Duke Bushido

And that is how we ended up using Traveller (and eventually Champions) to play Westerns. Traveller was actually easier: we had all the weapons stats ( bows, hatchets, clubs, etc were in Citizens of the Imperium) and had nothinf that really had to built: just grab some supplies and start. Champions worked well, too, except we had to build bows, hatchets, horses.....

Not at all; that is the whole reason that we made the attacks have a static value (any why I suspect Doc Democracy recommended the same basic idea): we are only making one roll. For ordinary combat, we make obe roll- the damage roll. We just flipped that and made damage a known quantity instead of Defense, and make one roll for Defense, which is now rhe variable quantity. In the narrative, it is lucky shots or poorly-placed shots, hitting seams or reinforced major structural components, etc. As I said, it was done to add a bit of balance that the rules as written don't allow for without having to add artificial limits that make the sturdiest warship vulnerable to lighter-weight ship's weapons. Using this system, they generally _aren't particularly vulnerable: we roll a die for every three points of Def, but given the average roll is three-and-a-half, and roughly half of all rolls will be higher than average, and even the higher low rolls may still provide proof against the weapon in use, but abysmal rolls- however unlikely, _do_ happen, so we have eliminated that feeling of being totally invulnerable. Same amount of rolling; samr amount of math, and the desired end results. What's not to love?

Nah; I only had the first few up- it was an in-refreshed window from Friday, I think. I didnt notice that. The first few responses were concerned about over-powered characters who could take,on anything, and one or two worried about upsetting a static social structure. Even a first level party can build a ballista or a swinging log trap, after all. In short: we killed the Dragon by pure luck and a series of bad luck events on the dragon's part, but we're still low- powered characters, we are just now stuck with the "seven with one blow" reputation.....

To that end, I offer a quick breakdown of how we do the ship-to-ship stuff where I use a similar idea: Wepaons are bought the same way you buy dice: 5/d6 or 15/kd6. However, they are calculated as static values: each Die is 1 Body or 3 BODY for KA. As we are usinf this exclusively for ship-to-ship--- that is "large scale" weapons, and ships dont really take STUN, but getting a character hit with a ship's gun should be memorable at the very least, when STUN is required, it is assumbed to be BODY x10 for non KA weapons, and BODY x 50 for KA weapons. This idea of 'scaled' weapons comes, of,course, from the original Star HERO. Any PC-sized object directly hit with a ship's weapon assumes a x10 damage multiplier. (For those who balk, go back to Traveller, hit a PC with a missile launcher, and tell me if a funeral is even possible). Defenses are bought as normal (with whatever modifiers are desired), but the final value of the Defense is considered the "rating" for the defense. (It's only a yacht! We're lucky if it has a 12 armor rating!). Divide the rating (the defense listed on the sheet) by 3. When a hit is scored, roll Rating/3 in d6. Subtract this amount from the attack rating to determine damage through defenses. Combat becomes dicey, and even an SDB might score a "lucky shot" against a dreadnaught. Not likely, but it can happen, where it just cannot using the rules as written without piling in artificial limits based on ship class, etc. The single ultimate problem with the HERO vehicle rules since Day 1 (Champions II) is that no part of the vehicle has size, weight, or mass. Accordingly, we have always stuck to our house rules for vehicles. Sorry- that's a different topic.

Darrians. Darrians are space elves.

I am going to to differ from the popular opinion. I think, as a campaign opener, it would be absolutely _awesome_ and for all the exact same reasons evweyine else dislikes it. PCs are adventurers; they need chaos and uncertainty to have adventure, I _love_ the idea, and have every single intention of stealing it. Thank you,

Too late, I'm afraid. That one I learned a few decades ago.

It also had the stipulation that it healed STUN. That it what it did. You paid more to Regeneration, also a separate ability, which healed BODY. Honestly, all the "problems" that were fixed in the newer editiin didnt exist until someone shoehorned them all into Aid in the first place. It wasnt cost-effective under the old models to do what could be done using rhe Aid-derivative versions.

That isnt entirely true. I do it- well, I do more what Doc Democracy mentioned: static attacks against variable defenses- in my Traveller on HERO wheels game. I only do it in ship-to-ship combat, though. I have considered doing it for personal combat, but as I use hit locations (sort of) in that game, it never happened. Here's the thing we don't talk about: everything considered the strengths of the HERO System results in near-perfect predictability without GM tweaking on the fly. Attacks are bought in dice, and they will average 3.5 STUN and 1 Body per die. Defenses subtract from damage. We even talk _around_ this: "Set your campaign guidelines so that perhaps X percent of a given "standard attack" will make it through "standard defenses" and those Killing Attacks? We have created a mathematic scale demonstrating that one killing die typically gives results like 3 normal dice. Also, SPD scores shouldn't vary too much, maybe 2 or 3 points of variance for best results--" And all totalled, one day you realize that you can look at a brick and a martial artist, check their damages and defenses and relative SPD and state "okay, roll a d8. On a 1 or a 2, he drops you in 2 Turns; 3 through 7, and you drop him in 3 and a half Turns. On an 8, something surprising happened with the dice- half of each team is out cold; we'll draw straws" then skip around the table just like that and say "okay, it is five Turns later- Blaster, you're still out cold, but Speedster has cuffed all except the other speedster, who escaped after flattening you, Magician." And once you see it, you really, _really_ can't unsee it (my appologies to all of you who haven't seen it before). With starship combat- well, guns of a size get through armor of a size, and guns of a lesser size never ever will. So everyone gets the gigantic guns, vaporizing everything but the gigantic ships, which comes down to "roll a d12, etc, etc, then we'll roll percentiles to see how much of the surviving ship is destroyed." It got depressing: I couldn't have a merchantman persued by a military ship because the result was _always_ the same: a party from the military ship examining the smouldering ruins of the merchantman while some,of the lower eschelons buffed the blemishes from their Hull cause nlby the merchantman attempting to return fire. So we tried something: we bought ships weapons in damage ratings, and we bought armor in dice. And things got a lot more fun- sure, the freighter's missiles might do 15 Body and the dreadnaught has 10 dice of armor, but the freighter suddenly has a chance that it absolutely did not have against 30 DEF. Space combat became deadly again. There was more I wanted to say, but I am at my daughter's graduation, and the music has finally started, so....

Well _Damn!_ There goes my back-up plan if things didnt work out with the wife..... Is Queen Latifah still gay? Asking for a friend.....

Keep it simple: Two characteristics: Affect Resist Go nuts with it.

That's not easy for my players. Very few if them commute from Maine....

It..... It's so..... _beautiful_.... 🥲

There is someone else here (Unclevlad, I _think_) who, like me, isnt crazy about the 'Critical Hit' concept. I have one group that likes it, and we struck a happy medium of sorts where anything that might be considered a 'critical success' instead rewards a point (call it whatever you want; we just call it a point) that can be cashed in (same,session only) for an extra die or two or a re-roll or a stroke of incredible luck, etc, etc. They seem to enjoy it okay, and it saves me having to worry about 'accidental crits' against PCs. Don't get me wrong; PC death is on the table in the majority of my games, but flipping the crit switch on allows for them to die in truly inglorious and often downright stupid ways.

Man, do I miss Murphy's Rules....

Thank you, folks. For the record, I just woke up about twenty minutes ago. I do not remember much of the past week, though my wife tells me that I phoned back and forth to my job a few times. I don't recall that, but hey: if they are seeking input from someone in the throws of fever delirium, more power to them. I am fairly certain I could be wrestled to the ground by a toddler and pinned there by a kitten. I have a background dizziness that I cannot seem to shake, but I am hoping that being able to take my BP and heart meds on schedule again will resolve that (hard to give pills to someone who cannot be awakened, I am told). Anyway, if I can manage the trip, I am going to sit on the porch for some fresh air. Hopefully I recover fully in the next few hours, because the doctor has me scheduled back at work six AM tomorrow.

I just woke up from Covid myself. Been out of -- well, reality, I guess-- for about five days. Woke up a ln hour ago, posted a comment, dozed off, work up and poated this, now back to bed. This might be the final straw getme banned, but this bug has kicked my ass in a way that no physical pummelling ever could have.

That. That right there is the most likely cause of a shared cultural deafness. As the culture developed, it was likely noticed that those with poor hearing did not suffer the affevts of the sirens. If those effects were awful enough..... Alternatively, this is a fantasy game, right? So it is quite possible they begged some deity for protection and in a fit of pique he granted them the boon of deafness. Who knows? Though I am fairly certain that the cillagers would find it more practical and prudent to deafen a hearing child rather than banish it and take a chance on it becoming a real problem. Miss me? I have just awakened from five days of Corona fever..... People aren't lying to you: that is the sickest I have ever been. And now, I return to bed. Typing that was exhausting. This sucks.

And Mr. T, who pities them.

I see. Forgive the ignorance; we dont have a lot of royalty over here, ut we do have a lot of confusion on the rules. Thanks for the help.

Thanks, DT! To confirm: No title; no authority; no special powers (beyond that which come with wealth and fame). Is that correct?

If I may back up to the Coronation thing a moment: I have a serious quesrion for Sean, Doc, DT, and any other actual Britts on here. I know there is a big thing about divorce and ascension and the familial lines and this and that, so if someone could help me: Does Camila (sp?) also gain some,sort of title or authority? I mean, I know "Queen Sidechick" probably isn't a real thing, and Charles has kids from before her, but what is her status now? What happens next?

I can honestly,say that it has been,over thirty years sonce I have seen a Multipower with a drawback, period. A Multipower has the _potential_ to have a drawback, but it doesnt have to. It gets a bonus anyway. Ultrasound on your movement and it becomes quite the bonus, with no drawbacks. Only want one or two selectable advantages on a power? Ultra slots give quite a discount there, too, and without drawbacks. Multipowers give free points, period. Same,as Elemental Control. I dont care because it didn't take just a handful of characters to figure out that points do not, will not, and cannot provide balance, period. Honest opinion? Someone had a hard time figuring out how to do a proper EC, bad mouthed until he got repeated, and here we are, finding faults in EC that are by no means exclusive to it. I am not saying it won't ever happen, but I have get to personally encounter a situation that was made worse because I couldn't Teleport and Swim at the same time. And these are the multipowers that players build; these are the Multipower that GM build for their villains (though most of us do tend to ensure that our villains might be inconvenienced in one or two possible ways). My Desolidifcation goes in _one_ Multipower; my Energy Blast Affects Solid goes in a different one. My Forcefield goes in one; my running goes in a different one, etc. We use multipowers to optimize our points expenditures, period. Even when there is a genuine "complication" (I cant use my flight and my Force field at the same time or some auch), the idea that we are soaking a disadvantage is entirely a fabrication: this charavyer is exactly as we conceived him to be. With that being the case, has he actually been deprived of somethinf he should have had when we concieved him without it? All of the "you get what you pay for" is an absolute mantra at one moment, and just like "build exactly what you want," is conveniently forgotten when it comes time to make the case for Disadvantages and Limitations anf Frameworks, in spite of the fact that you are getting _exactly what you wanted_. Elemental Controls are bad bevause there is no "real limitation." Multipowers are _good_ because _it is possible_ to have a "real limitation_." Possible? Yes. Mandated? Not once; not ever. Build your multipowers so that you tuen off powers you would never want to use in conjunction anyway. What have you suffered or bartered away? Nothing. Well, your overall cost; you bartered some of that away. Buy 12d6 of every power, straight out, no advantages or Limitations. Buy enough Power Pool to create 12d6 of any power. Do you have them all? Not at the same time, but without anywhere near the investment. To keep it fair, build 12d6 of every power with the same limitation your power pool has: only one power at a time. Then consider that your power pool can provide additional chracterisitics boons and powers that are not broken down into sice of effect. The price gets better and better! 12d6 of everything man has not only paid too much for his abilities, he cant opt to trade them for a quick 30 inches of flight, either. If after this exoeriment the cost are similar, I will not only eat your hat, I will give you thirty minutes to draw a crowd. The argument against EC was flawed from day, propped up for decades by carefully ignoring the same problems in all other frameworks, and having gone away officially (for most of you), we can all feel justified for parroting the same flawed arguments because "Well, we must have been right."

Might as well add this, though it may or may not be tangential: It is no secret that I like to make fun of the bow and arrow superhero. It is generally good-natured (generally. It isn't a concept I care for, but I am not going to disallow them; I know they are popular). Let me tell you who started me on this path or archer hatred: My own brother J. He built an archer, complete with a trick arrow MP filled with Ultras. I reviewed and okayed the character. Now before anyone selected or built their characters, I gave them a general layout of the plot, where the campaign was (hopefully) going to go, who they might face, etc, etc. This included a guy with the power to drain tecnology-based powers (could reduce equipment to dust). At one point, the villain grabbed J's bow and did his thing, starting to destroy the bow. J responds with "I hit him with two electro STUN arrows." How do you expect to do that? "One in each hand, stab him in the neck from each side." Okay, I tell you what- _technically_, losing the bow is draining your MP pool, but given your SFX, I see why this should work. Make a DEX roll to see if you can grab both-- "Yeah; I dont have to. They are regular powers; the arrows are SFX." "Right, but without the bow-" He spun his character sheet around to me, "the bow is unnecessary." I _thought_ I had read the character before I approved it. I had not read it closely enough..... Evrything in his MP was bought as normal attacks- that is, HTH attacks, or without range. The bow was listed separately. It was the cost of adding Ranged to non-ranged attacks, bought through a focus. The MP was _not_ bought through a focus (though it did have lumited shots on everything. I had missed that. And that is how, in the mid-eighties, we stumbled across the idea of what is now called a Naked Advantage. (Oh, and the villain went down: he had a weakness against electrical SFX). Granted, J was throwing his arrows or leaping in and stabbing villains with them, until they swung back by HQ. And that was when my ire with archers started. it is really J slipping one past me that I am grumbling about.

THANK YOU! I was starting to think I was the only one! Okay, if I drain one of your spider powers in your EC, you lose clinging, bonus STR, Bonus DEX, Spider sense..... And your completely mechanical web shooters..... If I drain your gun MP, you only lose the specific attack I drained, and evey other attack in the gun works fine.... If your turbine boots give you swimming and flight, and I drain them, I only drain one power, in spite of both powers coming from the same pair of turbines..... Ugh. Yep. It is _one_ power: Power Pool. Drain that.