Old Man

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.

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.

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. 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.

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".

Oh man, I could go on for days on this topic. But I'll pick the most important two and go from there. 1) Flesh out the magic system. Specifically, limitations. There's a huge amount of wiggle room in Side Effects and Foci, among others, that are critical to maintaining the feel of magic vs. superhero powers. I'd like to see a list of spell-oriented limitations, like "requires fasting for three days" and "requires the tooth of a dragon" and "huge green storm cloud roils overhead while this spell is cast" and "requires the skull of a dragon, intricately carved with mystical runes and inlaid with jade". I know this is going down the road of putting in a default magic system, but I think you're going to have to do that. You cannot expect new players, even ones familiar with Champions, to pick up FH and then devise a magic system that works. Experienced players such as myself have no problem with seeing a default system; we'll tweak it or toss it as we see fit. I'd also like to see some distinction made between spells cast in combat and out of combat. -1/4 for 1/2 DCV is not enough in combat, but too much out of combat. 2) Please, please, I'm begging you, publish a balanced weapon chart. Forget "realism". Forget points. What matters is that a player should not be penalized for using a hammer instead of a spear. 1st ed. FH had this problem, where certain weapons (franciscas) were just plain better than others at any STR level. 4th ed. FH had this problem and added to it by making sure all the STR mins came down on a breakpoint, creating extreme granularity. And in 5th, spears are just wildly superior to any other weapon in the chart, so that's all anyone will use. So if you can, please even out the weapon chart. If you can't do that, just put the 1st ed chart back in; it's the best of the bunch. I'll post more later as things come to me. Thanks for listening.

A couple ideas spring to mind. One is that ultra-powerful magic requires ultra-annoying limitations. So you can destroy a castle, but only under a full moon, after fasting and chanting for three days, with a willing virgin female sacrifice of royal blood, slain with a dagger made of a dragon's left upper molar, when the stars are right and your insurance is paid up. Another is side effects, a limitation that just isn't fleshed out well at all in the book. Does it attract the attention of every other sentient being for miles around? Is there a huge, green, roiling storm cloud in the sky directly over where you're standing? Does it actually summon demons from the Nine Hells? Does it have a long-term cause and effect in the campaign? Do the side effects go off automatically or only when you mess up? And so forth.

I can't say I like the idea of elven martial arts. Nowhere in the literature can I remember an instance where elves are taught a specific style of fighting. Instead they're just supposed to be wicked fast and accurate, rather than assuming a Wing Chun stance. One way it might work is if there are different styles of elf-jitsu taught to different tribes or specialist subgroups of elves. That might be cool, especially if the subgroups in question are obligated to kill each other on sight. But most of the time, people talking about elven martial arts intend to give it to every elven fighter you see, and that's just icky.

Oh no agree, I was just stating that your numbers were a little off. I found it distracting that no matter how tough you are in Rifts, if you aren't wearing armor, you're dead. The thing that threw me off was the whole "wow! this guy has have over 200 hp!...oh yeah, so what?"

You could always let the players play raiders too. or anti-piracy crews on a Q-ship. Ranger groups after the show years would have a greater variety in race as well.

That was a good read except mega damage weapons are 10,000% more powerful than standard weapons. The point being that if you were hit by the most rinky dink mega damage weapon you would die unless you had mega damage armor. Pretty minor point.

I could easily see a mix of aikido and tai chi. After studying for hundreds or thousands of years I think each city or nation of Elves would develop their own martial arts system taking what they saw as the best bits and combining them. That form would be the art they used and practiced instead of each nation teaching a large number of different styles. Individuals might specialize in one aspect or another but the base would be the same.

Wow...everybody said it already.

Right, I was asking about option 1 & 2. Option 3 isn't an option for me as I think my players kind of need a map for combat. It's a lot easier for everybody to see right away how far things are and what modifiers for range and such exist. Being descriptive is good but what it would come down to in that case is whether the GM wants to be a jerk or not (in the player's perception).

At least you have no shortage of source material...

I have both a plain mat and a Battlemat. I was wondering about the expereiences of people who used either or both. I did run a succfessful campaign (Shadowrun) on a Battlemat. For the most part the mats and minis only really come into use during combat because range and movement matter. Everything else only requires role playing. Thanks for the input guys, this is quite educational.

Any of you guys remember Raidin? Not sure on the spelling because it's been years and years since I've seen the show. Your typical mega bot with giant bow, built in shield, giant sword, energy projectiles from his chest and of course transformation into a huge eagle form that always did the move through of doom.