Old Man

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.

List of cards here: http://www.wizards.com/magic/generic/cardlists/Ice_Age_Checklist.txt Card description here: http://www.wizards.com/magic/generic/cardlists/Ice_Age.txt Unfortunately I don't know where you can find the art. But I guess that doesn't really matter if you're mainly looking for ideas. The power/toughness ratings also help give a rough guess on how powerful the critter should be.

Oh yeah, it would be pretty cool to see your versions of weapons and armor converted to Hero. Please post a link or something.

Are you sure you want to go this route? The 40k universe has more than just constant fighting. If you place the players in a military unit then your options are pretty limited as far as the adventures you can put them through. I would highly recommend the Necromunda setting instead. That way you can run pretty much the full bang of adventure types while remaining in genre. More of a flexibility thing as far as player options go.

I'm going to be starting my campaign soon and was considering which way I should go in regards to a playing surface. Hexes or no hexes? This is for Fantasy Hero and I don't have a spell caster in the group (yet) so explosions will probably be rare. Recommendations? Problems?

I never thought of that. It is kind of gross. I would think that something like this would be covered in the rules.

As much as I was bummed to leave, I'm happy I'm gone. Since they're in an arctic region, you could introduce Crystal Oozes, Yeti, ...what am I saying?? Look through a list of "Ice Age" Magic the Gathering Cards. I'm sure there are a load of suggestions right there. Many of which are kind of gross.

No way dude, that thing is just wrong...

Considering that you have Dredd as your avatar, I would recommend you raise your title faster

The SAS are pretty lacking but they're not entirely stupid. We're stuck with him but hey, every group needs one right?

Yeah, and what the heck happened to his disads??

Ok hold on there! Discovering real FTL travel I can see. Fiding a real reason not to hate Seeker is ...difficult to believe.