lou_tennant

Completely down to how the blood is lost - as others have said.

Modern medicine can dramatically changed the speed at which one can recover from all sorts of injuries, illness, and similar.

I think the GM would have to make a judgement call appropriate to the situation and common sense would have to prevail. You might find (or create a house) guideline that would work, but do you really need to?

I thought that was the case given the lack of posts on the subject following the last one being December 2010.

My world uses the tears of undead infants* as currency.  How much is 50GP in the tears of undead infants? 

 

* Not really.

This post serves no purpose and does not relate to this topic/thread - All it does is increase your post count, which is presumably the only reason for it.

I could see Charges* (components), Skill Roll, Focus*, Gestures, Incantations, Concentration and Side Effect all fitting into a Variable Limitation.

*For those you have to define how many charges/wich Focus you have to sue beforehand of course. Charges used in this way would even bring thier 0 END effect along: http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/88284-charges-variable-limitations-and-end/

 

Except that virtually every other game lists prices for weapons, armors, other mundane items and spell components in the same currency. Hero has no such listing to work with (unless there is something in Fantasy Hero or the Equipment guide, don't have those).

Is 50 Gold Pieces okay, underpriced or overpriced for Spell X's Expendable Component? Not really possible to say unless you have a idea of what 50 GP buys you in mundane goods.

Charges is definitely something I had considered, to represent that a skilled caster can use less of a given component, potentially the other aspects is to say that once you skilled enough you can cast without the component.

I also agree that another way might be X components cost you Y, and you need to keep track of the components. Over time it costs less as a caster becomes more efficient.

What long-standing problem with the HERO system and money?  Money is pretty much arbitrary and up to the GM depending on the campaign, just like virtually every other game in existences...

The issue of how you convert points to money, or money to points - as a start. Then you have issue over characters building something out of points but not have the money to pay for it - or perhaps they do but how many do they need.

Also the balance between 'loot' like magic items as a 'monetary' gain and the cost in points to a character.

There are some prices lists out there and you can work out some calculations to work out the money to points conversion, but it does not remain consistent. 

Thanks for all these suggestions guys, I think that we all seemed to be on the same wave-length in terms of balancing the gained based upon how active the character has been and how they have aged.

Other things I have been considering:

• Has the character amassed some amount of wealth, a retirement plan - sort of - and other resources. This would have to be based on the kind of earnings vs. commitments/responsibilities.  This would account for some EPs.
• If they take an Age disadvantage then characteristics will degrade or have to be maintained - at extra effort.
• Contacts, Favours, Perks and similar are all elements that people [typically] pick up over time.
• I have been thinking of the EPs based on 'Failed' Skill rolls (AS Lucius suugests), BRPS, DQ/RQ and other systems like this method and it has worked well in the past in campaigns we have played under these systems.
• I feel there should be some random element - not catastrophic - that throws up challenges, changes of direction, or similar for characters to work/deal with.
• Skills can be forgotten and this would be in conjunction with what a character has been doing.

Wagering is something else I had considered, potentially allowing players to have an element of control over 'significant' events that occur.

Also, if I am Indiana Lecturer for 20 years and remain in the classroom then I will be different from Professor Jones who is 'let out of the classroom' every so often to collect some Dingus from some strange place.  The Lecturer may change very little, his physique is likely to diminish whilst his academia will increase - his disadvantages will change and he may add the odd 'bad habit'. Professor Jones may not change much (physique might be maintained) but my KS will expand as I visit new places and learn about new cultures.

Some great stuff here, and I am interested by the discussion and comments that this topic has created.

I am planning on moving 20-30 years from 1 campaign to seed a new one, and have original characters show up at times. Potentially characters from 20-30 years ago will be played along new characters and so I have been giving some thought to experience points for this 20-30 year period.

I was wondering if others had done this, had thought about it, had guidelines they had used in the past for dramatic time advance and 'blanket' EPs to fill in the period.

My initial thoughts:

• A large portion of the EPs will go to knowledge, professional and 'day-to-day' work skills.
• It should vary from individual to individual - EPs already do when players switch between characters at different times - so _some_ variation is to be expected and is accepted. How much should it 'swing'?
• I don't think that the EP gain should be based on any particular Characteristics.
• The rate will be nothing akin to full-on adventuring as will not have been intense and the threat is likely to have been a lot lower.
• I would not expect there to be EPs for good role-playing, as I am not looking to 'play' the intervening period - though once a structure/total time and rough events 'along the way' have been worked out I will encourage players to create a story to cover the period.  I would consider bonus points being available for good role-play in the writing of this.
• I had considered that the EP gain will reduce over the period as day-to-day existence reveals less that is unknown to the character - therefore less of an 'experience'.
• I had thought something around 3-4 points a year with a small variation (perhaps based on 3d6), with some of the points being assigned by the GM, certain disadvantages should also be targeted to be bought off - afterall, how long can one person remain 'young, innocent & naive'?

Cheers for any thoughts.

Thanks for these quick response guys.  A few things to think on.

I was just wondering how others deal with the spell components for the spells in the Grimoire.

Do you just take the 'Free' spell option?

I can see that this would be a simple option, but kind of removes the point of the components, which do add something to the spells and the spells. Especially when used in the TA setting as I am doing.

Do you remove the 'Expendable' from the focus?

I had toyed with this idea, even the idea of trying to give the focus/components a number of 'charges'. One reason is a wandering Arcanist is going to need a porter just to carry multiples of each component - not much good if you need to cast a spell twice but only have one 'crystal eye' (or whatever).

Do you leave it in place and make the Caster find the components?

This option then means that 'very difficult' to replace foci will cost an absolute fortune - so Arcanists better be the richest people on the planet.

If using this option does anyone have a 'price list' of the components at a 'typical' market value?

Given the (long-standing) problem with the HERO system and money; how much does 1 character point get you in money, if an item costs 50 Gold, how many character points (if any) do I need to spend as well. I have a general way that I am currently handling this, it is working so far.

How can a balance be struck; should characters be required to spend points on a Perk saying they have X number of components?

If the OAF: Component (difficult to replace, expendable) is to be a limitation, how do you stop it from being prohibitive in play?

I like the 'essence' of the spell components, it has also sorts of side-stories attached, adventurers go to places to collect a particular 'moss' for an alchemist because it is 'difficult' for him to obtain, and he pays them - but how much? How much is that moss worth? How many 'charges' of the moss can they collect?

It could prove a nice little earner for characters to help repair their kit, pay for lodgings, etc. if they collected various 'bits & bobs' on their travels that they know are in demand.

I am currently (actively) working on a conversion of ICE's Cyberspace. I have a campaign that I want to run again, but the system is hard work.

I am building a part-generate, part-build character creation process, to very closely mimic Cyberspace - I want new characters to closely emulate originals (in their converted form). I have also done work on the conversion of existing characters.

Valdorian Age is even better.

I know, but I feel that TA has more to it and feels better than VA - but it is a preference thing.

Hyborian Age (Conan)

Gamma World

Gamma World - like that one.

Conan would be good, but you can do a very-close impersonation of a Conan style campaign using the Turakian Age / Ambrethel setting - plenty of appropriate locations, and big sweeping tundra vistas.

A Rifts conversion will never happen. The IP owner thinks that any such conversion will negatively impact his sales. Same with fan sites and other fan based content. The IP's owner is a jerk.

Indeed he is, I have had dealings with him - I own a lot of the Rfits and Palladium stuff and did a lot of mega-verse stuff with it back in the 80's & 90's. Brought all sorts together, TMNT, Unltd, Mechanoids, N&S, BtS & Rifts.  My gaming group at the time loved various material, the game sessions I ran... then there was the system - oh dear!

I did a lot of work to bring it together and work with better conversions between books, things like SDC & MDC, and all sorts of other stuff. Got in touch and even suggested possible ways to convert to and from Palladium.  

I could say a lot more, but it isn't required as Tasha's statement covers it.

I have recently been looking at a way to do TMNT under HERO, using package deals and the like to tailor things for the use of BIO-e etc.  Still in my mind and on the back-burner.

Not trying to be antagonistic, but I really do not understand.

 

I have yet to find any PDF reader capable of allowing me to in under 30 seconds mark pages 14, 47, 56, table 5 all in Book A, Mark three pages in Book B and then quickly jump between the choices and add new location on the fly.     At most I can open the 2 books to one page each and flip back and forth.  And in one book you can bounce between two pages. 

 

Book mark menus are always clunky and take longer that just repeating searches.  I usually have a some index cards along and if I need additional information I only have to look for it once, drop in a mark and I have instant access for the rest for the session without a big delay.

 

If I could find a PDF reader that displayed a full page large enough to actually read and allowed me to jump between 7-8 pages as easily as I can with paper I'd be right on it.   

 

Do you know of a reader that does it?   I've been waiting for a decent reader for years.

I agree Spence, I haven't yet found using PDFs during a game to be quick. I agree they are handy and you can carry all your books with you for very little weight. The other thing I find is that I want to be referencing one book, whilst my players would like to look up the spells in the Grimoire, or the Equipment in Gadgets & Gear - or whatever.

We don't all have readers either, but we can all pass books to one another.

I quite often use PDFs when prep'ing or character creation on my laptop (with a second screen attached), but whilst GM-ing or playing you can't beat a book - at least not that I am aware off.

Perhaps if everyone had a tablet and you had a local wireless network set-up you could share the PDFs whilst playing - but generally only a couple of us have laptops, let alone tablets, and laptops take up a lot of real estate on a dining table.

not to mention the extra half dice of damage.

@NuSoardGraphite, this is generally how I have been working with regards to cyber/bio-ware.  From memory it is close to the suggestions in CyberHERO (4th Ed).

The Irish (in general) faced a lot less racial aggression/prejudice in America in 1920's than they did in London for instance.

The Irish had been migrating to America since the early opportunities of the 'Land Rush' that took place in ~1888-1895 - especially in Oklahoma, and almost all of them came through New York. So the Irish were very much part of New York by the 1920's.

Most of the Social 'restrictions' related to the type of positions and reputations that they had earn during that those ~30 years. Plenty of Irish-Americans when growing up and starting the 2nd generation of I-A.

I generally work on a Social Limitation : Irish for 5pts - whereas in London around the same era I would normally suggest 10pts.

I hadn't thought about making the gadgeteer a brick as a secondary power set, but that fits so well. And yes, I'm planning that he will have motorized constructs. His super suit will be colored like Lego sets. (Your avatar is very fitting for this discussion.)

 

I am glad you like the Brick idea.

I am a BIG fan of Lego, and I have a 4-and-a-half year old boy who is also loving it, not massively surprising really.

Does he also like to get up to mischief?

Perhaps, given the Scandinavian (Denmark) roots to Lego, you could combine Lego and a certain god of mischief... Legoki Billundson could be a secret identity.  Then something like Blocker or Constructor.

Presumably he would have a set of support agents; [Lego] constructs?

I am assuming that not only is he a gadgeteer, he would logically be a [Lego] Brick - would he not?

I have two "giant ants" I made for a Atomic Pulp game.  They are built adapting from existing Hero builds.

 

Giant Atomic Ant

Giant Atomic Formic Ant

 

They are actually bought with the 'large' template.  But an ant that is up to 2 times human size is giant to me

 

I can send them as HD files or do an export if you are interested.  If you plan on using them for FH you may need to adjust them.  These guys were designed to operate in mass against supers. 

 

Individually they are deadly for modern/pulp bystanders, dangerous for modern/pulp Heroic and a heavy mook for average supers.     In numbers they become very very deadly.....

Could you upload the HD files for these - I would be interested in having a look.

 

Where/How is the best way to post the build?

 

Answered my own question by looking a little closer at reply options... 

Here are the packages I have used.

Also Raegan 1st draft in HD, and pdf (for those that don't have HD).

Raegan the Bastard.hdc

Raegan.pdf

nice origin

Thanks, I thought it felt pretty good, but always nice to hear it from someone else.  The GM likes it.

Post your build. I tried to build the character and I don't have a good sense of them still.

 

One thing that I would recommend is perhaps look at Characteristics to lower, Not buy every maneuver that the MA has. Abandon the Danger Sense (it's a bit expensive)  Also the 25 hanger's on probably don't need to have points spent on them They are just part of the Character's background.

 

Specifically WHAT MA style are you using? What weapons does the character see as their "signature weapon".

 

 

Where/How is the best way to post the build?

Lowering Characteristics is a possibility, but they are only 73 points, and trimming them much more than 10% will hamstring him alongside a general fighter, yes he has moves, but if he can't deliver them quick enough... Once the build is up you can see what you reckon.

I don't have Danger Sense - just Combat Sense - he is very focussed in combat and has a sense of his surroundings enough to fight blind or visually hampered, but outside of combat - whilst perceptive - he does not sense danger any more than other experienced fighters might.

The Gladiator package uses the Weapons Combat MA from Ultimate MA - I can post if necessary (in fact I have both packages as images but can't quite work out how to post content into 'my media').

He doesn't have a signature weapon as the weapons used would vary to provide added entertainment, perhaps one of different weapons around an arena for the Gladiators to select. To represent this weapons mastery I have bought various weapon elements with the MA package.

A Gladiator at the top of his game _should_ have all the moves, it is what helps to separate him from those with a couple and just starting out.

I will post one for you as well. it's a fairly straightforward build. no crazy powers outside a few subtle talents. mostly characteristics and combat skill levels and martial arts. most of the characteristics and skill levels and some of the martial arts will come from the warrior culture package (he was raised among gladiators from the time he was 2 so that qualifies for warrior cultural package) and the gladiator variant of the light fighter package.

 

Additional skills will be things like rapid attack, defense maneuver etc to help facilitate him fighting multiple opponents well. the martial arts will make him a terror in one on one duels, and his skill levels will make him proficient with all common melee weapons (and several uncommon ones) with an obvious bias towards the sword and shield combo with a proficiency in shield bashes.

 

He wont have much in the way of non combat skills other than his turakian everyman set, a streetwise with focus on warrior/gladiator cultures, some perception bonuses and maybe some pre skills. He shouldnt be literate, because he grew up a slave, and unless a slave is specifically a scribe or secretary, there's no need to teach them to read and gladiators doubly so.

 

Talents will probably be a few low key to help him be victorious in the arena. combat luck, deadly blow (some special finishing move) and some aviodance ability (extra dcv levels ?) nothing too fancy, as fancy get you killed in his line of business.

Thanks, I would like to see how he could be built by others. I am using talents alongside his very reduced skill set, MA & characteristics. I have him with 10-12 points of skill levels (some for using armour, some for hit location & a couple of general ones - the MA moves have enough variation to give him an extra edge. Warrior culture - I agree. Sought of a 'Spartan' lifestyle.

I went for Follow Through Attack, rather than Def Man or Rap Att.

Yep very few skills which will make him like a fish out of water for most things than combat, how does one bargain, society, manners - he knows little of these things - not a 'thug' but very little understanding. Not sure abiout streetwise - he hasn't spent any time 'on the street' - perhaps FAM only. Not literate - I agree, it is a waste of resources to teach gladiators to read.

Yep, function over fancy - again I have Combat Luck and Fearless, I opted not to have Deadly blow due to "rather than just killing his opponents - he respected them, giving them a chance to stay down once he was in a position to do so." Do unto others... philosophy, he felt (a little unusually) that all gladiators are brothers-in-arms not enemies.

Cheers for all this so far.

I would also highly recommend the Cyberpunk/Anime source book Kazei 5 there are tons of Cyberwear pieces written up in there and how to run a cyberpunk game from Street level to superheroic over the top anime Cyberpunk crazyness.

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/store/product/90-kazei-5-bookpdf/

I shall check out the PDF.

I think you build the cybernetics with the appropriate limitations, like magnetic fields. 

I would also suggest that you need to consider what happens when the metal bits take damage, if both arms are fully cybernetic then any damage (through defenses) to locations 7 & 8 will not be healed with normal REC or even a magical 'Heal'.  They have to be repaired - how easy is it to get the materials, how long does it take. You might need to assign a BODY stat to each arm and if half is taken then perhaps the arm only partially functions, once it is one then the arm is broken - perhaps beyond repair.

If there are other elements built into the arms - like scanners, or energy projectors - then these systems would also suffer if the arm is badly damaged.

If the arms do not feedback to the central biological nerve system then 'in theory' the STUN damage is not relevant - hence the automaton suggestion, one could argue that the arms at least are effectively automaton.

I realise in a Superheroic game that you don't (generally) use hit locations, but in this instance you might need to.

I am actually working on converting ICE's Cyberspace to work under HERO5e. I have a copy of CyberHERO, which is 4e and I think has quite a few issues - hence not using it straight (ignoring the version).

This includes re working the character generation to keep some of the feeling of the 'random' element, but with a lot more control for the player.

As part of this I have got to rework the cybernetics - so of which I have done in part at least - so I have been trying to think how it would work..  I have also reworked the suggested conversion (at back of CyberHERO) from Cyberspace to HERO.

Whilst this won't be running alongside the likes of a 'Superman' or 'Spiderman' type of Superhero - it is more gritty and I will be making use of some Dark Champions and Star HERO bits to get the feel I am after.