Blorn

Re: My Campaign Is Starting to Flesh Out... I Need Help!

Decisions made so far:

1. In the Turakian Age World (mostly so I don't have to convert some of my other settings I have and I like the Religion)

2. Campaign based in the city of Athford.

3. I'm going to use my "City of Greyhawk" maps and NPCs. (I'll scan part of the city map so you all can see how gorgeous it is )

4. Players are members of a Mercenary/Adventuring company to accomodate the fluid players... also, the players are dirt poor to begin, so they must "borrow" equipment from the company with Resource Points (I liked this idea mostly because my players will be fluctuating from week to week and i wanted to keep a little control)

5. Most adventures will be episodic.

6. Using the Metier Magic system from Killershrikes website.

7. Non-casters will have access to martial training schools (Rogue, for example, has a small MP with some pretty cool abilities, an acrobatics like evade bought as Desolidification with some limitations, clinging to walls, and an autofire dagger attack...)

8. I'll be using hit locations.

Decisions Needed:

1. Do i use impairing/disabling rules? I'm thinking I will, but priest will have a non-combat spell that can fix it... but I'm not sure. What if the priest player doesn't show up?

2. Heal spells? I'm thinking one combat heal per person per combat per day... and one out of combat heal per day from a particular source. For example, let's say Blorn the Bouncer takes a few wounds in combat and is down to 7 Body out of 15. Brother Joe, seeing that his little buddy in a bind, casts a combat heal that raises Blorn back up to 10 Body. After the party dispatches the enemy, Brother Joe casts another, out-of-combat heal (a different spell) but rolls horribly and only heals Blorn to 14 Body... leaving the grumpy dwarf with a broken and tender rib, but otherwise ok. Now, Brother Joe can't cast either of these two spells on Blorn for the rest of the day. Now, if Blorn had a healing potion, he could quaf it and heal his broken rib, otherwise, he'd have to wait until the next day for Brother Joe to heal him........ What do you think? Too much to worry about?

On the other hand, there is a limit to the healing if I go with a divine END Reserve that only Recovers when the priest prays (I saw this idea in another thread). The priest will already have a limit on healing per day based upon the END Reserve... I don't know...?

3. Am I missing any other decisions I need to make? I've already got an idea for the first adventure... (Unfortunately, I'm going to have to be fairly rail-roady due to the limited time we have to play. At least at first.) Once I've finalized on it, I'll post it to see what you all think.

Re: My Campaign Is Starting to Flesh Out... I Need Help!

...you don't have to limit your setting to just 1 magic system...

I know... I could handle multiple system's, but my players are all new to Hero, so, if I do add different magic systems, I'll do it gradually. The thing I like about the concept of your Metier System is that you have unique styles that, in a way, is multiple ways of casting magic but with a similar universal mechanic. Flavor and simplicity... doesn't make magic ultra-powerful like the Turakian Age... I've made 2 wizard's using it, and they look good on paper.

I think we are having our first session this Thursday (I only have 1 committed so far, but a possible 3 more... ugh) so, I've got to make a few more decisions...

Re: My Campaign Is Starting to Flesh Out... I Need Help!

...casting a divine spell takes huge amounts of endurance' date=' and basically leaves the caster drained of energy and a little helpless. The in-universe explanation is that having the power of a deity run through you is extremely taxing to a mere mortal...[/quote']

 

I can see this, but I can also see the idea that you are actually not using your own energy, but the god's... which is endless comparitively. I'm still debating on how to handle divine magic. I definitely want to have something... just not sure how to design it for the feel I want. I like the idea that divine magic is not as diverse as arcane magic... more buffing and healing (bless, aid stun, aid body, divine warning, combat heal, cure illness, etc.) most adventuring priests I see as holy warriors. (the player that wants to play the cleric is an old school d&d player... clerics with maces, heavy armor, and heal spells so, anything different won't satisfy him, but I need for it to have a Hero System twist... maybe I'll look at Killer Shrike's site again )

Re: My Campaign Is Starting to Flesh Out... I Need Help!

RE: Gandalf style magic...you may like Stoburu; it models something very much along those lines.

I like it... However, I've actually started to build some NPCs using your Meiter system. I really like how they look. I also like the idea, however, of using staffs, wands, rings, etc. as a focus... I'm leaning on using your Meiter System (almost as is) with END reserves bought through foci... only some matrixes should be bought as capable of using personal END on top of the END reserve. I'm also going to change the names of your sample styles. I might include a few more styles; one that uses spell components (Witchcraft?), and one that creates alchemy...

What do you think?

Re: My Campaign Is Starting to Flesh Out... I Need Help!

Well' date=' if you're looking for a river city, you could simply establish one on the east bank of the Glimwash River, perhaps close to and conducting trade with the Dwarf city of Zargund. Just because there isn't one on the published map doesn't mean you can't have one in your campaign.[/quote']

 

True. I usually don't take something published and use it carte-blanch. But, I'm also a bit lazy... I don't want to create too much I don't have to.

 

how about moving a little further east' date=' to the kingdom of Mezendria? The city of Athford, on the Esseth River, is right at the border with Keldravia, and has been undergoing a massive bolstering of its defenses due to fears of invasion from Keldravia. Athford is also very close to the Snowthorn Mountains, and would likely have to deal with raids from hostile Orcs and the savage Trusca barbarians. It seems like a place with opportunities for adventurers for hire. There's also the likelihood of the neighboring Troll kingdom of Tharnrek soon gaining a much more aggressive and ambitious king.[/quote']

 

I like this idea a lot. I could use my maps (and NPCs) for the City of Greyhawk (renaming it Athford)... No one said I had to keep the campaign in Vestria... I also like the write up on Mezendria; Griffon Nights, one of the royal children taught military stuff while the other taught magic... Possible political conflict from at least 3 different sources (Khirkovy, Troll Kingdom, and Keldravia) not to mention the fact that it's close to mountains... orcs, dragons, etc.

 

So, another thing I've been debating is the Magic System. I was originally going to go with just the standard Turakian Age divide by 3 to make it simple. But, after making 3 magic using characters (I'm designing NPCs and possible characters for irregular players), I've found that the divide by 3 mechanic is dull and makes magic very powerful (one of the wizards I made has around 30 spells!!!). I then decided to revisit KillerShrikes awesome website. I like the Metier system he has... though, I think I might adapt it so that I can use the schools of magic found in the Grimiore for ease (I'm still thinking about this). I like the idea of END reserves... possibly through a mage's staff (like Gandalf) but with some "Matrixes" able to use personal END. One other thing that I don't think I like, in general, are spell components for most spells. It's just one more thing the players have to keep track of, and I never see Gandalf using components... maybe I can make components a part of one "Style" of the Metier system, but not all. One last thing, How do I make Divine Spell casting different? Do I make it just another "Style" or do I come up with a totally different system? (I'm still reading ideas on KillerShrike's site... maybe I'll find something there I like).

 

(My only complaint with the Hero System, is the massive amount of prep work needed... I enjoy it, don't get me wrong, it's just not easy to just throw something together... Now, all of this hard work will pay off, in the long run, I'm sure. Once things are established, everything will run smoothly, it's just a lot of initial groundwork...

Re: My Campaign Is Starting to Flesh Out... I Need Help!

You're welcome.

 

Volmar was indeed the capital of independent Toreth before the Vestrian conquest.

 

I just want to point out that the Battle of Baltaros moved the border between Vestria and Khirkovy well beyond Toreth, adding a lot of territory to play around in. Moving your group's base of operations into this region, south of Toreth and east of Colgrave, would bring it closer to the Greyward Mountains and the rising humanoid threat there, while still likely to rub up against the machinations of Toreth and Khirkovy.

I'm debating on whether I want a port city or a river city... Is Londregos too far away? I know it's technically part of Umbr... The city map for Greyhawk (that I already own) is a river city with a lot of wealth...

Ugh!!! Too many choices! I'm stating to think that I'm just going to have to make a decision and go with it...

Re: My Campaign Is Starting to Flesh Out... I Need Help!

If you want a published setting' date=' I'd second the suggestion for Valdorian age and Elweir, even if you don't use the magic system/Sword and sorcery feel. That's simply because a really big city offers possibilities that a keep on the Borderlands won't.[/quote']

 

I'll look into it. I always say, "Creative ones, create; intelligent ones, adapt." Right now, however, I'm not wanting to spend too much money for something I might use (I'm saving up for GenCon ). I'm going to see what I have already... maybe I can adapt something.

 

Another possibility - one that I used in my last game - is a non-Hero system setting. I pinched the idea of Pavis from Runequest...

 

Interesting. I like the idea of a city next to a larger city ruins... Lots of opportunity... another one I'll have to look into.

 

I've looked through stuff I alreay have... I have a couple cities from the Kingdoms of Kalamar; Geanavue and Port Loona. I also have the old boxed set for The City of Greyhawk. Geanavue and Greyhawk both come with a gorgous color city poster. Though they don't have the flavor of a northern city... but that's just fluff.

 

I'm going to have to make a decision soon. Our first session starts next week on Thursday.

Re: My Campaign Is Starting to Flesh Out... I Need Help!

Yes..

I like it. I'm definitely going to incorporate this. I'm even thinking that after the obligatory "combat to get to know the rules", incorporating it immediately.

Re: My Campaign Is Starting to Flesh Out... I Need Help!

"Based in a city, but also adventures in the area" sounds good. You should try to get the maximum amount of terrain types nearby:

Montains (inlcuding mines), ocean or the sea, plains, hills, forest. Put a few "ruins" in the vicinity. Neverwinter is a good example.

Done! See my decisions on location above.

As time is short and parttaking not guaranteed' date=' cut down complciations. You won't be using them much anyway.[/quote']

 

Not much anyway... except in the Obsidian Portal area...

 

One way: Time limit. The Dragon is getting hungry soon. A Church-Werewolfhuner is on the way. That helps stopping players from fooling around.

 

Great idea!

 

Another idea is the gear "success" variably. When they are fast at tracking down clues' date=' there will be more victims attacked (and to be resqued) before the big finale against the werewolve. If not, a little tip or "asking an expert" reveals that the first clue already leads straight to the Werewolves hideout..[/quote']

 

I like the mechanic in Mouse Guard where a failure is only a way for the GM to apply conditions or twists. In a lot of ways, it enhances the story being told and can be more entertaining than if the players "succeed."

Re: My Campaign Is Starting to Flesh Out... I Need Help!

1. Decide very quickly if this is to be a role-play or roll-play based campaign. I'm thinking that with the problems to commitment' date=' it's going to have to be roll-based. Thus, put the emphasis on gaining loot and killing stuff, not character development.[/quote']

 

Yeah, I was worried about this, but you are right. Like I said earlier, most have some 4E experience, so this is kind of what they are used to. But, maybe with the Obsidian Portal ideas mentioned above, we can get some character development as well...

 

2. This would be one of the few times I'd actually support the idea of a dungeon crawl campaign' date=' as it is easy to send them out to small self-contained adventures.[/quote']

 

Yes, but with the location I'm choosing (see above) I should be able to include some other types of missions... but, yes, I'll have to be a little "rail-roady."

 

3. Make all the players leave a copy of their characters with you. On days they don't show up' date=' pull a selection of these to use as NPCs as needed, or hand out to attendees as second characters. If the scenario runs into multiple sessions, the players can use the characters on the days they show up, and you control them otherwise.[/quote']

 

Good idea.

 

4. Consider having a couple permanent floating characters that anyone can use' date=' especially for the players that only rarely show up. [/quote']

 

Already planned. I have 4 characters already made for this purpose. I plan on making a few more. I've made a Human Wizard, Dwarven Warrior, Fairy Wizard, Huge Barbarian... so far the players have chosen to play an Elf Dual-Wielding Swordsman, an Elf Ranger, and a Human Priest... I'm not sure what the others were thinking, but I think they are pretty open and may choose on of my pregens. What other character types should I make or suggest to them?

 

5. Treat it like a convention game - all characters are owned by you' date=' not the players. There can be an agreement that the character designer gets first dibs if they show up, but otherwise each character is up for grabs each night.[/quote']

 

I like this idea too.

 

6. Consider letting a player run designated NPCs' date=' or even some of the villains/monsters/bad guys for you, instead of taking a PC on a given night. This can help speed up play as it requires you to do less. For even more fun, conspire with a player ahead of time to be a villain in disguise, who will then try to betray the team at a certain point. Afterwards, that character can either be retired or reformed as needed.[/quote']

 

Hmmm, if I always plan on some NPCs possibly being run by some of the more sporadic players, I could possibly have some missions that take more than one session (so long as I have some kind of committment by the players in question...)

Re: My Campaign Is Starting to Flesh Out... I Need Help!

One of our discussion board colleagues described the beginning of a proposed campaign set in the Turakian Age which sounds remarkably similar to what you're shooting for. You may find his short forum thread about it helpful: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/87809-After-action-report-Turakian-Age-Borderlands

I just read this. That's kind of funny... I was planning on putting my town/city near Skeld, near Ternadoc. But I like the idea of being near Khirkovy so I can use the tensions between Vestria and Khirkovy as well. I like the location. You have tensions between Skeld, Torath, and Khirkovy all three in a sort of juxtaposition. It's near the mountains of Skeld, the Sea of Ice, there's a few forests... perfect! My town/city may just as well be Volmar!

I like this more and more. I have a copy of the Fantasy Hero: Battlegrounds, maybe Lord Redwater was sent by King Almund VIII so that he could have someone he trusted in the area. Knowing he couldn't send an army, for fear of insighting old hatreds between the Tornathians and Skelds, and also upsetting Khirkovy, he only sends Redwater and his limited number of men... he also contracts the Merc/Adventuring group to help. I like it!!! Wasn't Vomar an ancient capital of some kingdom at one time? I could always use some kind of hook there, along with Eisburk-Beyond the Shoals adventure for some hooks as well.

Thanks!

Re: My Campaign Is Starting to Flesh Out... I Need Help!

I run a game every two weeks. We meet for about 3 hours.

I'm glad to see that my situation is not as uncommon as I originally thought.

Rule 1: The party must stay together during the regular sessions.

We used to play D&D 4E, where splitting the party is death... so, the player's natural tendancy is to stay together. But, I think I might voice my strong recommendation to stick together to keep things rolling... though I think that HERO is a lot more forgiving when you don't have all of the archtypes covered. The time constraint is the key here, however.

Rule 2: You are encouraged to explore town' date=' but do so via a medium like email or Obsidian Portal.[/quote']

 

I really like this idea... it doesn't preclude missions in the town, but it keeps things rolling during the session. This is definitely going to be a part of the campaign. I once did a "Play by Email" with some of my friends, where I was the GM... so, I have some experience with this.

 

Rule 3: When a rules question comes up' date=' I make a ruling and move on. Someone is free to look up the rules, but what's done is done. Next time we'll know differently.[/quote']

 

I'd already planned on this. I have only one "rules-lawyer" but he's not familiar with the Hero System. So I think this won't be a problem.

 

Rule 4: If you miss a game' date=' your character misses the experience. I award the experience every session, some players will naturally fall off and not come back if their character gets too far behind.[/quote']

 

I think HERO handles this a lot better than a leveling based system like 4E since it's more granular.

 

Rule 5: Don't let them get sidetracked. Three hours isn't much time' date=' so in a battle if someone takes more than a few seconds to decide their action then they're considered to be holding and I move on.[/quote']

 

Do you have this as a hard rule? or do you do it if it becomes an issue? I plan on warning my players... holding an action is not the end of the world after all.

 

Rule 6: Have fun.

 

Hope that helps.

 

It helps a lot! Thank you!

Re: My Campaign Is Starting to Flesh Out... I Need Help!

Thats going to be hard.

Tell me about it. I guess I'm going to have be flexible. I'm pretty good at winging it. Maybe I'll keep a timer on my lap top so I can pace things better.

Advanced Players Guide has the rules.

I think I have a copy of this... [HUNT]Found it! I'm going to read it soon! Thanks![/HUNT]

Re: My Campaign Is Starting to Flesh Out... I Need Help!

Sure' date=' using one city as the base of operations helps flesh it out in ways traveling does not. Me personally I would make it a mid size city that can get many normal things but may have trouble with the expensive and exotic stuff this way the City Districts become like cities of a kingdom.[/quote']

 

I'm leaning towards a mid-sized city.

 

re-hashing old stuff with players that are missing games. Once your overarching plot starts to develop if a player missed a week then he will need to be filled in so that he can begin to contribute to the new plot developing. If you and your players can I would suggest http://www.obsidianportal.com/

 

I hadn't thought of that, but that sounds like a great idea. I've recently played a game called Mouse Guard. It has a system where the player that tells the "re-cap" at the beginning of the adventure gets a reward... something like a Binny used in Savage Worlds. I could use something like that to get a player to type up the "re-cap" on Obsidian Portal...

 

Are you talking about rewards? I would suggest the Resource System' date=' to my mind its the best way to handle Heroic Level gear and can easily balance rewards.[/quote']

 

Actually, I wasn't... Bad choice of words. What I meant was, how do I design an adventure so that it can be completed within the time constraints?

 

But, I think you've brought up another issue I hadn't considered... that is, how to balance equipment like magic items and such. I'm not familiar with the Resource System. I'll have to look into that. Another thing I could try, is to make equipment found and bought part of the Merc/Adventure groups that can be "borrowed" by members... hmmm, not sure I like that idea... What do you think? Maybe the Resource System is better...

 

[/i]The Carnival has come to town and the children are excited but strangely orphans are going missing and those citizens form the upper class along with the guards are coming back strange...

 

I like the circus idea. bluesguy mentioned this as well. I'm going to have to use this.

Re: My Campaign Is Starting to Flesh Out... I Need Help!

What I would suggest is a city based adventures.

I like the idea of a city based, but I'm not sure all of the adventures would have to be located in the city... so long as I don't stress travel time to get to the adventure site.

I would also suggest that you have everyone create 2 characters (and make them very different from each other).

Brilliant! I like this idea a lot. I've been creating a bunch of pre-generated characters as well, that belong to the Merc/Adventure group, that will be NPCs when not in use by players.

I would encourage you to look at the Valdorian Age. Elweir is an extremely detailed and complete city. You could play in the city for months and barely scratch the surface.

I'll look into this. Is it a standard Fantasy World? Most of the players really want a setting that has most of the standard tropes associated with Fantasy...

Re: How many of you use END outside of magic? and other questions...

My campaign ideas have changed some, more episodic, 2-3 hour adventures, varying players (see my other recent post here).

So, my thinking is that using only LTE may not do it for us... I think I'm just going to stick with the standard rules and try an think of ways to "remind" players to track it... as KillerShrike has recommended.

Thanks for all of your suggestions. I think if I do a longer campaign, I'll do something like MarcDoc uses. But, since all of the adventures will be episodic, I want to make END important since the players won't be managing any long term resources (with the exception of potions and such).

I'm organizing a new Fantasy Hero Campaign, but I've had no end of trouble getting people to committ due to schedule reasons. They all want to play, they are just exceptionally busy (as am I). I've also had several people that have expressed interest, but they say that they would be an irregular gamer... So, I/we have decided to set a day, every other week, starting at 8:00. Since it's a weekday, and we all have to work early the next day, we plan on ending at 10:00-11:00. At most, then, we will be gaming for only 2-3 hours, every other week, with inconsistent players. I expect 3-7 players each night (of course, I'd require at least some kind of committment the day before for planning reasons). We are going to have the game at my church so we can accomodate possible babysitting (my son and daughter... who are going to play when they're not babysitting, which would increase the player base), and I like the idea of using the projector and an rptools-like program for the map stuff...

I originally was planning a long campaign in the Turakian Age Campaign, but now my thinking is to make it a lot more episodic. Something like the "Chaos Scar" concept that WotC started or something similar to the venerable "Keep on the Borderlands" idea (but, hopefully with a little more rhyme and reason to what's going on). The players will all belong to a Mercenary/Adventuring company stationed at the Town/Keep near the place of evil. They get missions from various means, rescue my child, find me the artifact of McGuffin, spy on such and such orc tribe, etc. eventually culminating into adventures relating to something like, why is all of this evil centered in this area?

This setup allows me to accomadate a varying player base and have short episodic adventures.

Here's where I need some help, I need to start fleshing out the details. Does this setup sound good? or does anyone have better ideas? What sort of issues will come up that I need to consider? How do I gear adventures to fit into 2-3 hours? Anyone have any short adventure ideas?

Re: How many of you use END outside of magic? and other questions...

Actually you can, but it takes some work.

You have to use the Custom Multiplier button and put in 0.33333 to get it to divide the Real Cost by 3 as Turakian Age says.

 

I've written up a number of the colleges for Turakian Age; my one mage player used them the last time I ran Fantasy Hero.

Thanks, I'll give this a try... I've been putting in a disadvantage that will calculate the correct amount of points. It has to be different for each spell. I just have to adjust the -disadvantage until it gives the proper amount. I then title it "Turakian Age Multiplier". I actually think I like other magic systems, but I wanted to go with ease at first for the players. If the game takes off, I may switch over to a better magic system... of course, if everything goes well, we may just keep the Turakian Age system.

END... my personal preferences as to roleplaying games are a cross between High Fantasy and gritty realism. I like it when players have to worry about someone with a sharp weapon, be they a Huge Barbarian with a two-handed sword or a little goblin with a dagger... A dagger to the brain is just as deadly as a battle axe to the neck. I also like the idea that a warrior fighting all day will eventually tire... swinging a sword around takes a lot of energy...

But, does my wish for a little realism make it harder for new players to learn? My thinking is that if I teach it up front, it will become the norm. If I try to add it in later, they will tend to forget to account for it, especially when/if we ever play a superhero game when it is important.

I don't know... argh!!! I kind of like MarcDoc's system... but is it really that much more to keep track of or is it that we always forget? I know that when I play (which is not as often as I would like) I always forgot END, then after a few phases, I would remember and would subtract my use of END for the previous actions then... It's easy to keep track of Stun and Body, the GM tells you how much of it you take when you are hit, but END is a player responsibility... Hmmmm, how do we make it more natural to keep track of it? or is it worth it?

I met a few people at Origins this last weekend that said they don't mess with Endurance except as a way of keeping spell slingers from becoming too powerful.

(1) How many of you use Endurance for your non-spell casters? (How do you handle Endurance in general?)

(2) I'm thinking of healing spells working once per day per wound... but I'm worried that this would mean more paperwork on the players side... they have to keep track of BODY, STUN, and possibly END, with this rule, they'd have to keep track of wounds as well. Would this be too much tracking? I have experienced gamers, but this will be their first time with the Hero System, I don't want to scare them off...

(3) If I use #2 above, would a stat tracking sheet (with a generic figure in the middle of the page, something looking like the Hero Symbol) be useful? I'm thinking of designing something like the one found here at Fitz's site http://fitz.jsr.com/roleplay/hero/hitlocs.pdf... only with areas to keep track of wounds to each body part...

(4) In HD, how do you have it calculate the Turakian Age divide by 3 rule for spells? (I'm not sure I really like this spell system, but I'd like to keep it relatively simple and use some of the spells in the Griomore... I might use a Multipower, however to reduce the cost, but I'm worried about varying Actual Points as well as the flexibility of non-MP spells...)

(5) Long Term Endurance, how do you use it? I got how it works, but it seems a little clunky... you have to keep track of how much END used per Turn, subtract REC, and then if you get into combat before having a significant rest, your actual END is reduced by the difference (Do I have that right?) Is it easier in play than it sounds in reading it? (I know it doesn't sound too complicated, but it's just one more thing to keep track of...)

Ok, that's it for now. I'm getting ready for a Fantasy Hero campaign in the Turakian Age setting (which we will probably be starting within the next week or so), and I wanted to iron out some final details.

Thanks in advance!

Re: Any reviews coming for the various Champions Villains books?

Thanks, Enforcer84... It sounds like my fears are valid when Bulldozer has olympic level Dex. I suppose that in the long run, it's a minor quibble... I can just as easily drop/raise a villains dex to where I think it fits... most of the dirty work of converting will have been done for me, should I get the books. I just don't understand the bias for high Dex now that it doesn't affect CV. Artwork in full color may be worth the money for the book.

What new villains are there? How many? Like I said, I have most of the 5th edition books, I need new stuff to justify spending money on this.

List of my Pros and Cons so far:

Full color art +

Minimal realization of stats (Dex) -

Number of new villains ?

Creative uses of powers I haven't seen before ?

I only come to the forums occasionally so if I missed a review or discussion of the various Champions Villains books, please forgive me. None of my searches are finding anything relevant. My wife asked if there were any books that I wanted for x-mas and I'm not sure if I want to ask for these... Should I?

I run a Teen Champions campaign on a fairly regular basis with plans on a possible second, more "Champions Normal", campaign in the future. I have almost all of the 5th Edition books and have just been, painfully, converting published villains over to 6th Ed. when necessary (mostly just creating from scratch)

My biggest fear is that the 6th Ed. Villains books will be too similar to the 5th Ed books that I'd be wasting my money. I'm not wanting to buy books where the villains are just converted without thought going into how the character concept fits into the new rules... for example, were characters realized with the new divorce of characteristics and figured characteristics in mind (DEX, I'm looking at you). With the sample characters in the Character Creation book, I'm afraid of what to expect.

Re: Ideas for a Star Hero solo campaign

I agree that the NPC's could become a hassle if you are constantly running them for every encounter, but you wouldn't have to use them every time the player leaves the ship. Some could be sent off to restock supplies while the player takes care of business, for example. Maybe a repair needs to be made so one NPC has to stay on board the ship. Maybe the Malavan gets shot on a previous mission and has to stay on the ship to recover... You wouldn't have to have every NPC constantly active... but what I like about having them over not, is as a source of adventure ideas and as a resource. Maybe the robot (if you have a robot NPC, that is) is the only one that can withstand toxic fumes to recover one of the pieces you mentioned. The NPC with the ESP is needed to communicate to a psi-alien to get another part (or put up a psychic shield so the player can survive to get it). The mercenary NPC is needed to help with storming an enemy compound where another piece can be found. The NPC stowaway kid can help with sneaking into another location to get another piece.

The biggest problem with solo campaigns is that the player character has to be everything all the time, which seems unrealistic and very point intensive. He could possibly be good at many things (a jack-of-all-trades) or be an expert in a few areas, but he's not superman (that would be a different genre)... so he should always be needed, he just needs a little extra specific help during certain missions.

I would make the NPCs only good at one thing so they don't steal the show (after all, they are not the main character). The ESPer should be of minimal help during combat, for example. The robot is really good at astrogation or stopping trash compactors , the mercenary is great in a fight but a bit too trigger happy when it comes to negotiation.

As I said, without NPCs, the player has a limited amount of resources to call upon, with them, a ton of possibilities open up... But care needs to be taken to make sure that this is the player's show, not the NPC's.

Re: Ideas for a Star Hero solo campaign

That is so weird! I was considering doing the same thing with my friend. I was planning on using Skype and RPtools. I've never ran a Star Hero campaign either. I bought and watched all of the episodes of Firefly, which I highly recommend. I plan on making my friends character the captain of his very own scout/merchant ship with only a robot as his crew... I like the idea of the space station crash/tragedy... maybe, as people are running about trying to get off of the space station, some people are forced to ask for a ride on the player's ship (can't get to an escape pod or other ship in time before the station explodes). Of course, these refugees are not exactly what they say they are... think the doctor and River from Firefly (sort of) and possibly a few more refugees for flavor. At any rate, they become NPC crew/source of adventure ideas...

I really like the idea of this thread, as it will help both Jhaierr and me at the same time.

Re: FANTASY HERO Sneak Peek #5: The Happy Dwarf!

I've rearranged my GenCon schedule to make a trip to the Dealer's Hall just to pick this up! It will be great reading material for between times. All of this foreplay is killing me!!!

Re: Real Costs for spells and how you handle them?

I'm not sure I want to add more complications to the character design process with resource points. It's just one more thing for players to have to calculate, not to mention the fact that I, as the GM, would have to have a bunch of pre-made items (though, I don't mind players starting with a magic item if they can justify it with background story... I once allowed a player to have a magical shield that was handed down from generation to generation in her family, but, she had to prove that she was worthy of the family heirloom by, you guessed it, going on a quest. On top of that, the shield, which was sentient, did not allow for it's entire capabilities to be realized until the player further proved her worth... the player knew about some of the powers, she had heard many stories of her ancestors that was passed down through the ages, but, for some reason she couldn't get them to work).

Resource points would also add another layer of possible min/maxing. I like to keep my magic items as more of a plot device than something the players can start their careers with (see above for an example). One of the things I can't stand about D&D 4E is how mundane magic items become when everyone can buy what they want. I don't mind that for simple common things like healing potions, but that Staff of the Archmage or that Vorpal Sun Sword are items that they have to find... and even when they do, they may not know all of its capabilities. Of course, the worlds I tend to run are fairly low magic, definitely not High Fantasy... As someone above mentioned, the players are exceptional, so I'm ok with them having spells and what-not. Essentially, magic is, in my campaigns, run mostly like a High Fantasy campaign, but there just isn't a lot of practitioners. A city of 2000-3000 may have 10 or so wizards of low to moderate ability. Minor divine magic is a little more common, so much so that the common person, when they see something magical, assumes that it's some kind of sign from the gods.

Anyway, getting back to commenting on the resource points. I think that there are definitely ways to balance fighter/wizards, magic items/innate ablities, etc all ready in the HERO System without adding another mathematical calculation element... But, if it works for you, go for it. Who knows, maybe it's the way to go with all of this...