Duke Bushido

Re: Question for you Traveller fans. Thanks, Heaps!

Re: I don't quite grok the Multiform rules. Not at all. As I said, this has nothing to do with any campaign, or any character, or any player's style, or anything else. I am simply looking at the mechanic itself, which as it stands allows any player to put all of his experience into his alternate form, which grants a huge bonus. And yes, there are cautions, etc, but these are not the mechanic itself. They are warnings about the mechanic.

Re: Bye all

Re: Bye all Ah. So Fox1 is not necessarily a _bad_ person--- just horribly, horribly twisted. Is that what you're getting at?

Re: I'm sensing something's wrong I didn't really care for the Talents as Powers changed. To me, and YMMV, it felt extremely forced, almost an unneeded justification that the current rules set was capable of simulating anything. Frankly, I already knew that. Seeing the Talents as 'mere' Power constructs sort of robbed them of something-- that 'uniqueness' that they were something truly gifted normals might have. And slightly off-topic, that 'Instant Change' as a T-form....... Ugh.

Re: Problem with creating a FH spell. And thank you, too, Sir!

Re: Broad category skills Interesting idea, I think. It hearkens back to the early days where all the skils were listed and detailed on a single page. We didn't even have professional skills until Champs II. What I usually do, if I may offer an alternative, is probably not that unfamilar to the bulk of HERO GMs, and that is to allow a related or nearly related skill to work with an appropriate penalty. Of course, a lot of what will or won't work, much like your own example with the burglar picking locks, depends on what the skill is relevant to the character's background. For example, I may allow a character with 'Pilot: F-14' to use his skill to pilot another type of jet at a small penalty, or a prop-driven fixed wing at an even smaller penalty-- probably no real penalty, as I understand that the military begins training even jet pilots with 'lesser' planes, so it's reasonable that a soldier character would be familiar enough with the design to pilot it easily. If he were to have to do something like say land a commercial airliner, I'd again let him use his Pilot:F-14, but with a penalty to show that he's not familar with this craft, and that it is much larger and less responsive than the craft to which he is accustomed. However, under no circumstances would I let him simply hop into a Riggellian Battle Cat and go straffing into action. I _might_, given enough time, assistance, and motivation, allow his skill to represent an understanding of basic concepts and use his mere possesion of it as a modifier to learn and understand the craft well enough to fly it, period. Maybe. That's almost story-driven, though. While a character with Survival: Desert would probably not do well in Antarctica, I can allow him to use his skill at or nearly at face value for survival-- wilderness, and would probably only asses penalties against surviving in a jungle, and that because he may not be fully aware of all the dangers, but would still have sense enough to know what to look for when scrounging. And it goes without saying that Survival: well-cultivated fields ripe with fruit and veggies is an everyman But the other way around: jungle to desert, is going to take some huge penalties. Though again, I'd probably let it work at minor penalties for wilderness. So let's get a bit more exotic: Security systems: What kind? Sensor and computer array based? Simple triggers? A sign saying 'Employees Only?' Again, If the background is appropriate, I already allow rolls against 'lesser' versions of the skill with minor penalties, rolls against related versions of the skill with minor penalties, and rolls against distantly-related or more complex versions of the skill at reasonable penalties for the situation. And then when you add in the 'new (by my standards) stuff like 'related skill rolls,' 'related characteristics rolls,' etc, well so far, that's working pretty well for us. It leaves granularity in tact so that someone may indeed be a world-class expert at something, but it also allows such a character to not be 'locked out' of things he should be at least passingly familar with, while leaving plenty of room for many experts in many fields.

Re: More on Block and STR Sure, AOE would be the way to go..... But I was thinking about creating something like a 'smart bullet.' At this point, I think it's going to be a matter of tacking on many, many levels with that specific weapon and ammo (it's for a sci-fi thing), as the old 'slow, self guided bullet' whose movement you must track, course correct, etc, is decidedly _not_ what I have in mind. And for that, AOE is far to odd...... I suppose I could go with that new 'Selective,' but I'm really trying to avoid letting that into my games. Far, far, FAR too much potential for munchkinism, and I've got two players (oddly, the comic book fans) who just don't need the goading.....

Re: Problem with creating a FH spell.

Re: I don't quite grok the Multiform rules. If you will humor me for a minute, I was thinking about something last night, after reading up on this thread. Let's put aside for a moment the cost to build a MF character and who pays what and how, and skip to advancement of that character. I realize that the imediate knee-jerk response is 'because that's the price according to the rules to build it,' but I am looking for something more-- or perhaps less-- than that. There are obviously several of you who have used MF far more than any of my players have, and to you I ask: How do you justify a player whose character effectively advances five times faster than everyone else in the party? Yes, fine-- it's entirely possible that your concept needs oodles of points, and it's nice to get those in a hurry, but if you were playing any other type of character, you would advance 'as normal' and most likely not think twice about it. What is inherent in MultiForm that such characters have a 'right' to advance at quintuple the rest of the party?

Re: More on Block and STR Hmmm...... this thread has me wondering...... How many skill levels--- or other suitable construct-- would it take to simulate a power that was "unblockable?" Either you CV'd out of the way, or you got hammered..... Or just put it AOE and be done with it?

Re: Problem with creating a FH spell. Ah. Therein lies the problem; my clipboard simply does not work here.... I've been doing the bulk of my mulit-quotes longhand because of that; I was hoping for some push-button relief..... Thanks.

Re: Black box recorder Well all, it's been a busy night...... reckon I'll just go back through my old posts and do a little culling..... nothing to see here..... move along..... NO! NO! No humor, I swear!

Re: Bye all Fox.... What can I say? Well, a lot of things, actually; I'm quite good at it. But in keeping with the spirit of departure, a proper send off is in order. What will we miss? Certainly not the abrassiveness, nor the arrogance. Certainly not the tendency to select personal insult over rebuttal, and probably not the incessant habit of coming to a title-specific site so as to dump tirades and snipes against that very title. But, hey; we are none of us perfect, and would do well to remember that. With any fortune smiling on your memory, what will linger for us was your intelligence, your desire to perfect your craft, and your willingness to shoulder perceieved shortcommings in the system, and work them back and to, until a solution had been found. And we will, Fate willing, remember your sharing ideas of your own, and offering suggestions and feedback on ours. An intelligent mind, engaged in like-minded pursuits, is a rare and wondrous find. So I wish you the best in what you do, and join with many others in keeping an invitation to our discussions. I truly hope that it is your concepts and ideas that are remembered best, and not the bile with which they were routinely served. Duke

Re: More on Block and STR Right. I've always considered "Block" as a maneuver to cover a range of things from actually physically stopping an attack to re-directing it (over a shoulder or to the side) to simply briefly 'fixing' yourself against an opponent and twisting your body away from his momentum. As such, the idea of STR v STR never occured to me. But I'm happy with what we've been doing. Nice work, though.

Re: Character Art heh heh heh ----- you know, I saw the book link, the price, and beat feet before looking around.....:o:p Ooops.

Re: Character Art Hmmmm...... Just under twice the price for color........ Guess I'll fire up the scanner and break out the pencils......

Re: Question for you Traveller fans. Hey, woah! There's a TravellerHERO pdf?! How do I get my grubby little hands on it?!?!?!?!

Re: Book suggestions?

Re: Book suggestions? Absolutely! And while I don't like his work in general, I was going to recommend Resnick (selected titles), but someone beat me to it! In particular I'd recommend Santiago, which for a 'frontier' feel absolutely cannot be missed. While I don't care for him, what he does well, he does _very_ well, and Santiago, Oracle, and a handful of others he did very well indeed! And, while I am already preparing for the hail of hard, sharp, and pointy things that will be hurled this way, two excellent looks at 'aboriginal' cultures (that could be also viewed as low-tech frontier cultures) are Foster's (hey, I swear; he was good once!) Icerigger and Mary Gentle's Ancient Light (and whatever the prequel to that was called). Both beautifully crafted stories, Gentle's work in particular. Have fun with your campaign, and _please_ tell us about it when you've decided on where to go!

Re: Atmosphere I still support the tunnel idea, and it is predominant in my campaigns on "oh-pressures" (worlds with no atmosphere of their own). We do have a few dome cities, but only on planets with substantial atmoshperes. Atmo is is essential for things like burning up asteroids, etc, and keeps 'pops' (just what you'd think) at a minimum, so maintenance costs on the dome are lower than with on an oh-pressure. Domes in our campaign are used to gaurd against a dangerous atmo rather than a missing one. Further, a dome on an oh-pressure gets the full hit of solar and stellar radiation, which atmo helps to gaurd against. Though domes are a great setting for a genetically mutated 'lower class.' In my own campaign, domes usually indicate a world preparing for or undergoing terraforming. It occurs to me that if you really want a beautifully done fictional account of terraforming, I would highly recommend Kim Stanley Robinsons' Mars series of novels, in particular the first two: Red Mars and Green Mars. The third (Blue Mars) is not awful, but fails to make the 'Duke's Best Bet' list. The fourth one (the Martians) was as close to unreadable as an otherwise excellent author can achieve-- in short, readable, almost enjoyable, but distinctly a horrble dissappointment. It's a classic example of finding a great story line and following it way too far...... Robinson gives wonderful ideas, however, and you may find them vital to campaigns that will feature heavy terraforming. I'd suggest paying particular attention to the details on turning dirt and regolith into actual productive soil; wonderfully insightful. Hope his helps. Duke

Re: Golden Age Character Advice Needed

Re: Colored Champions Pics Color them! Pencils are cheap. Xerox, if you don't wan't to screw up your books.

Re: Batman and How he does it. Oh good. I've always wanted to know how to thwack Superman on the head and get away with it.

Re: open door spell