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I wanna run some Gamma World for someone. 3rd edition with the Chart and everything...

The thing is, Jedi should be no more competent than an expert warrior without The Force. They train as often as any martial artist or military veteran who likes to keep their skills sharp. Their skills and Characteristics should reflect this. Luke's Characteristics and skills shouldnt be superior to Han's at all. In fact, while they are probably fairly even as pilots, Han should be a much better gunfighter than Luke. Its when you add The Force that things begin go tilt in the Jedi's favor. Danger Sense prevents the Jedi from falling to sneak attacks. Missile Deflection prevents the Jedi from being taken out by casual blaster bolts Mind Tricks (Mind Control) allows the Jedi to easily bypass weak minded guards and opponents. Telepathy allows a Jedi to ascertain an opponent or suspects motives and to sense hostility before violence is initated. And Force Guidance (Overall Skill Levels) gives the Jedi access to The Force to guide their actions to improve their skills. These abilities among others is what allows a Jedi to surpass the mundane warriors of the galaxy, but by no means does it make them invincible. In the Prequels, Jedi were killed by overwhelming odds. During the arena fight on Geonosis, dozens of battledroids were able to overwhelm and kill many Jedi by massing their fire and making it impossble to deflect everything coming at them. Jango Fette killed a Jedi in direct combat with his superior reflexes and fast draw skills, taking the Jedi by surprise. And during Executive Order 66, the Clones were able to dispassionately turn on the Jedi instantly, killing most of them in minutes because the sudden betrayal didnt resonate in The Force strongly (there was no hate or strong emotion behind it. They were simply following a preset order by their Commander in Cheif) and only the strongest of Jedi were able to sense it coming. You absolutely can run Jedi and non Jedi in the same party. In fact without the Force, the Jedi will be LESS competent than the mundanes because of the pool of points that have to be diverted to Force Powers. I usually have Jedi character purchase The Force as a Multipower, the pool points dictating a characters advancement as a Jedi. 15pt pool is a Youngling. A 30pt pool is a Padawan. A 45 point pool is a Knight and a 60 point pool is a Master. Also the first slot in every pool is a special Force Focus slot which consists of 10pt Overall Skill Levels which Cost Endurance that gives the Jedi their famous hyper competence. It is these which allow the Jedi to fight like master swordsmen. It represents a Jedi allowing the Force to flow through them and guide their actions to improve their capabilities. It works great. Me personally, when I run Star Wars, I like to have all the PCs be Jedi, not because of differences in power level (no worse than fantasy hero wizard) but because I think everyone would have more fun playing with Force Powers amd my games often revolve around the nature of The Force and a Jedi's role within it. They turn out better if all the players can contribute to the theme with their own perspectives.

I like the concept of Armor Familiarity. However, I would treat it like Weapon Familiarity. There is an additional penalty to wearing armor that goes away when the familiarity is purchased. Probably a penalty of -2 in addition to the Armor's inherent mobility penalty. Thus someone unfamiliar, wearing Chainmail which has an inherent penalty of -2 would be at -4. I'm thinking Maneuvering in Armor levels must be purchased seperately for each class of armor (Light, Medium and Heavy) but can also be purchased for specific armor (such as Studded Leather or a Chain Hauberk). Each level for a category is 3pts. For a specific armor set within a category is 2pts. It is essentially 5pt DCV levels bought OIF (-1/2), only to remove DCV penalties from armor type (-1/2). For 2pt levels add Only when wearing [specific armor] (-1/2)

Excellent post. Similar to the amount of detail I want to cover.

I like Talents when they are reasonably balanced. I encourage the purchase of Talents over full blown powers in Fantasy Hero. Keep in mind that Talents are just low level power constructs. I design a lot of these things to give players plenty of options. They can go a long way toward differentiating characters from one another even though they may have similar character templates.

Yeah its just a feat like construct. Its there to help simulate extra damage like from a Backstab or a Slayer construct. It works well for these things when you apply it at low levels, but slapping a full D6 of killing damage per "level" is way too much, especially if players are allowed to buy more thab 1d6 of it.

Easiest way to solve the defense issue: ban Combat Luck. It throws off the balance of the weapons vs Def balanced in the Fantasy Hero book. Remember that the Talents in the book are merely examples of how to design your own Talents. Custom design your Talents to fit with the power level of your campaign. In my case I changed the name of Combat Luck to Toughness and reduced it to +1, +2 or +3 damage resistance (not Armor). Not +3 Def armor per "level" thats way too much.

The additional points are necessary because characteristics are more costly because of the separation of figureds. However with several characteristics that drop in cost, that evens out a little bit.

In my opinion, Deadly Blow is more egregious than Martial Arts. Adding only +1 or +2 DC of additive damage classes isnt that bad in the scheme of things. Deadly Blow adding +3 Damage Classes of base damage is far more powerful. This is why I support 3 levels of Deadly Blow starting at +1 DC, with +3 DC being the max I allow and exceedingly rare.

1: follow the equipment guidelines in Fantasy Hero. Those weapons are really well balanced. They are also balanced against the armor in the books. Stick to those values. They work. 2: stop letting players in heroic level games design their own attacks. STOP THAT! Unless they are a mage type character, in which case exert strict controls over how magic functions. Treat Fantasy Hero like D&D. Normal weapons and equipment for free. Use the stats out of the book. Observe the rules for Strength minimum. Observe the rules for maximum damage (no more than double base DC) that way your 1d6+1 long sword will not do more than 2 1/2d6k. 3: be careful which Talents/powers you introduce into the game and more importantly, how much of the ones you do allow. Deadly Blow and Combat Luck are big offenders in this arena. They can easily throw your damage and defense numbers into chaos. Allow only limited amounts of these into your game. (Especially combat luck) 4: make non combat skills important. Then the players cant spend all their points on combat optimization or else they will be inadequate in other important areas of the game. These are my personal guidelines for observing some modicum of game balance learned over many years of playing Heroic level games trying to get the feel right.

Not bad. I like the breakdown.

That was some of the greater detail I was planning on going into on my next day off perhaps.

I was thinking about playing with the idea of adding mobility penalties to armor in addition to the current encumbrance penalties. Why? Because the 5th edition encumbrance charts dont provide enough of a penalty to very strong characters who wear heavy armor such as plate mail. At a STR 20, 40kg plate mail barely reaches the 10% threshold of encumbrance for such a character. I was thinking about adding a DCV/DEX penalty based on the type of armor worn. This penalty represents the general level of heat, discomfort and limitations to limb movement the armor inflicts upon the wearer. I know even plate armor can allow almost any normal human movement such as handstands, cartwheels and backflips, however the purpose of this thought experiment is not to make such maneuvers impossible, only more difficult under the given circumstances. So I was thinking that armor should be broken down into three categories for sake of ease. Light, Medium and Heavy categories. Light armor is obviously Leather and other light armors. Generally speaking they will have a defense between 1 and 3. Medium armors are those armors such as scale and chain. They generally have a defense between 4 and 6. Heavy armors are those which have great weight and somewhat restrict movement such as plate mail. These generally have a defense of 7 or more. I will likely begin some research and come up with something more detailed sometime down the road, but these are the basics I am going for. Quite obviously, Light Armor is a -1, medium a -2 and heavy a -3. This is in addition to the total encumbrance of the character. So the strong warrior with a STR 20 wearing full plate armor will be at -4 to DCV and DEX rolls. A guy who is STR 10 will be at -5. However I also plan to allow "Movement in Armor" skill levels which can reduce the mobility penalties of wearing armor. (But only that, not the Encumbrance penalties) which has to be purchased by category. All of that will be detailed in a later post.

There is also the planetary atlus for Terran Empire (i forget the tittle of that book) and for planets, the GURPS Space Atlas series are quite good. 4 volumes should be easily found.

Yeah listed creatures in things like the Beastiary and MMM (Monsters, Minions and Marauders) are balanced for a 100pt to 150pt campaign. More than that and the creatures become less and less of a threat and some customization will be necessary to maintian the threat level.

Yeah. Have each buy increased maximum for 1 cp per +2 maximum. So for the same points as 2d6 Aid (20 points) they can each have 1d6 +20 max for a total maximum of +26 STR. Individually, they can only pump 6 points into the Brick at a time, but collectively over time they can give the Brick +26 STR, which adds 5d6 to the Bricks base damage.

I think either Change Environment or EDM works for this. Maybe both linked. Change environment to affect movement and range penalties. EDM for increasing the amount of time it takes to pass through the area.

Sounds like a typical MERP session. Its pretty difficult for the fighters to come out unscathed. How did your players like it?

A hermetic style magical system is all about study, theorum and experimentation. Mages should be constantly studying the latest (or eldest) tomes about magickal theory and application, then in the course of their adventures, they should be noting down anything unusual that happens in the course of their spellcasting. Other types of magical traditions learn their spells differently, but should constantly be engaging in the techniques necessary to learn and advance within their craft. Shammans should commune with spirits and ancestors. Mystics should meditate and consult their divination tools. Necromancers should study the dead. Elementalists should immerse themselves in the elements to understand their properties.

Its not everything obviously. Its every once in a while and in general, it will be a story element. One thing that bugs me about some games is how none of the powerful monsters actually exist in the world until the PCs are powerful enough to face them. I find that to be completely unrealistic. So I will oftentimes come up with scenarios where the PCs are completely outclassed. Mostly the creature or enemy will be backdrop. It wont be interested in the PCs, but if they insist on attacking it, they''ll get humbled. But I also provide an avenue of escape or distraction. A harrowing escape from a powerful enemy like a dragon or a deathknight can be an exciting scenario in its own right. In one of my games, at the very beginning, the PCs were sold a treasure map. However the map was also being sought after by some very powerful individuals (of course) and a Herald of the Night (equivalent to a 20th level Anti-Paladin) came looking for it. The party mage was able to sense the waves of dark power emanating from the Herald and the party fled from him. They managed to make it to their ship (one of the PCs was first mate on a pirate vessel) and set sail for the island that held this treasure. When they got to the island and fought their way to the cavernous volcano at its center, they discovered the treasure.....and its guardian...a young dragon. Another fight they werent ready for, so they used stealth to try and acquire what treasure and magic items they could...when the Herald showed up...it had followed them across the ocean carrying the party's Theif's main rival with him (who had seen the map...i based him off Benny from The Mummy) which of course roused the dragon. The dragon and the Herald began an epic battle which aggravated volcanoe which began to erupt initiating a sequence where the PCs had to escape the erupting volcanoe while avoiding the debris caused by the clash of the titans happening around them. It was actually a really cool scenario.

Running is always an option. I love putting characters up against monsters completely capable of slaughtering them just to see how they respond to it.

Old.

Starting with lower points works great. I honestly wonder how many Hero gamers have tried it.

Brilliant!

I create new Talents all the time. I utilize the powers constuction system at lower levels to do so. I treat Talents in Hero the way D&D 3.5 treated Feats. I have done this for a very long time.