on their hometown, who is only vulnerable to Diet Coke or some other weird noxious substance? Wow, too bad you sunk 150 points into an attack that does nothing. What do you do now?

3) Mind control the combat monster and turn him loose on the rest of the group. Let them deal with it as they see fit. Bahahaha!

The next time I GM a FH campaign, I'm just going to dispense with the speed stat altogether. A difference of 1 point of SPD is just a ridiculously huge advantage down in the 2-4 range. For example, I'm SPD 4 and you're SPD 3. I am effectively +3 DCV because I'm going to spend your three phases dodging. What do you do?

Conversely I never had a problem with the non-random dex order. Rolling for initiative just sucked in every game I've played that had it. FH has always had the block, and now there's the two dex-pushing maneuvers too. If anything I'd use a small die modifier to dex, if the players demanded some initiative randomness--probably a +1d6 -1d6 roll, giving a range of +/- 5 with a curve.

Originally posted by Monolith

You might want to try out the following site:

 

http://www.geocities.com/markdoc.geo/Gaming_stuff/Grimoire/the_ultimate_grimoire.htm

 

You can use the index on the website or download a word of pdf version of the spells. I don't know the actual number of spells there, but I would guess there are over 1,000.

I've never been real impressed by that site. There's a huge quantity of spells, which is nice, but I get the feeling that not much effort has gone into creating them--the powers don't quite match the effect, the limitations are poorly described and generic, and there's no flavor writeup for the casting and effect of the spell. Even 4th ed. FH had better writeups, and they still ran out of creativity halfway through the first companion. Jeez, there's enough material in "real" supernatural occurrences to fill a grimoire--Hindu mysticism, Vodun, druids, wiccan, seances, poltergeists, this candle magic crap I keep hearing about, prestidigitation, talmudic magic, the necronomicon, ancient egyptian sorcery, viking rune and platform magic, stigmata, legendary taoist demon hunting sorcerers, native american shamanic magic, et cetera, et cetera. It seems like it should be possible to do better than (yawn) elemental magic, or superhero stuff like "crystalmancy".

Zippo, Change Environment, small fire.

Friend of the Wild, Summon, small woodland creature, loyal.

Grasping Vines, Supress Running, only in areas with vegetation

Detect

Ranger's Stride, +Running, only in forested areas.

How many points are we talking about here anyway?

I wasn't really thinking "Elven martial arts" per se. More like "this is what they teach to the majority of Elven warriors".