Ternaugh

Re: Hero points?

In a MegaTraveller game, I give out customized poker chips for great roleplaying and other contributions to a game session. The chips can be cashed in for a reroll of a bad roll, or the player may place a single die on top of the chip with the desired value before rolling. I've yet to work a system into my HERO games.

JoeG

Re: Uplift Hero!!!

3.Emperor Strephon was never assassinated, and the Rebellion never started.

 

There's an Emperor Strephon in Uplift? And he was assassinated, causing a Rebellion? Or, are you merging this with GURPS Traveller?

JoeG

MegaTraveller Clue : "Let's see, Dulinor in the Throne room with the body pistol." (Checking cards)

Re: -0 Limitations and Zero point disadvantages

I have had a few players use 0-point disadvantages, because they came up with a cool backstory/background, and it required the disads after the maximum in that category. And since they were so into the character, roleplaying was not a problem. Along the same lines, Normal Characteristic Maxima for no points is basically a campaign- or genre-based 0-point disadvantage that most GMs don't think twice about implementing.

JoeG

Re: How do you reveal magic items?

Adventurers (and their opponents) have had to do some of the following to figure out the workings of magic items:

Actively study the item while in use. So, if you are taking the Wand of Fireballs from your opponent, you better have listened to him when he said the power word, and watched how he waved it around.

Research the creator. Are there other documented items where the wizard used the names of his pets? Maybe that would be a good power word.

Experiment with the item. Of course, this works best for things with automatic activation, like worn items, and the like. Some effects may be too subtle; a sword that gives a +1 DCV could be mistaken for a weakness of the attacker.

Research the magic. Here's where those KS: Ancient artifacts and KS: Magic Woids and Phrases comes in.

Read the instructions. And some mages are just so helpful, that they provide the activation instructions. In past games, these tended to be primarily alchemic items. So, the Healing Potion has the label attached, "Applie Libberalley", and the Fireball Grenade has the label, "Brake Seele and Throwe". Of course, if the creator isn't all that friendly, the instructions may be dangerous, "Place the offering upon the altar, and raise the sacrificial dagger". And don't forget the chance for language problems, "What does it mean here, 'Tab B'?"

Lastly, I would allow a character to research the "magical weave" by using a proper Detect: analysis spell and a lot of research. "You sense a tight thread of Fire, entwined with a flow of Air, with just a hint of Earth binding and holding. It feels a lot like the flows of magical energies when you cast your Flamestrike, though held in check, waiting."

YMMV,

JoeG

Re: If magic cost full price...

My last FH campaign world used full price spells. To be fair, though, the campaign started many years ago, with 4th ed rules. Wizards were powerful in combat, as would be expected, but were also required to have quite a bit of noncombat skills and magic. Warriors tended to be well-trained, and deadly. And in one incarnation of the gaming group (about 10 years ago!), political maneuvering became paramount (thanks to one of the players, Jason Vester, later of "Broken Kingdoms" fame). The last mutation resulted in a high fantasy/clockpunk environment, with characters receiving an extra 25 points for character development (to become 100 Base/75 Disads). Warriors put this to good use with extra skill levels and such, while almost all mages added straight to spells (typical mages had 50 points or so in spells).

To be honest with you, though, the average power level of most spells was below typical FHG entries. Mages had to be more than just a "magical shotgun" toward enemies. So, for example, the Earth Mage in the group also had spells that allowed shaping stone for building or sculpting, while the Storm Mage was able to influence local weather patterns to help farmers.

Of course, YMMV,

JoeG

Re: Bullets in vacuum?

I've read that the recoil from a sidearm in microgravity is over-rated. People who did the math said that if you were unbraced, a .45 automatic would only give you about three degrees per second of rotation. If you plus your suit had a mass of about 50 kilograms, each bullet would give you a measly 0.12 meters per second of acceleration.

 

Another thing to keep in mind: a sidearm meant to be used while space suited will have to have an over-sized trigger guard to allow insertion of a space-gloved finger.

 

More at my web site

 

I hope this helps.

That doesn't sound bad. It means, however, that the person that you were aiming at would then be at your back in 60 seconds(60s * 3 degrees/s). Oh, and you would have drifted 7.2m away from your original position. Of course, that's just for one bullet. Did you empty the clip? That would increase the rotation to 21 degrees/s (you rotate completely every 17.14 seconds, and show your backside to your enemy for half of that time), and a drift rate of approximately .84m/s (every minute uncompensated by thrust in the opposite direction moves you 50m away from the battle). I, for one, would rather have the computer-compensated thrust to counteract this.

JoeG

Re: SF Novels for Star Hero?

Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (reprinted in The Complete Paratime) by H Beam Piper. Time travel by the master. Kalvan is accidentally dropped into another timeline by the interaction of another line's time machines. The other stories in Paratime are related to the use of the time machines by the other timeline.

The Mote in God's Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Cool universe, with an interesting alien race that is guaranteed to be a competitor with humans.

Little Fuzzy and other Fuzzy novels, by H Beam Piper. A universe much like Traveller, with contragrav and and gunpowder. Other novels that interlink with Piper's Future History include Four Day Planet, Space Viking, and Lone Star Planet.

Re: Generation Ship Campaigns

Or it goes insane and starts creating an elaborate system of security clearances thinking that communists are starting to' date=' but wait that is a different game.[/quote']

 

I'm sorry, Citizen. That information is not available at your Clearance. Please report to HPDMC for rerprogamming.

 

Thank you

 

Joe-G-FRD-2

Re: Generation Ship Campaigns

You know this also reminds me of the Star Trek episode "The World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky".

 

I am midly surprised that no one else mentioned it.

That story assumes a strong central figure which forces order (in this case, a very reliable computer with obedience chips in everyone). Unfortunately, by its very nature, this type of society does not tend to produce adventure-worthy conflict (either of a social or a violent nature) without introducing an outside agent not under the full control of the central figure, like the Enterprise crew, or some sort of disaster that the central authority cannot handle by itself. Now, if the computer suddenly goes offline....

JoeG

Re: Generation Ship Campaigns

I guess I'll give it a shot.

 

-----

 

GM: Okay, everybody got their characters?

 

Al: Yep. I'm a farmer.

 

Bob: Uh huh. I'm a mechanic.

 

Chuck: Yes. I'm psionic and have an 18- in PS: Basketweaving.

 

GM: Good, we're all set. Okay, here we go. You're all on the generation ship. You sit and stare at each other for 60 years. Nothing happens. Everybody take 3 xp.

 

Bob: So, can I take "Life Support: able to sit for ridiculously long periods of time"?

 

GM: No need. It's an "everyman" in this game.

Well, see, what you really need is a Holodeck so that the characters can themselves have characters that are immensely more interesting...Oh, wait...This isn't the Next Generation discussion thread?

JoeG

Re: Comeliness?

Wow--this is weird...

 

Usually, when I post on a message board, it takes days for someone to ask what on Earth I'm talking about. Here, I got a dozen or so helpful replies in a few hours.

 

Thanks...

 

 

Perhaps I should be more specific with my problem, though--

 

I'm trying to convert some Shadowrun concepts to Hero system. I like the Shadowrun world, but I hate their system... (Don't you ahte when that happens?) And, I keep getting stuck with the "Goblinized" races--Orks and Trolls.

 

I'm trying to work a starting package for them.

 

They're ugly. They're less articulate. They suffer from massive bigotry. All that says that presence should be decreased, right?

 

Well, they're big. They're scary. Common idea is they're violent and dangerous. That says presence goes up, doesn't it?

 

It's for two different situations, though--the difference between smooth-talking and impressive posturing. Well, IMHO.

 

I've used Thing and Hulk to describe this similarly.

 

So, how do I deperate "suave" presence from "scary" presence?

 

 

 

 

Oh, and, thanks for all the welcomes! I was trying to make a joke about being new--no matter where you go, you're new when you get there kinda... Lame, but, I've heard lame jokes are good ice breakers. ::shrug::

 

(%)

Welcome aboard!

As to your predicament, I would use a combination of characteristics and Disadvantages to solve it.

See that big, lurking Troll over there that just cracked the bar in half by slamming down his mug, that's Presence. Not much to look at, but he sure is impressive! Just look at him; you know he's a troll (Distinctive Features: Causes fear). And he obviously isn't great at speeches (either limit the so-called PRE-based skills, or apply a penalty connected to a physical limitation--inarticulate), and, as you know they can be dangerous (Reputation), especially that one (bad Reputation). And as far as savoir-faire, his idea of Seduction may involve blunt instruments, and his Conversation is limited to one syllable words.

Now that Elf, on the other hand...

Of course, YMMV,

JoeG

Re: Free version of the HERO System

I think that grabbing a couple copies of Sidekick and running some local demos or converting your playing group over to HERO will go a lot further towards spreading the word than a free mini-system. There are many people on boards I read that consider GURPS lite to be all you need to play. “Why should I buy GURPS when I got this free version?†they say.

 

I think giving out any more information about HERO would encourage people who might otherwise buy a book to instead get by with the free version. That is bad business in any market. Talk about HERO on forums, talk about HERO at your local game store, run HERO at conventions, demo HERO at supermarkets, give lectures on HERO at your local college campus, read from HERO at your guest sermon, create a tasteful TV ad for your local cable network, wear HERO underwear during your “encounters†when dating.

 

There are piles of ways to get the word out there. Be creative. Use HERO. If you play it, they will come.

 

[paid for by citizens for HERO 5th edition]

You forgot the "Hi, I'm Steve Long, and I personally approved this message".

Re: Sidekick vs. GURPS Lite

I had thought the intent of GURPS Lite was so that new players could pick up GURPS Planet Krishna or whatever' date=' and not [i']also[/i] need to pick up the rulebook to play a game? Because all of the special rules for GURPS Napoleon (or whatever) are in that book, not the core rulebook, anyway.

 

In other words, GURPS Lite was made to have the basics that GURPS "genre" books could add on to. I thought it's missing bits weren't left out to make things simpler, but because they weren't necessary to every suppliment.

 

When they first came up with GURPS Lite, it was packaged into another suppliment (Discworld, maybe?) -- it was only later that they started marketing it as an introduction to GURPS.

 

Sidekick is intended as a primer on Hero. It's not supposed to be something that comes with Champions or Star Hero -- put it together with one of those suppliments and you're still going to be missing some of the crunchy bits you'd like for your Champions game.

 

Anyway, I guess I'm saying that I don't think the comparison between Sidekick and GURPS Lite is all that good. The intents behind the two products were completely different.

GURPS Lite was developed specifically so that Discworld could be a "standalone", but at the same time, was released as both a printed folio (distributed in the GM Screen, at cons, and from their online store) and PDF file. It has been updated and customized several times (in world books, printed, and PDF), and will be updated yet again for GURPS 4th Ed. And while it makes a fine basic combat reference and getting started document, I believe anyone who tried to run a continuing campaign would have difficulty using just GURPS Lite. In addition, the group would all have to be "on the same page", since the worldbook editions are different from each other, and from the printed/PDF versions. Sidekick, on the other hand, could be used very successfully in running a campaign by itself (see note in quote about "crunchy bits", however) and is a common reference for all genres. All in all, it shows you that "you get what you pay for", and perhaps even more than you pay for with Sidekick.

JoeG

Re: Gate Stations

If I remember correctly' date=' with the exception of some of the larger ships like the Agamemnon, ships can't [i']really[/i] go anywhere they want to in the real world (were you to build it with Extra Dimensional Movement). You have to stay on the course of the hyperspace beacons, and if you don't, you get FUBARed. And since the normal gates tend to be protected by miltary powers, I really wouldn't build it with the +5 Adder, since the limits of where you can go are there. But the Agamemnon, being able to drop out of Hyperspace pretty much anywhere they want to, would have to pay for the Adder.

Yup, I was thinking of the cache of ships "off the beacon" that was accidentally discovered in one of the episodes. Basically, any ship capable of carrying a hyperdrive in B5 can exit hyperspace just about anywhere, while (typically smaller) ships have to follow the beam or risk getting lost. For HERO game mechanics, however, EDM isn't supposed to give advanced real-world movement unless the adder is included (basically, the argument is that it shouldn't be a cheap teleport) and the GM agrees. So, it breaks down to use the Adder, have each ship have a FTL only in hyperspace, or just declare that hyperspace just works a certain way. Say that distances in hyperspace correspond to the real world in a fixed ratio, and ignore the EDM limitations. This is probably how I would do it, with the Adder being used the way you mentioned.

JoeG

Re: Massive Traveller Sale on E-bay

I was never all that into Traveller and by the time MegaTrav appeared on the scene I was all about Fantasy Hero. From what I can remember' date=' though, MegaTrav broke a lot more than it fixed, both ruleswise and settingswise.[/quote']

 

I recently decided to try to run MT for the rules, but not the Shattered Imperium setting. My goal was to transport fewer books with me to the game. Like the infamous Paperwork Reduction Act, this is not the case. First, I found out that I had to go back to the LBBs for missing charts in character generation. Then, I found out that the Ref's Guide that I have doesn't match the Ref's Guide that one of my players has (his has most of the errers corrected). And then, the Task System was giving me all sorts of problems (I had last read TNE's Task System, which made more sense, and finally had to grab the BITS Tasking sheet and pencil in the numbers). I'm relying more on Supplement 9: Fighting Ships, than the poorly-written sequel. So, I'm carrying a mix of CT and MT books, plus corrections.

 

JoeG

Re: Gate Stations

Are you looking for a B5 style hyperspace gate, where ships can interact and see each other, or are you looking for a direct path to the next gate?

The second type is discussed on pp. 193-4 of Star Hero

For the first, you could use EDM, but then you run into the limitation that you can't normally use it to move about in the real world. You could use the +5 adder to "any location in dimension" and link it that way, or you could make stl engines work as FTL (multipower slot?), but say that the ship has to be in hyperspace.

JoeG

Re: Generation Ship Campaigns

Late last year I ran a campaign like this, using Metamorphosis Alpha heavily as a source. It was post-apocalyptic, and not only did the PCs (who were mutants) have to fend off a growing horde of one of the mutant races, they had to save their "level" when these same mutants broke into one of the level control centers and made off with the chronometric sequencer, the device that controlled many time-related functions, including the rising of the "sun". The campaign was a great success, and we only stopped because one of the players wanted to try a fantasy campaign. We may get back to it one day.

 

While MA is long out of print (the initial version came out just after the original D&D, and it's had I think three versions since), it's currently being resurrected, last I heard. The original author, Jim Ward, who also later worked on Gamma World, was working on a new version, as people were still playing it nearly thirty years after it was originally published. Fast Forward Games (http://www.fastforwardgames.com) has more info, and another very good MA resource is http://www.metamorphosisalpha.com.

Another source would be the Amazing Engine game, Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega, which has maps and descriptions of the denziens. And, it'll probably be cheap, if you can find it (my copy was a buck at a local hobby store wanting to get rid of it).

JoeG

Re: Sleeper Ships

How about The Lazarus Society?

JoeG

Re: Massive Traveller Sale on E-bay

I don't know if the auction is a good buy or not' date=' but ever since I heard someone describe Travellers as shotguns in space, I've been curious about it because shotguns in space pretty much describes my favorite Space Master campaign.[/quote']

 

Yep. Shotguns in space (just like in that movie, "Outland"). And lots of other firearms, and other goodies. Be warned, though. T4 is a strange, errer-filled collection of rules and contradictory "official canon". A better choice for someone wanting to try out Traveller would be the official reprint of the LBBs. These rules are much more playable, IMHO. It's also fairly easy to translate over to Hero. Those with deeper pockets may want to look at the GURPS Traveller stuff, which is similar in flavor to Classic Traveller (CT), but with higher production values.

 

Just trying to constuct a ship with FFS2 (T4's basic construction manual for guns and vehicles) is a strange form of torture unique in gaming. All charts are in the back, but all of the design sequences are in the front. Charts are positioned pretty much where they would fit, not logically where they are needed. Math symbols were "eaten" by the printer in the required formulas. And, FFS2 doesn't mesh correctly with the design rules in T4 Starships or Central Supply Catalog (for vehicles).

 

JoeG

Re: More boast than post!

Cool!

I've had JI since about 1985, when I picked it up at a local comic store. Bought my Lands of Mystery a few years back, straight from Allston himself. I've got the signature on the book to prove it! Alas, if only I found players willing to try it...

JoeG

Re: Modern-Day Fantasy

Some Magic is Secret books:

The Serrated Edge series by Mercedes Lackey and friends, Based upon a little war between the Seelie and Unseelie, with high-performance racing thrown in.

Mythology 101 and sequels, by Jody Lynn Nye, follows the exploits of a college student who discovers the elves living in the library.

Harry Potter series, by JK Rowling, well, you probably know...

Some Magic is a replacement for Technology sources:

The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump, by Harry Turtledove, Follows an investigator for an environmental agency as he investigates illegal dumping of magical toxins. Recommended.

Doc Sidhe and Sidhe Devil , by Aaron Allston. You can download Doc Sidhe free from http://www.baen.com/library/aallston.htm, but buy the book and support the author of Champions!

"Cast a Deadly Spell", a movie following the adventures of detective Phil Lovecraft as he investigates a Cthuthulean plot. I remember a great scene where invisible servants are carrying luggage through a train station.

GURPS Technomancer is a sourcebook for the rpg in a world where Trinity created a magical rift in reality. As with most GURPS products, it is easily transfered to HERO.

JoeG

Re: Limitation for Spell Casting with Armor and Helms

If I understand correctly, the penalty is to represent the "insulation" of the spellcaster from the magical energies, rather than a Gestures/movement issue. I would probably build it in as a design feature of the magic system, rather than a specific limitation, but I have seen the "Caster cannot carry more than a dagger's worth of metal -1/2" and "Caster cannot wear armor while casting -1/2" in various fantasy games over the years.

JoeG

Re: Interstellar communications

For a Space Opera game our group co-designed, we had a FTL drive/radio that involved creating an energy field around the object, and "accelerating" it up the dimensions. The more energy that you were willing to push into it, the "higher" up the dimensional ladder it would go, and the faster it would travel.

For spaceships, this power could be continuously fed by the ship's power plant. But objects could be "shot" up the dimensions by way of an FTL cannon, that created the energy field around the object during launch. The energy field would decay, based upon the amount of energy packed into it, and the highest dimension that it could reach. Once the object reached that highest dimension, it would remain at that energy state for only a brief period of time (since this was Star Hero, no longer than a turn). It would then "skip" back down the ladder, spending twice as long at each level. It would re-enter the "real" universe when its velocity went below lightspeed.

The process could be applied to radio, too. Since they were basically focused beams of photons, they, too, could be packetized, and shot much longer distances (up to several parsecs). Of course, the FTL radio required huge antenna arrays, so only the largest ships could mount them. Also, the arrays were fragile, and had to be stowed if the ship was to maneuver at anything over a half gee. Major star systems had orbital arrays, which had an effective width of several kilometers.

A side-effect of this FTL system was RF noise. As the packet decays, it sheds particles sideways, creating an ever-stronger "wake" along the entire path. This included the FTL radio, too. So your enemies could guess that you sent a message to HQ based upon the amount of FTL wake (for power levels) and the direction of your antenna array. And they could track your ship as you powered up through the dimensions, and plot possible endpoints.

The system did produce some interesting quirks. First, sensors were only for use STL. Second, weapons could be fired FTL, but they could only damage things once they returned to this dimension ("skipping" missiles). Everything FTL could only travel straight-line (including ships), so accuracy counted. And, it often took longer to unfold the array than to send a message, but receiving a message was done with standard radio, assuming that you were in the cone of the transmission.

JoeG

Re: Traveller Plasma Weapons

I'm assuming comparisons to descriptions in GT:Starships. Those guns are kinda wimpy compared to MT or CT, where high-energy weapons can reach at least 30,000 km. Seems ok for GT, though. They tend to be used more as a point-defense weapon against incoming missiles in GT rather than as a primary armament. Your crew-served designation seems a little strict: bays usually have a crew of 2, but turrets usually only have a crew of 1 per battery.

I haven't actually worked out the damage numbers for starship scale weapons, but a FGMP-15 (GTL 12) is approximately 14d6 RKA, based upon the raw average killing ability*. By comparison, most CT/MT handguns and rifles are DC 3-6, with comparable weapons already worked out in Fred. I would assume that a turret or bay mounted weapon would be even more powerful.

JoeG

* FGMP-15s are truly the "Blue Lightning" of Traveller: something that inexperienced gms frequently misuse to keep unruly PCs in line. It seems to be designed to completely destroy a character if used against him, since average damage works out to about 7 points higher than possible character hit points. Mapping this over to HERO gets this nasty level of lethality. GT characters actually have this worse: average damage received would be over 50 times the hits that a normal character could take.

Re: Interstellar communications

Not really. Modern computers and gadgets are a product of the semi-conductor and related tech. Before that we used tubes. There was a tube that equaled pretty much everything we do with semi-conductors. Diodes, transistors, etc. Computer chips are simply vast numbers (thousands?) of juctions (diode is a single junction device, transistor is a 3 or 4 junction device) shrunk down and packed in layers at the microscopic level. The major drawback to tubes in comparison with SC's is power consumption, speed, and the big one size. By killing SC's you put available tech for a starship back to the 40-50's. But you are right that high tech bases would have to built from the 50's up.

 

 

Spence

According to Intel, there are about 42 million transistors on a typical Pentium 4 chip. And memory chips. Memory chips require 1 transistor for each bit for DRAM, or 4 transistors for each bit for SRAM. And the memory in my computer, SDRAM, is a combination of the two (about 5 transistors per bit). 8 bits in a byte, 1000 bytes in a Kbyte (actually, 2^10, but try telling hdd manufacturers), approximately 40,000 transistors per Kbyte.

And the paragraph above is a little less than a half Kbyte.

Now, setting up the computers on a starship to the level of 40s-50s computers would, in effect, limit you to room-size, fragile computers with the processing power of a modern $5 pocket calculator. In fact, this was the era of the slipstick, with slide rules used for most scientific calculations. Custom slide rules were available for specific tasks, like fuel load calculations on B52s.

So, maybe the starships would have special slide rules for calculations of jump (or they're done on-planet) to set mechanical controls. Information is put on microfilm or fiche for compact shipment. And, maybe, people have to be "turned off" by being put into suspended animation so that they survive the toxic effects of the higher dimensions. Those deciding to ride it out suffer from jump sickness, created by the strong emf fluxes interacting with their nervous system. Kind of feels like a "Forbidden Planet" or "This Island Earth" type of campaign.

JoeG