Manic Typist

Re: Order of the Stick Even if Belkar dies, I don't recall anything in the prophecy saying he wouldn't be resurrected...

Re: Half Life 2 for Hero Great, great work.

Re: Combat examples I think perhaps he is looking for example combats executed in the HERO system.

Re: Scale of Detail in HERO gaming So was I. Professional Skill, Sleight of Hand, Streetwise, Survival, Science Skill, the list goes on.....

Re: Order of the Stick Well, I'd say V defeated the drow. He even "won," but it was not an ideal victory.

Re: Order of the Stick So, does V get XP for that encounter or what? How does that sort of thing get adjudicated in an "XP for beating stuff" system?

Re: A galaxy rising from the ashes Well, you could have the calamities happen over time and therefore they seem more plausible (both in themselves and in conjunction with one another). For example, the zombie plague outbreak occurs on one heavily populated planet. It's a humanitarian disaster and a major security threat, the entire system must be quarantined. So a large military presence is necessary both to engage in rescue operations and containment, and maybe even begin trying to take the planet back. This represents a large economic and resource burden for the rest of the systems. Meanwhile, there is another planet with uplifted apes, and society is struggling with how to deal with it. Are they people? Do they deserve "human" rights? Can they become citizens? Does society owe them money to make up for past injustices (animal experiments, etc)? Look to historical social movements for this one, but multiply it even further. Also meanwhile, an AI has decided to take power for itself. It may or may not have anything to do with the outbreak of the plague (I prefer that it NOT. It's more interesting if not EVERYTHING is attributed to one enemy, especially an enemy that will often seem pervasive or omnipresent), but it certainly capitalizes upon the decades of economic strain. It manipulates markets to make them unstable, it messes with banks etc. Sends out sleeper viruses throughout the systems to wait in key infrastructure and economic systems. Finances and organizes a few terrorist and secessionist groups to stir up tensions. Eventually it causes a major crisis- key products are disrupted (crops on certain world blighted, misdeliveries of essential economic goods, terrorist attacks, economic bubble collapses, public utilities and transportation networks sabotaged due to viruses, banks, etc). So, the systems are facing a multitude of internal crises on top of a longstanding military buildup. Maybe the AI has managed to make itself increasingly essential in its own or several systems, or has encouraged isolationist/regionalist sentiment within the population. A few groups try to secede, others are antagonistic towards further "bailouts," still others want to adopt isolationist policies to protect themselves, and some are just making power grabs. Extrapolate from there.

Re: Scale of Detail in HERO gaming ....except that's just literally not true.

Re: War of the Worlds: Martians ....is that your third child, or your third son?

Re: Compeling Complications Sounds like a good use for the Luck Chit system.

Re: Need Plot help for Urban Fantasy game! Ideas for the why of what CROW is doing: 1- They need to sacrifice a certain number of people, perhaps even certain types of people or specific individuals, in order to power/fulfill a ritual/prophecy. However, the ritual/prophecy excludes anyone who commits the sacrifice from benefiting from the ceremony, and perhaps even marks those individuals for doom. So CROW finds a way around that part of the ritual (which is intended to discourage anyone from ever performing the ceremony since it wouldn't do those people any good) by making the PCs do it. Compare the poor SOBs who opened the mummy's tomb in "The Mummy" and the game Indigo Prophecy (which starts out even worse off, but otherwise exactly the same, as you describe). 2- The PCs don't know it, but they are marked by Destiny. CROW is trying to hijack that Destiny, or even prevent it. That's all I've got for now.

Re: What If? Fertility Control An important consideration, surely, but how important depends on how present/powerful the gods are in a setting. Not necessarily. Not sure where you're getting this at all, because that isn't necessarily the case and it doesn't necessarily follow that a deity of love would object to the control of child birth. A very good plot thread. I doubt that, since in this instance it appears to be an inherent and therefore natural ability. If anything, they would (in this setting) object to uncontrolled fertility or forced sterility. That life cycle, also, is only necessarily true if the setting says it is true. Whoa. That's a stretch. I see this is your first post. Thanks for joining and welcome to the boards!

Re: Sentients native to low-gravity worlds operating on "normal" gravity worlds? Really? I always thought a human could put up with 2G pretty much indefinitely.

Re: Avatar: The Last Airbender Martial Arts in conjunction with various other Powers or a Power Framework, I'd think.

Re: A galaxy of humans Several people have mentioned that idea that people would have fewer children if there was good medical technology because more children would survive to be productive laborers (as opposed to birthing lots of kids so that a couple survive to their teens, I assume) and because labor saving technology would mean that fewer hands were needed. However, if this were a mostly empty colony world, then there's a lot of land up for grabs. If people control large swatches of territory and want to develop/consolidate it, then they will need more people even with those labor saving technologies, quiaff? Just a thought.

Re: Once Were Minions That'd be interesting, but I don't see it as necessary. You could leave Good and Evil behind, as those concepts only meant something to you in the world you left behind. Now there is only What You Know and the Alien. Very, very intriguing.

Re: Once Were Minions Fascinating. I would definitely being willing to play in this.

Re: Hearing through walls Except that's not true at all. Now, Skill values above 17.....

Re: A galaxy of humans If I remember correctly, that's because their secret Computer Overlords tell them to do so.

Re: warhammer 40k Star hero Not sure what you mean here, but I'm pretty sure I don't. Unless everyone in the campaign is a Rogue Trader or a member of the Inquisition, etc, and thus you create free "base packages" for the entire group, these are things that need to be bought. Yes, you can give them the ship if you want, but I'd expect that only if none of them WERE the Rogue Trader. The character types being discussed are all very powerful, with perhaps the Deathwatch marines being the most limited since they are focused predominantly on combat. Not sure what you mean here. Sure, Fringe Benefit: Rank, Member of Military, etc. Improved Equipment Access. A Contact or two. That's.... let's call it 30 points, at the max, I feel. Everything else would be CHAR, CSLs, and relevant military skills (WFs, Armor Familiarities [or whatever we call it], Tracking, Stealth, PS: Soldier, PS: Space Marine, Skill Levels with PS's and other soldiering skills). Probably a few levels of Luck? Not sure how you couldn't model that with the remaining 270 points, but it has been a while since I built a character. Perhaps I'm out of touch.

Re: Denying a character his OIF I'm not really certain what point you are trying to make overall. You asked for examples of ways to "remove" Powers. Many of the ways you remove a Power without Limitations obviously apply to Powers with Limitations. Is your point that Inaccessible Foci cannot be removed under combat conditions? This is not the case; it is, however, much more difficult and time consuming. If it is another point, please clarify so that the conversation can be more fruitful. Cheers.

Re: warhammer 40k Star hero I'd disagree, but I've never seen these rulebooks. I've only read the books, and well, they aren't entirely consistent between publications. A Rogue Trader, unless severely impoverished, would have significant contacts of all stripes, extensive resources and different kinds of Access, Followers, vehicles, and likely significant upgrades to his or her body. I think it would be pushing it to try to design a Rouge Trader PC for even just 300 points. Maybe it could be done, but it'd probably be a poor Rogue Trader. A Deathwatch character.....assuming he's not paying points for equipment, he could probably be built for around the same number of points, but that's just because his abilities are so combat focused and he doesn't need the extensive non-combat investment.

Re: Denying a character his OIF I'm not sure what you mean by "Take Away," Christopher. The above examples are valid, unless by "Take Away" you mean "prevent the character from ever using the Power again. Ever." In which case, only a Transform could do that. There are many, many ways to prevent a character from using his Powers. In the case of an OIF ring, for example, I could cut the character's hand off.

Re: warhammer 40k Star hero Probably depends on the Trader. They tend to have lots of money, and access to restricted or even forbidden technologies. Remember, some Traders amass flotillas or even armadas.

Re: Spell (-1/2) Limitation in HSG It's a shorthand way of referring to specific set of Limitations taken together. You could make your own set and also call it "Spell," and just have players refer to the full list under your custom definition of Spell if there is ever a question.