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DavidV

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Everything posted by DavidV

  1. I was a Top Secret GM back in the 80s. Never really got to play because no one else was into spy-fi enough to be the GM (I was also reading Fleming, Le Carre, Deighton, etc. and watching a lot of spy stuff during that era). When SI came out, I was starting to find the system lacking and some players who were also into Champions pointed out the existence of Danger International (or maybe it was the ever-helpful owner of my FLGS) so I picked up a copy. That was my gateway drug to Hero and I subsequently started using an early edition of Fantasy Hero as my go-to fantasy game as well. As for using TS stuff in DI, I don't really recall now. I owned a lot of the TS modules and other supplements, so I probably did. There was some good material for Top Secret that could be repurposed fairly easily. Oriental Express had some nice train floorplans and such. Operation Fastpass was a good, classic Cold War mission set in Budapest.
  2. DavidV

    Gods in RPGs

    Depends on the genre of fantasy. I long ago ran an ancient Greek FH campaign set in the Hellenistic period but with Homeric and mythological deities and monsters (e.g. the first adventure involved centaurs). The deities' presence was very much felt explicitly as they interfered with the PCs adventures much as they do in the Trojan War in Homer.
  3. Or you could do what I used to do and just bash out a spreadsheet for character creation in your favorite office package. 😎 Since I wasn't running Champions, I didn't need to worry much about powers, though I did have a sheet for those, too, so I could do spells, psychic powers, etc. for campaigns that required them. Alas, the last one I built (for Excel 2003, IIRC) is long gone.
  4. That and Danger International were the games that pretty much got me into Hero back in the day. Even used the FH magic system when I needed some kind of weird powers for DI (e.g. horror campaigns). I tended to run fantasy campaigns that don't fit the D&D mold very well (heroic fantasy based on Classical mythology and such) so I loved it. Haven't played anything later than 4th ed., though.
  5. Michael Surbrook has some Victorian characters on his book-derived characters page. That's probably a start for you. http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptationsbook/bookchar.html
  6. It was the game that got me started on Hero. I mostly ran spy campaigns at the time it came out and wasn't totally happy with Top Secret S.I. so a friend who had Champions pointed it out to me. So, yeah, nice to see it may finally be coming back.
  7. Re: Teen Spy Campaigns Let's not forget Charlie Higson's Young Bond series covering James' adventures while a student at Eton: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Bond
  8. DavidV

    Kong needs boots?

    Re: Kong needs boots?
  9. Re: Necroscope Hero He continued with (as I already said, I haven't read them, but I'm an ex-librarian so got to watch them roll in through our cataloguing department): Vampire World series (trilogy) - adventures of Harry's twin sons on the Vampire World (kind of what you're suggesting for an RPG) The Lost Years series (2 books) - Not sure, but I think this fills in Harry's adventures while searching for his wife and son between Wamphyri and The Source. E-Branch (trilogy) - New vampires and a new generation of E-branch agents. I think Harry may show up as a "ghost" in this one. Plus some short stories/novellas in various collections, and possibly some other novels. Here's the Necroscope page on Lumley's website: http://www.brianlumley.com/books/necroscope/ On the RPG side, I agree that a Starside campaign would be fun. Actually, a high level fantasy campaign with the PCs as a faction of Wamphyri lords battling for supremacy over various rivals might be a blast. I've also contemplated using the Wamphyri in a modern horror campaign, esp. if my players weren't familiar with the novels. Nice twist on vampires that might just be the ticket to put Buffy wannabes in their place. David
  10. Re: Necroscope Hero Loved the first five books (up to Deadspawn) but felt he had pretty much wrapped it up in book 5, so never bothered with the subsequent sequels. Lumley has a really bad habit of flogging dead horses and I felt he was already getting into that mode after The Source (book 3) so had no inclination to continue beyond the original series. By "flogging dead horses", I mean that he comes up with good ideas and interesting settings then uses them until it hurts (hurts the reader's brain, that is). His Lovecraft-inspired pulp adventures (the Titus Crowe/De Marigny series and various offshoots) suffered from the same thing. Interesting ideas and universe to start, but stretched to and beyond its limits by the end. Never actually RP'ed in the Necroscope universe, but have felt that most of Lumley's universes, from the Crowe "war against the Old Ones", to the pulp heroic fantasy of the Borea and Dreamlands novels, to Necroscope would all work well as RPG settings. They are fairly straightforward, lots of opportunities for adventure, and at least 1 or 2 cool ideas in each setting for the GM to have a ball with. David
  11. Re: Susano's Song-Based DC NPCs If I have time, I may take a swing at Tom Sawyer by Rush ("Today's Tom Sawyer/Mean mean guy") or maybe the Eurythmics Missionary Man ("Don't mess with a Missionary Man"). I don't actively game, so my Hero fun mostly comes from messing with characters in my head. David
  12. Re: Susano's Song-Based DC NPCs Seconded. Wouldn't touch the Walrus with a 10' pole unless you want to stat up John Lennon for some reason. As for Boris, surely that are stats for spiders in the Bestiary or something that would cover it. David
  13. Re: Susano's Song-Based DC NPCs Ah, Stan Rogers. Glad to hear he's known "down there". I've always had the impression he was more of a Canadian thing. It's hard to say that a folkie like him rocked, but he did. As for Barret's Privateers, you've probably got a whole campaign there in that song. A bunch of 18th century sailor types from Nova Scotia in a rundown schooner taking on the Yankees. Regency Hero? Pirate Hero? What would cover the War of Independence anyhow? Of course, you could always "update" it, by having space privateers or something like that. David
  14. Re: Religion Hero?? Amen to that. I'm a Unitarian from Canada and see it in my church (and in myself, since I was raised Christian and became a UU later in life, I'm still not always the most knowledgeable and orthodox of Unitarians). As for the whole topic of "Religion Hero", the only solution that would adequately deal with the whole problem of using real world religions in an RPG supplement would be to have each section written by a knowledgeable practitioner of that religion. Since that's probably not practical (and there may be non-gaming books that cover off the type of information that would be included just as well), perhaps something written a higher level (i.e. not addressing specific faiths) that covers themes in the culture of religion (rituals, lifestyle issues, etc.) would allow GMs to more knowledgeably model the role of religion in their campaigns while leaving GMs and players to work out which, if any, real world religions to include and to do the necessary homework to make sure they do it right. Personally, I agonize over creating religions for my fantasy worlds, since I (a) want to make them "fell" like a religion, not some abstract creation and ( want to ensure that if I am modeling them on a real world relgion, they actually live up what is good and positive about that religion. The simple D&D approach of throwing together a bunch of gods and goddesses and calling that a religion doesn't cut it for me. The bottom line is that any handling of a given faith in an RPG, esp. a published one, needs to be respectful and (as much as possible) free of serious errors or prejudices. If you can't achieve that, better to deal with religion on a broader level and leave specific faiths to those who follow thm. David
  15. Re: Hero System for Horror gaming I've run horror using Hero (previous editions) both with and without Horror Hero. It largely works. I generally use 50+50 characters and minimize the use of powers and talents to low level, genre-appropriate things like Mental Powers so the PCs are fairly vulnerable. To my mind, you can pretty much do Horror out of the box with Hero. Horror Hero just makes some kinds of Horror easier. Much of horror ultimately revolves around how you handle the atmosphere, design the stories, etc. "SAN" or related mechanics (such as Horror Hero's long term stress) are not required. They are more of a convention in horror RPGs to give the GM and players a guide to how "horrified" their characters should be. A buddy and I once built a Hero version of the COC SAN mechanic (SAN = 2 x EGO or something like that, and then you lose SAN much like you lose END or STUN), but Horror Hero's stress system works well too. Some quick IMO notes on Horror Hero: It's not a bad supplement, but not the best Horror RPG I've ever seen. I look forward to Hero eventually getting it updated to 5th ed. and perhaps remedying some of its weak points. The campaigns outlined in Horror Hero do leave a little to be desired, although I like the Pulp one as a background for a Pulp horror-action campaign. My problem is that they all have a kind of Conspiracy X vs Conspiracy Y or heroes vs. evil conspiracy vibe, whereas the horror genre goes much beyond those and the other concepts/possibilities seem to be given short shrift. However, the Spirit rules, Long Term Stress rules, magic systems, etc. are all useful to a Horror GM. Some interesting monster and NPC designs but also some blah! ones. Have fun! David
  16. Re: Arabian Hero If you're not comfortable using Islam for whatever reason, do some research on pre-Islamic Arabia. Some of the pre-Islamic religion did make its way into Islam (djinn, for instance), but it was more of a shamanistic, spirit-based religion whereas Islam is rigidly monotheistic. That said, Islam allows for angels, devils, djinn, etc. so there's plenty of leeway for a fantasy campaign based on Islam. Just do your homework and try to learn a bit about Islam so you avoid some of the stereotypes that could come up. Also, The Thousand and One Nights would be required reading for this project. Can't really comment on magic without doing some homework myself. David
  17. Re: Marginally Powered Sit-Com Heroes Loved your write-ups of Hogan's Heroes. Pretty much spot on as I recall them (although I haven't watched an episode in probably 20-25 years). Any reason you didn't do Colonel Hogan as well? I'm tempted to write him up and develop up an HH based campaign or one shot with your write-ups as pre-gens. I'd just need to write up the major German characters (Klinck, Schultz, the SS guy who's name I forget) and we're off to the races. Like some of the others. Didn't watch a few of them (Beverly Hillbillies wasn't one of "my shows" for instance). Fonz is spot on. I'd make the thumb VPP an option at best since it really only comes into play in the more outlandish episodes (such as ones with Mork). David
  18. Re: HP Lovecraft movies Some thoughts from a longtime Lovecraft fan: Stuart Gordon's Reanimator and From Beyond are a good watch, not necessarily very Lovecraftian (although the story that the former is based in isn't very Lovecraftian to start with) but entertaining horror pics. From Beyond does at least capture some of the "horror at looking beyond the veil" aspect of Lovecraft's horror. For a good Lovecraft movie that at least tries to feel "Lovecraftian", the aforementioned Dagon (based on Shadow Over Innsmouth) and The Resurrected (based on The Case of Charles Dexter Ward) would be my choices and the latter would probably be my pick for best Lovecraft flick. A number of John Carpenter's movies besides In the Mouth... show Lovecraftian influences, esp. Prince of Darkness and The Thing (whose pedigree can be traced, via the original story, back to At the Mountains of Madness). T'would be interesting to see him actually tackle Lovecraft someday. Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy) has been working on and off on an adaptation of At The Mountains of Madness (the s-f/horror novel by Lovecraft that directly or indirectly inspired the The Thing and a number of other subsequent s-f/horror stories) and, if we are lucky, it will see the light of day someday (after all, Stuart Gordon was working on an adaptation of Shadow Over Innsmouth years before Dagon finally got the greenlight). David
  19. Re: Bizarre Spell Ideas Every consider the possibilities of a spell simply called: Trip 1. Causes target to fall down 2. Causes target to leave on a vacation (or be teleported to some exotic vacation spot) 3. Causes target to behave as if he'd just dropped bad acid Then you'd have: The Ultimate Trip What happens when you make judicious use of Linked to tie all three together in some strange order. Like: The target gets high, falls down, and comes to in Disneyland. David
  20. Re: Is monster hunting horror? Basically, what Sketchpad said. It can be, but isn't automatically. It's all in how it is played out. If the characters spend most of their time hunting down and battling the monsters without there being a real element of fear or suspense, then it is more like a contemporary fantasy campaign or even DC. If the hunters are perpetually on the edge and never really certain what they are going to face when they finally confront the monster, then you are into horror territory. Blade (as played out in the movies) isn't really horror. It's more of a supernaturally charged action story (think DC with FH and HH elements). X-Files, when it was at its best, could definitely fit in as horror because Mulder and Scully were often in the dark about what they would find in the end and were often shocked (as was the audience) when they found it. Hopefully, Horror Hero will address some of these distinctions, but that's my take on it. David
  21. Re: Inspirational Reading With all the talk about Burke, I'd just like to point out Vachss' Cross stories (some can be found in the Born Bad story collection). Basically, it's about a team of "urban mercenaries" and the various bits of nastiness that they get themselves into. I believe that there are comic/graphic novel adaptations of at some of the Cross material as well. I've always felt that both Burke and Cross were filled with good material (both plot and character) for roleplaying, assuming you can see past the griminess of the urban jungles they portray. I'd also like to put in a word for F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack. I haven't read much of the newer material about him, but the first time I read a Repairman Jack story (in an anthology called Stalker, or maybe Predators) I said "I want to play this guy." These stories do generally have supernatural/s-f horror elements to them, but the character could probably work just as well in a good, dark, gritty urban action campaign. David
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