Old Man

Macarrandir was in his element, scouting ahead of the group looking for signs of ambush. As he moved ahead, he left signs for the group to follow. Even though he was a mere 15 yards ahead, his companions could not see him.

An odd shift in the foliage before him caused him to stop. The motion didn't continue so the tall Wythir moved forward with more caution. Pushing a final thich branch aside brought him face to dripping mandibles with a huge blade beetle. The creature immediately took notice of Macarrandir and charged.

The loud snapping of branches and thrashing bushes caused Yor, Aleister, Zin and Chip to stop. The commotion alerted them to a threat but they didn't know what it was until the crashing started to circle towards them. It was then that they heard Mac shouting "Big....Bug...Coming!!" The scout ran through the group and back into the forest.

Zin didn't need further prompting, she scrambled up into a tree with almost no effort. Yor chanted prayers to the All Father while Aleister gathered his dark powers. Chip barely had time to pull hig great mace free before he was knock over by the largest bug he had ever seen. The creature was truly fearsome, 30 feet long, 10 feet wide covered in thich armored shell. Lying on the ground he thought he was a dead man, but the beetle completely ignored him and continued to trundle after Macarrandir.

Gathering his holy forces, Yor unleashed a glowing bolt of justice at the beetle's retreating back. The white mote drilled a small hole in the armored skin causing a clear goo to leak forth. Zin proceeded to throw a hail of daggers at the beetle every time she caught of glimpse of the creature.

None of them seemed to cause any damage but several were caught it's armor.

Macarrandir was doing his best not to become beetle food, just barely staying ahead of the rushing monster. Feeling that it was close to catching it's prey, the beetle started to drip a green ooze from it's jaws. Not wanting to get lost in the forest, Mac circled towards the group again.

As Mac ran past, Chip hefted his mace and swung at the beetle as it came into range. The blow was like hitting a wall, sending a shock up his arm. But that wall of armor now had a crack in it. The pain was just enough to turn the beetle from it's prey.

Yor rushed forward trying to summon his holy energies, but failed. Finding some small amusement at the monk's failure Aleister waited for an oportunity to strike. When it came, he send draining energies towards the beetle. His senses told him the spell worked, but no outward sign was visible.

Zin continued to throw daggers at the armored shell hoping for a lucky strike. Several hits landed on the beast's head but none of them penetrated the thick carapace. The rain of daggers didn't distract the blade beetle from it's new target. It lashed out with both of it's massive claws gouging deep furrows in the earth next to Chip.

Chip reacted by taking another swing with his mace. The studded steel head landed squarly in the dirt forcing Chip to regain his balance. Yor once again sent prayers to Saint Sebastian but his fist did not take on it's usual glowing might. Striking the armored hide made him flinch and did nothing to the beetle.

Mac continued to run in a large circle coming around to the side of the beetle. Drawing forth his short swords, he charged. Hacking away at the legs of the beetle did no damage but he continued his assault hoping for a lucky hit.

Aleister summoned an unsettled spirit which lifted Chip off his feet and landed him on the beetle's back. The creature focused on Yor and tried to bite off his head, but with cat like grace, the monk avoided the dripping jaws.

The monk focused again, and said another prayer to Saint Sebastian but again, his prayers were ignored. Without the infusion of holy might Yor was unable to harm the beetle. While the rest of the group provided a distraction, Chip gripped his mace with both hands and started to hammer the armored back of the beetle. The swaying beetle made one of his swings go wide, but in a short time, Chip cracked open the shell causing clear goo to splash over him. The huge monster gave a final shudder before settling to the ground.

"Hmm," Chip said as he slid down the side of the beetle, "smells like mint." Rubbing the goo off his face, he commented, "Tastes kind of hot though."

Originally posted by GradonSilverton

Try here....it was a quick look so I'd call someone to guarantee it... But its via Books-A-Million

 

http://www.booksamillion.com/ncom/books?id=2487111860932&pid=A8135244071

Thanks... but right after I posted I found a hardcover copy on amazon for like six bucks. It's being shipped from the UK, though, so I will have to wait another aeon.

Originally posted by Jhamin

One of the best bits of worldbuilding advice I ever got was from Monte Cook at a Gencon forum. He reccomended that everyone buy "The Tough Guide to Fantasyland" by Diana Wynne Jones.

I've been looking for that book for aeons, but it's been out of print for a while and the only times I've found it online it was vastly overpriced (approx. US$60). Bah.

Originally posted by tenebre

I meant that in a good way.

 

It is impossible in the sense even with a 100d6 killing attack.

 

you could have some god that had 2000 body.

Traditionally, the D&D gods and demi-gods had immunity to a lot of the instant kill stuff. A high enough CON in D&D gave you immunity to poisons and stuff.

In theory, if you really wanted an instant kill, you just have to hit the guy hard enough with whatever special effect you want.

It took a couple days for the group to fully recover and get equipment repaired. If the tanning shop and smithy hadn't burned down, the work might have been faster.

During this time, Lavenus and Macarrandir found two people interested in actions against the muskies. Zin, a travelling Manling entertainer; and Chip, a Vashon priest in exile.

The townspeople were still clearing the debris from the fires as the new group set off through the burned section of wall. They had not gone 50 yards before Lavenus stopped. "I have to go back." Ignoring the questioning remarks, he turned around and went back towards the town. He called, "I'll be back soon, don't worry."

Needless to say, they didn't worry. After half an hour of waiting, they still didn't worry, they started to get irritated. Mac was about to charge back to town and drag Lavenus back by the horns when they spotted a figure approaching.

Neither Zin nor Chip recognised the man for what he was, even though his clothes, the pale skin, the sunken eyes and skull decorations gave it away. Yor was a little surprised to see the black clad necromancer. "Greetings," Aleister said "we still hunting muskies?"

"We were told you were helping the muskies, not killing them." Mac mildly accused. "I didn't think it was true, but we haven't seen you for days."

"Your friend, the stone-man told us he saw you giving aid to the ones that raided the town." Yor commented. "You haven't been praticing evil necromany have you?" He glared.

"No, no," Aleister said in an offhanded manner "I was fighting off a nasal slime demon. It took longer than expected. So, what happened to Lavenus?

"That bastard probably went to take another bath. Let's get going already." With that, Macarrandir took off at a trot, following the light trail into the forest.

I'll agree, the game itself is pretty lacking but the worlds and backgrounds are pretty good. I know some people that enjoy the Darksun setting.

I HATE the Dragonlance setting primarily due to Kender. If I had to play in a campaign, I would take Extreme Hatred of Kender 20 pts as a Disad.

Originally posted by Mephron

 

Cosmetic Transformation: Human to Human with the word 'IT' in blue letters on the back of his head.

The question is, how do you make it so the "IT" moves to another person.

http://www.thewarp.net/war/tiger/

Try looking there

I've found plain old 75% damage reduction to be good enough to make a character nigh invincible, especially if combined with an average level of regular defenses. If you have a 20/20 force field and 75% DR, on average you take six stun from a 12d6 EB and eleven stun from a 20d6 EB. You never have to worry about being stunned. Even a critical hit from an 8d6K, enough to outright kill anyone else, inflicts just seven body and 55 stun.

I understand WillS's issue. There's this number on the character sheet that defines how much time the player gets to spend playing the game. As long as you're within one or two SPD points of the average it's not usually that much of a problem. That said, Hero combat is pretty complex, and it will slow down unless everyone at the table is ready to go when their action comes up. At that point they should know what it is they're going to do--in any game, and in Hero especially, it is really not acceptable for any player to sit there trying to decide what to do when his phase comes up.

What Shadowpup said. I'd go with:

6d6 RKA (90)

only damages living creatures (-1/4)

all or nothing (-1)

activation roll (based on target CON) (-1/2)

You can't ordinarily do this with Major Transform, which explicitly can't be used to kill things (though I never understood why not). Ideally your Finger of Death ought to be AE 1 hex (to handwave the lack of a to-hit roll) and NND, but of course now you're way over 100 active points. Which is how it should be.

There are some pros and cons, I think, between 4th and 5th.

5th is a much meatier book. Plenty of examples, much clearer power and skill descriptions, some rules changes that needed to be made (and a few that really shoudn't have). 5th is a much denser book.

4th, however, had better layout. I have the damnedest time finding things in the 5th ed book, not because it's disorganized, but because not much effort went into setting sections apart from each other. Maybe my eyesight is just getting worse, but I never had any trouble instantly finding the paragraph I wanted in the BBB; in Fred, I've had trouble even picking out the cost breakdown that's supposed to be at the end of each power description. 4th also had much better artwork--none of this computer-rendered mannequin crap that seems to be all the rage in gaming circles today. This last, of course, is a matter of opinion.

Originally posted by GamePhil

1. Fix the weapon and armor rules so that they're at least sort of balanced.

 

It's the same as in 4th Edition, but if you're referring to the Limitation values I kind of see your point.

 

No, they're completely different. Just compare the weapon charts. Str Min rules have gone from formulaic to arbitrary, not that the 4th ed. formula was all that great. And don't even get me started on the useless "real weapon" limitation, which will cause more problems than it solves.

 

I generally use, and wouldn't mind seeing, a Utility Advantage/Limitation: if it's really useful in this game, it gets an Advantage, if it's not so useful a Limitation. However, if it never exists officially I wouldn't be bothered.

That might work. The problem really is one that all 'universal' systems have, i.e. that a given power simply isn't going to be worth the same from one genre to the next. For the most part Hero powers are costed pretty well, but there are a couple that need to be reevaluated.

Can't agree there. I especially like STR as it is, unless revisions were made system-wide (if they were to, for some reason, eliminate EC's altogether I could see increasing the cost of STR). Dexterity is also frequently argued to be broken, but I have yet to see an argument that applies universally.

This sort of rolls into the power-cost problem I have above. STR is a good deal in Champions campaigns, but in FH it's way too cheap for the stat that defines everyone's damage, as well as figured stats, and (in 5th) how high your defenses are.

What would you suggest? Using an OCV/DCV like system, like Fuzion did? Or something else?

I'm not thinkng of combat here, I'm thinking of reworking the skill rules so that each stat point means something. Suppose INT skills were based on INT or less instead of 9+(INT/5). Characters with INT > 23 are exceedingly rare even in Champions.

What's wrong with the Bleeding rules? Or were you just being terribly British?

The present bleeding system is hard to use. 1st ed FH, frankly, had the best bleeding rules--bleed 1d6NND Does Body for each 5 Body of the wound; a 1 reduces bleeding, a 6 increases it. Don't forget to buy Paramedic skill.

Magic always works, but the player is going to get suspicious when all the enemy wizards throw STR suppress and AP/Penetrating RKAs, yet never throw AE DEX drains or RKA explosions...

Penalties for movement are already in the 5th encumbrance rules

"The enemy shaman's hands begin to glow while he utters words of power to his totem. Armored guy is the target for his Weakness Spell (3d6 Suppress STR)."

Re: Re: SPEED Freaks

Originally posted by archer

Who wants to have a higher Speed? The World's Fastest Man, that's who. Why shouldn't a character have a higher SPD if his concept calls for it?

Well considering that the GM limited SPD to 5 then the world's fastest man would be SPD 5. I think WillS should talk to his GM and maybe his group about this. If the fastest SPD that the GM is allowing is now 6, then any character with SPD 6 better damn well have it justified because that will be the fastest character in the universe.

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

If you tried to convert D&D to HERO, do you think you could make "Finger of Death" or "Power Word: Kill" spells on less than 100 AP? Those are among the most powerful effects in the game, available only to the mightiest (and most experienced) of characters.

Finger of Death, maybe not, Power Word Kill probably.

Power Word Kill requires sound and is short ranged. In addition to that, it is the weakest of the Power Words. Yeah sure it kills instantly but it affects the lowest amount of hp compared to the others (about 60 hp). Basically, it's a 6d6 RKA, All or Nothing.

Originally posted by Celt

That's also key to the power Yamo wants if you're figuring averages. People shouldn't be brought just negative Body, they have to be made dead, which means taking the target's Body not only to zero but to their negative Body maximum.

Darnit, you're right. I was about to suggest a 20d6 Suppress BODY.

Yamo, you should be ashamed of yourself for asking this question

I would have to go with the Transform. It really is the only way to do it as worded. Of course, most of the things in D&D that cause Save vs Death are prevented in Hero with a mere 10 pts or so (LS: Immunity to Poison, etc)

1. Fix the weapon and armor rules so that they're at least sort of balanced, rather than the broken crap that came in Fred.

2. Change some of the power costs to better facilitate heroic level games. Flight and force field are way, way, way too cheap. Drains and transfers are too expensive.

3. Bite the bullet and change the characteristics costs to balance STR and DEX at the very least. Personally I'd like to see DEX broken up into at least two different stats, e.g. 'agility' and 'coordination'.

4. Fix the skill system to allow finer grain at heroic levels. DEX is the only stat where each point really matters. Other stats (such as INT) have about four levels of granularity.

5. Fix the bleeding rules.

6. Fix Damage Shield.

Gear Kreig is supposed to be Pulpish too but I know nothing about it.

http://www.dp9.com/Worlds/GK.htm

I agree, don't change the basic costs of anything. Some things may be "over powered" for this genre, but things like that should be handled by the GM.

Deaming themselves fit enough to travel, the three puds, started on their way back to Cowscrossing. The sun set while they were still a good distance away, but there was enough moonlight to see by.

As they got closer to the town, they saw an ominous glow in the sky. Even Yor who was lacking in worldly experience knew the signs of a large fire. All of them dashed forward to see what was wrong, any large fire in a town was a bad thing. Yor and Mac outpaced the much slower Lavenus and were the first to see several parts of the town in flames.

Four more hands wouldn't do much for putting out the flames, so they did what they could for the wounded. Sadly to say there were many. From the scores of barbs scattered around the town, they guessed correctly that muskies had raided while they were gone. Most of the militia had been wiped out and carried off before the muskies were "driven away". Macarrandir knew a little about musky culture, and thought it was more probable that the muskies had more food than they could carry so they left.

It took hours before the last flames burned out, the last wound bandaged. Looking over the damage, Mac approached one of the militia men. "You're telling me that a score of muskies tromped into town, burned down five houses, the leather worker's shop and the smithy, and they got away?" he asked.

"No no sir, we got three of them! Our losses were higher than expected but we won!" the new militia captain pronounced.

"Captain, how many people were in the militia before the raid?"

Thinking for a short while he answered "30 I think....yes, 30."

Shaking his head, the skinny Wythir walked away. Joining up with Yor, he said "How is it that these people think they won? They inflicted 3 casualties, and suffered 20 of their own!" Yor shrugged, not knowing what to say and lead Mac to the bath house to wash off the blood and ash.

As they made their way down the main street, a familiar stone skinned man pointed an accusing finger. "You! you were with that necromancer. Why did you let him do this to the town? Aleister the Evil was with the muskies, I saw him!" The shock showed on their faces and more than a little disturbed, Yor and Mac continued on their way.

Almost as expected, Lavenus was already soaking in one of the large wooden tubs. Looking at his ash covered companions he smiled, "Is the fire out? All those ashes and sparks were terrible on my fur..." Yor was easily able to restrain the much weaker Wythir. They all had a long day (and night) and all needed to get clean and rested.

Yor bounded through the forest ignoring the whipping branches and pulling vines. Bulling his way into the dog handler, he managed to knock it off it's feet. The creature was shaken but still alive. With an angry stomp, the monk crushed it's windpipe before it could get up.

Macarrandir the Proud had just enough time to drop his bow and draw his swords before he was assaulted by the killer dogs. Wythir are known for their speed and agility, Mac used both to keep the dogs at bay.

Not wanting to harm the dogs, the atlatl armed muskies launched a pair of darts towards Yor, but could not hit the large nimble man.

Almost as an afterthought, Yor backhanded the musky closest to him crushing it's face and sending shards of bone into it's brain. Saying another small prayer to Saint Sebastian, he leapt with the Grace of God into the middle of the throwing muskies.

The dogs were persistant in their attacks against Mac. One of them seeming to make a sacrifice of itself in order to make an openning for the other. With swards lodged in the chest and leg, one dog fell while the other latched onto the Wythir's thigh. The dog swallowed a chunk of flesh as Mac fell to the ground bleeding.

Yor saw both of his companions fall and his vision turned slightly pink. A rapid combination of punches and kicks dropped yet another musky. The last badger-man tried to defend itself but was totally outclassed.

Now it was just Yor and a huge dog. The dog snarled while foam dripped down it's bloody jaws. As Yor advanced, the dog jumped on him and bit his arm. Yor gasped in pain while hammering the dog in the ribs. It look a little while for him to realize that the dog was no longer moving - it's jaws were locked on his arm.

He was exhausted but checking on his companions was a priority. When he checked on Lavenus, the flies were just beginning to feast. In spite of the horrible wound tothe stomach, the Toth was still alive - barely. Singing praises to the All Father, Yor's hands began to glow with a golden light. As the healing energies flowed into The Most Pretty, the bleeding stopped and the wound began to close. Soon, the wound was nothing more than a pink scar.

By the time Yor reached Macarrandir, he found the skinny man in a lot of pain but conscious and binding his own bleeding leg.

Lavenus ignored the tenderness of his newly healed gut and made sure their enemies would never get up. He thought the scalps and coins he found were worth the pain.

"We can only rest for a short while before heading back to town." Yor said "It probably be dark before we get there."

Originally posted by FantasyGM

Another issue is magic equipment. Should I only allow it to be purchased with experience or should it be found through out quests. In fantasy games one of my favorite things to do is discover loot, but I don't really know how this will affect a Hero game. I have only played supers in this system.

If they start with it, then they spend character points on it. For experience, I think it should only go into really special gear that you are awarding to them. Other than that, all gear magical or otherwise is just found/bought and used. There is no "bonding" requiring experience unless that's part of your campaign.

Originally posted by FantasyGM

I am batting around the idea of giving them all 25+25 points to start and then every so often allowing them to "level" by having a predetermined number of points spent by me on the direction my PC's want their characters to develop, and also leaving a few points for them to choose how to spend. I think this will create a satisfactory feeling of advancement, and leave them freedom to spend points in minor ways...like skill points in d20.

There is nothing inherently wrong with your idea. But for some reason it just doesn't "feel" right. Experience points ARE character points afterall. Hero doesn't work on the whole "you've earned 2,000 xp so you've gained a level, now you can spend 5 skill points." Hero is easier in that if you've earned 5 xp, you have 5 points to spend on your character.

As the GM, you'd probably be better off giving xp in a normal fashion and then let the players know when they can spend it, and how much of it they can spend.