Erkenfresh

Re: Combat Skill Levels OK, thanks for the info. It makes total sense when I read the optional rule. Basically, CSL's used as DCV can never improve your DCV against ranged attacks. Ranged CSL's, such as "+1 with all ranged", can't be used to raise your DCV. This was always confusing to me in my mind. But, if it's so hard to dodge arrows and bullets, why can you abort to dodge them?

Re: Setting Concept: The Power of Lineage This may relate somewhat but it's an idea in Orson Scott Card's "The Homecoming" series. (He also wrote Ender's Game). The premise of this book is that a supercomputer helps guide the breeding of people on Earth to ensure that certain traits are kept. There's also genetic code in every person that allows the supercomputer to help control their actions to avoid two things. War and harmful technology. As the plot progresses, you find out that the supercomputer has manipulated the gene pool for a very long time to create what it believes are the progenitors of the human race on a new planet (since the old one is dying off). This could apply in your campaign too. Maybe not the dying world part but the "perfect genes" stuff. Maybe the PCs are each of this perfect breed. They don't know it yet of course but they always were a cut above the rest. Does this turn out well for the PCs? Perhaps they become hunted by anyone who wants the perfect mate? Perhaps they have to work to keep it a secret, depending on how easy it is to make the realization? Perhaps they all grew up in the same orphanage as their lost parents made the attempt to hide their identity? That would certainly be a good reason for the PCs to start adventuring together.

Re: Combat Skill Levels Can you buy the 2 point CSL with Strike? (seems munchkiny) Also, the 3 point CSLs, you can't take one with a HtH weapon and have the DCV apply against ranged weapons? I see it sort of like you are dodging around to make yourself harder to hit. I could definitely understand it working against other HtH weapons, you are actively parrying, riposting, or the like (in the words of the great Steven Long). Under this logic, an archer would gain the DCV bonus of the CSL against HtH weapons too, he's dodging about to avoid getting hit. This makes things much simpler but maybe it's a bit overpowered. Perhaps the great Steven Long could shed some light on this.

Re: The First Hurdle: Creating a *gulp* Magic System I'd also like to add that you can run a Champions game without the Champions source book. While it provides some nice details, if you've ever picked up a comic book or watched X-Men or Batman the cartoons, you'll be in good shape. I'd highly recommend getting Hero Designer as that will make the character creation process much easier. It took about three hours for my three friends to make characters with the books but the software is a breeze.

Re: The First Hurdle: Creating a *gulp* Magic System I think Thia is looking for two things. One, something that models closely to D&D style magic. And second, possibly more important, something his players can understand. It's one thing to sit down and read the entire fifth edition book on the flight from Detroit to Manila (and over the course of the first week in the Philippines), and it's another entirely different thing to just sit down and play the game. It's taken now 55 posts for just Thia to understand it (no offense this is tricky stuff), imagine how hard it is for casual gamers. One thing I might suggest Thia is playing a quick Champions campaign. Of all the genres, it's the easiest one to grasp. Let the players make their characters and use the powers straight out of the book. This might give them a feel for the game after just three or four sessions. Then, they'll be ready to tackle Fantasy Hero, which is far more complex. I'm doing a similar thing now, training my friends with Star Hero which is definitely tougher than Champions but not nearly as tough as Fantasy Hero, though we have played D&D for almost 3 years now. Good luck, have fun.

Re: Fixin' what's broken - switching from d20 to HERO Be cautious when setting a hard Active Point Cap. Let's say you have a cap of 40 active points. This would get you a 8d6 EB, or a 5d6 armor piercing EB (25 points * 1.5 = 37). The 5d6 armor piercing EB is going to on the average do about 10.5 less damage which means it's only going to be better against someone with 2*10.5 = 21 DEF. In 99.9% of cases this will be worthless when compared to the 8d6 EB. Of course, that really depends on the type of campaign you are running. You may rule in cases like this that the player could have at least 6d6 armor piercing EB (45 active points) for example. Of course you really have to take it on a case by case basis.

Re: Fixin' what's broken - switching from d20 to HERO They are both revised so I must have one of those RARE 1st print books. ooooo

Re: Fixin' what's broken - switching from d20 to HERO I've DM'd a very long D&D campaign that's lasted a few years but there's definitely way too many holes in the d20 system. The concept of levels is pretty bad. Like one day I'm "level 1", fight a few orcs and then the next morning I wake up and I'm "level 2", suddenly able to take double the damage I could yesterday. One thing about hitpoints I never understood is that they explain more HPs as "dodging blows or rolling with punches". If that's the case, a single "cure light wounds" oughta patch anyone up to full health regardless of how many HPs they are missing. And, I have to agree about teleport. That spell takes "one action" to cast! "Oh, we're losing the fight, better teleport to my log cabin on Lake Sirene for some R&R"... no chance of disruption, no way to stop it, the wizard just has to roll 99 or less out of 100 or he might be 1 mile away from his log cabin. HERO is a much better game but so complicated. I'm glad I read this thread. It took me over an hour but there's so many good ideas here. I'm almost finished reading the FH book myself and have been running a Champions game and a Star Hero game. I'm still getting a feel for the rules. I can say that definitely Fantasy Hero requires much more knowledge of powers, limitations, and advantages than Star Hero where you get a gun and you shoot it at stuff (it's much more a skill based genre). Anyway, Thia, I hope they ship your books soon. If they don't ship them and you can't find the books here, you might consider ordering from where I got mine: www.frpgames.com. I got the books pretty quick. But, you can also buy the download here and have it fast (especially with broadband). I know reading it on a monitor sucks but it'll hold you over until you get the printed books. Hey, one thing about the 5th edition rulebook I noticed. I have two copies and one is much thicker with yellowish paper while the other is thinner and heavier with white paper. What's up with that?

Re: Anybody played Shadowbane? Thanks for the advice. I think I'll ditch the classes idea but I will need some guidelines like the rest of you suggest. I realize there's a lot of work ahead to start from scratch but I think it will be fun.

I haven't started a Fantasy Hero campaign yet but I would like to. I'm going to plan it out a whole bunch and not use any of the pre-made worlds from Hero games (not this time, Terran Empires is nice though ). Anyhow, I was thinking of structuring the point spending into "classes". Yes, I know this throws away HERO's open-ended character development but when a player spends points on +30 OCV on a starting fighter, things go wrong. The idea is built somewhat upon Shadowbane. Each player starts out choosing a "base class" as a fighter, rogue, healer, or mage. This gives them access to a certain set of skills, characters, spells, etc to buy. Once they spend enough points within this set, they gain access to a more "advanced class" such as paladin, ranger, priest, etc. Certain advanced classes are accessible by multiple base classes but some aren't. A paladin could come from a healer or a fighter for example but a priest must start as a healer. The player could still buy stuff from the base class but then also from the advanced class. A healer/paladin would have better spells than a fighter/paladin but the fighter/paladin could swing a sword much better. From your personal experience with Fantasy Hero, does this sound like a good idea? I hate to limit what the players can do, but this needs to be done somehow. When player A buys +30 OCV, I really could use a guide to tell him to cut that back to a +3 OCV or so starting out. Any ideas?

Hey do you guys sell the Grimoire from the online store? I can't seem to find it in the list. While the idea of creating ANY spell is great, it's likely to blow the minds of my newbie players. Providing a list of spells that I allow and disallow would help nicely. Thanks, see ya.

Re: Suikoden Effect: Giving Players a base through contacts/followers. That's an incredible idea. The material you get out of it would be limitless. You find a stonemason to build your walls but then he requires certain equipment only made by an engineer etc. The main drawback I could see to this is the party would really need to adventure only in the immediate area of the base, at least until it's self-sufficient. But, that's probably a great way to introduce a new group into the game, handing them little quests they really should do to make a nice castle. I only played Suikoden 1 and it was a great game. I recommend it to anyone who hasn't played it.