Kaze9999

Consider yourself reputized

 

 

Lucius Alexander

 

This has the look and feel of a palindromedary tagline

Thanks! My inspiration is the MHI RPG Kickstarter! To me, it is the perfect form of "Dark Champions Complete"!

By the way, one possibly underserved, passionate fanbase is for web comics. Order of the Stick had a tsunami-level successful Kickstarter project that funded waaay over target, and Schlock Mercenary has had a very successful  Kickstarter project too, I believe.

Can you imagine a Hero Games licensed, Order of the Stick RPG on Kickstarter in lieu of a "Fantasy Hero Complete" rulesbook? I know the comic was originally based on D&D, but it is way past that now, and Hero System does ANYTHING better!

My personal wish would be for a Hero Games licensed "Schlock Mercenary" RPG in lieu of a "Space Hero Complete"!

Another benefit of basing an RPG on a popular web comic would be that getting the art for the book should be much easier and more economical too.

When a player is missing for a session, it might be a good time to do a "meta-arc" session where the characters find--or have to fight to obtain--some kind of archival record that hints at a previously unknown agenda by the builders of the vault, with possible plans for leaving it...kind of ala "City of Ember" style.

Just a thought, doing that could introduce the thought of leaving the vault in a "contingency plan" manner, setting up your future crisis that makes it an immediate imperative.

Grimnoir Chronicles are awesome. I mentioned during the kick starter how cool it would be and still feel the same way. 

I wonder how well monster hunter had done? 

ForThat matter Iwonder if any one at Hero is even following this. I know Darren  W and Steve L must be working on other stuff to actually pay the bills.

 I can only speculate, but it seems like monster hunter was a success as a KickStarter, but not necessarily a success as far as selling books after all the KickStarter participants got theirs. I base this on the inventory listing in the Hero Game store that shows nearly five hundred books available.

I think that phase 3 of the process would have to be to heavily promote the book at conventions (running games for it and such) to try to generate continuing awareness of the game and eventually build up demand beyond the fans that were involved in the Kickstarter. The (RPG) book got good reviews, and should be a hit with gamers if they are exposed to it, but as posted above, that exposure likely won't be in the game stores because it was published as a Kickstarter project and has already sold to the core fans who funded it.

For this I would Suggest Malazan Book of the Fallen.

 I have my favorites too, but I know it is hit and miss what might be available or even just connecting with an author to find out; Monster Hunter International kind of just happened by coincidence, if I understand correctly, and "PS238" was a great license that didn't translate into commercial success, so it's still a gamble. That's why I suggest Kickstarter as a "crowd source", validation test as to whether there really is enough fan interest in the fictional book(s) to justify an RPG.

Ultimately, it could well matter more how engaged the author is in promoting the Kickstarter to his/her fanbase than how "cool" the Hero System fans think the licensed setting is...

On that note, Larry Correia (author of MHI) also has a fantasy/pulp series (Grimnoir Chronicles) that might not be Hero System fan's first choice, but might be worth inquiring about, if he had a good experience with the MHI RPG; Larry self-published his first MHI novel, so is no stranger to doing the work to market his projects to his fan base.

Okay, I think the best chance for commercial success is, "Show not Tell" the advantages of Hero System, namely:

1) Aggressively pursue a licensed setting from an up and coming fictional work with its own built-in fanbase like Larry Correia's Monster Hunter International, which in my opinion Steve Long and Larry Correia made into an awesome, "Dark Champions Complete".

2) Work with the author of the fictional setting to showcase Hero System's incredible flexibility by NAILING the "look and feel" of the fiction that the fans of the works already love; with all the Hero System rules (and only the rules) necessary to that objective.

3) Accept the loss of traditional game store retail revenue stream, and fund by KickStarter, leveraging the non-Hero System fanbase of the fictional work to increase the Hero System fanbase and showcasing and marketing heavily at gaming conventions to build up direct online sales from the Hero Games Store. If enough fans are requesting it through game stores, they'll stock it too, some. Eventually. Or else become irrelevant to RPG books and continue to go more towards high ticket board games and miniatures and card games.

Rinse repeat for Pulp Hero Complete, Star Hero Complete. 

To sum up, Hero System is like an awesome video game graphics engine; it makes the games great, but people buy the games, not the graphics engine. Did anyone by a video game because it uses Torque 3D graphics engine rather than Irrlicht, Ogre, Panda3D, etc? No. But if they buy a game and love the graphics, they will look for new offerings from the same company. Likewise, if they buy Monster Hunter International RPG because they love the setting, and find they really love the game play/character generation, they will be more open to the same company's licensed Fantasy setting, while fans of Hero System will be getting a new, licensed setting, not just the same old rules re-baked in a new, more concise format.

Ouch.  You must have played a LOT of Call of Cthulhu.

 LOL!

A fair assumption Hyper-Man, but to be honest, I never liked the mechanics for Call of Cthulhu, though as you surmise, I loved the "atmosphere" and genre.

Really any horror movie tends to have regular people we can identify with (or even feel superior to) as opposed to "Bug Hunt" movies which are a lot of fun, but tend to feature characters a lot more skilled and competent in tactics and warfare than most of their audience. Of course, in horror movies, a lot of those "every guy" characters tend to die in the course of the story... 

Thanks for sharing. It's a pretty interesting story.

 I thought it could make great inspiration for a Pulp Hero adventure!

Just had to share this cool--true--story!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norge_(airship)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2013) Norge

Other name(s) N-1 Type N-class semi-rigid airship Manufactured 1923 First flight March 1924 as N-1; April 1926 as Norge Owners and operators Umberto Nobile et al Fate Dismantled at Teller, Alaska for transport to Europe.

The Norge was a semi-rigid Italian-built airship that carried out what many consider the first verified overflight of – and the first verified trip of any kind to (see below) – the North Pole on May 12, 1926. It was also the first aircraft to fly over the polar ice cap between Europe and America. The expedition was the brainchild of polar explorer and expedition leader Roald Amundsen, the airship's designer and pilot Umberto Nobile and American explorer Lincoln Ellsworth, who along with theAero Club of Norway financed the trip.

 

Contents  [hide] 

• 1 Design & development
• 2 Polar expedition
• 3 Specifications (Norge)
• 4 See also
• 5 Notes
• 6 References

 

Design & development[edit]

Norge was the first N class semi-rigid airship designed by Umberto Nobile and its construction started in 1923. As part of the selling contract [as the Norge] it was rebuilt for Arctic conditions. The pressurised envelope was reinforced by metal frames at the nose and tail, with a flexible tubular metal keel connecting the two. This was covered by fabric and used as storage and crew space. Three engine gondolas and the separate control cabin were attached to the bottom of the keel. Norge was the first Italian semi-rigid to be fitted with the cruciform tail fins first developed by the Schütte-Lanz company.

Polar expedition[edit]

Mast in Vadsø

Mast in Ny-Ålesund

In 1925, Amundsen telegrammed Nobile asking to meet him at Oslo, where he proposed an airship trip across the Arctic. Because Nobile knew the currently flying airship, the N-1, was too heavy for such a trip, he suggested the airship N.^{[clarification needed]} that was under construction. Amundsen insisted on being ready by 1926, so Nobile had to modify N-1 for long range and cold weather. The Norwegians then contracted to buy the N-1, renamed to Norge, which Nobile would prepare.

On 29th March 1926, the ship was officially turned over to Amundsen and Ellsworth during a ceremony near Rome. The flight to the Arctic started off from Rome almost two weeks later, delayed due to bad weather. The first leg ended at Leningrad after a 17 hour flight marred by bad weather, on 15th April. The ship then proceeded to Vadsø in northern Norway, where the airship mast is still standing today. The expedition then crossed the Barents Sea to reach King's Bay at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard.^[1]

There Nobile met Richard Evelyn Byrd preparing his Fokker for his North Pole attempt.^[1] Nobile explained the Norge trip was to observe the uncharted sea between the Pole and Alaska where some thought land was; at the time he believed Robert Edwin Peary had already reached the pole.^[1] This would be the last stop before crossing the pole. The airship left Ny-Ålesund for the final stretch across the polar ice on May 11 at 9:55.^[2]

The 16-man expedition included Amundsen, the expedition leader and navigator; Umberto Nobile the airship's designer and pilot; polar explorer and expedition sponsor Lincoln Ellsworth; as well as polar explorer Oscar Wisting who served as helmsman. Other crew members were 1st Lt. Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, navigator; 1st Lt. Emil Horgen, elevatorman; Capt. Birger Gottwaldt, radio expert, Dr Finn Malmgren of Uppsala University, meteorologist;^[1] Fredrik Ramm, journalist; Frithjof Storm-Johnsen, radioman; Flying Lt. Oscar Omdal, flight engineer; Natale Cecioni, chief mechanic; Renato Alessandrini, rigger; Ettore Arduino, Attilio Caratti and Vincenzo Pomella, mechanics. Nobile's dog, Titina, also came aboard as mascot.^[1]

On May 12 at 01.25 (GMT) they reached the North Pole, at which point the Norwegian, American and Italian flags were dropped from the airship onto the ice.^[3] Relations between Amundsen and Nobile, which had been strained in the freezing, cramped and noisy conditions became even worse when Amundsen saw that the Italian flag dropped was larger than either of the others. Amundsen later recalled with scorn that under Nobile, the airship had become "a circus wagon in the sky".^[4]

After crossing the pole, ice encrustations kept growing on the airship to such an extent that pieces breaking off would be blown by the propellers and make holes in the hull.

The ice forming on the propellors as we went through the fog, and hurled against the underside of the bag, had pretty well scarred up the fabric covering the keel, though it had not opened up the gas bags or caused any hydrogen loss. We had used up all our cement in repairing the fabric..."^[1]

On May 14 the airship reached the Eskimo village of Teller, Alaska where in view of worsening weather, the decision was made to land rather than continue to Nome.^[1]

The three previous claims to have arrived at the North Pole—by Frederick Cook in 1908, Robert Peary in 1909, and Richard E. Byrd in 1926 (just a few days before the Norge)—are all disputed as being either of dubious accuracy or outright fraud. Some of those disputing these earlier claims therefore consider the crew of the Norge to be the first verified explorers to have reached the North Pole.

During the three day flight the Norge's radio was unable to transmit their status, until they landed at Teller, where they found a small radio.

Specifications (Norge)[edit]

General characteristics

• Capacity: Payload 9,500 kg (21,000 lb)
• Length: 106 m (347 ft 9 in)
• Diameter: 26 m (85 ft 4 in)
• Volume: 19,000 m³ (670,000 cu ft) of gaseous Hydrogen
• Powerplant: 3 × Maybach Mb.IV 6-cyl. water-cooled in-line piston engine, 190 kW (260 hp) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 115 km/h (71 mph; 62 kn)

See also[edit]

• Arctic exploration
• Airship
• Airship Italia
• Roald Amundsen
• Umberto Nobile
• Farthest North
• North Pole
• Timeline of hydrogen technologies

Notes[edit]

1. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f g} Nobile
2. Jump up^ Kumpch 1996
3. Jump up^ Kumpch 1996. Amundsen wrote in his notebook that at 02:20 in the morning they were at the North Pole, 200 metres high with a temperature of −11° Celsius.
4. Jump up^ Kumpch 1996: "Zirkuswagen am Himmel"

References[edit] Wikimedia Commons has media related to Norge.

• Roald Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth, First Crossing of the Polar Sea, Doubleday, Garden City, 1928.
• "Land or Ocean? Umberto Nobile Explores the North Pole Terrain". Kenneth Leish, Columbia University Oral History Research Office. Retrieved 2009-03-11. (Umberto Nobile interviewed in 1960 about the 1926 Norge Alaska trip, with transcript)
• Kumpch, Jens-Uwe (1996-05-11). "Tote Helden sind wahre Helden". Textarchiv (in German). Berliner Zeitung. Retrieved 2009-03-11.

Lamb's Bride Project

Insertable screens! Awesome! Thanks!

Hey...now that Hero Games has the "Print On Demand" thing figured out, how hard would it be to offer an official, 6th edition GM screen as a "Print On Demand"?

I just haven't been up for figuring out how to get a soft copy onto cardboard for my gaming needs, and would rather pay someone else to do it and send it to me; I can't be the only one, right?

Oh! Wish list time? Advanced Players' Handbook One anybody? 

Anybody? What's out of print in 6e? Advance Player's Handbook I is next, right? 

"Lonely Boy" by The Black Keys

These guys aren't free, but good maps!

http://fabledenvironments.com/wp/

SO TEMPTING! NO TIME!

Sorry for shouting, the MHI RPG is awesome, and the roll20.net site is pretty good; I set up two campaigns there and loved the interactive maps and the ability to build stats into tokens (and customize those stats to Hero System)!

Unfortunately, the fact that the site emphasizes real time rather than play by post precludes my even playing much less GMing on it, but I still highly recommend the quality of the game and the site to anyone who hasn't used them yet.

Yeah, plot options in books are different than in rpg's, and everyone's going to want a different "feel", but I think going dead or NPC and 're-roll' is the best way to create dramatic monster hunting tension, and besides once a single player gets "cool stuff" from getting infected, the game goes to Monty Haul. 

Oh! Wish list time? Advanced Players' Handbook One anybody? 

I remember that one! Yeah I think that'd work great; as I recall it was well written.

In the past I've seen corrections uploaded quickly in HD packs, but that was when they had a larger staff; larger than one that is.

I think...I'd lean towards a "re-roll" for the player character if at all possible, personally...because you're setting a precedent. What happens next in your game when a PC gets bit by a vampire, or a zombie?

I don't know who entered the HD info in the Character Pack. I suspect that it wasn't Steve Long. Unless/until an Errata is released I would treat the book as being the "correct source" and the HD characters as having errors in them.

Can we make this thread a preliminary Errata until there is an official one?

From the first post:

"Special Agent Franks has a 20 STR list in the book and a 30 STR in character pack

Tadeusz Byreika has a 6 DCV in the book and a 12 DCV in character pack.

Skippy has a 6 DCV and a 12 Rec in he book and a 5 DCV and a 8 Rec in character pack.

I also noticed errors in Holly and Trip."

I also noticed errors with the Master Vampire write up. I don't remember what they were, but will check back when I can.