Erkenfresh

Re: Game Design: Champions Online I thought about this a while back actually. If the game was real time, you could make it into an FPS. This would appeal to a completely new crowd. I had a few ideas on how you would handle OCV and DCV. Perhaps the player would have a "lock-on" button when their crosshairs get close to a target. After locking on, attacks could still miss according to OCV/DCV. I also figured that to get into the game quickly, there should be premade powers. They could even be bunched into sets or classes, or the player could create their own class to load up when entering the game. These powers would cost points just like in HERO of course. So, a user might enter the game and pick Flight for 30 points, Fire Blast for 60, Fireball for 60, and Sword Slash for 60 and be good to go. And of course, playing a game for a while should grant bonus XP so the player could buy more powers. If you've ever played Savage, they executed the idea of levelling in an FPS perfectly. Then there's the idea of characteristics. Most likely, it would be best just to have premade sets. Strong, tough, fast, etc. With all of these options, the players have a plethora of different ways to play the same game, increasing it's replayibility. As for actions you abort to, I think it's best to handle these as toggles. If nobody attacks you, then you still get to attack. But, if people start attacking you, you won't be able to hit them back, at least not until you turn off the toggle. This is similar to how blocking worked in Savage. You press a button to block but you can't attack while you're doing it. The strategy of turning on your defenses while you absorb the blows and let your allies do the damage would be an interesting and unique situation never done in an FPS before (except the almighty Savage!).

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game My tanker is on Freedumb. I've started a defender on Champion as well. Now, how do I join the Hero Boards channel? It says it's private.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game I'm doing pretty well with groups, but soloing is tough with my horrible damage output. I like areas where I can use taunt, then run behind a corner and pull all the mobs through the maze of teammates. I may have to tryout Champion sometime. My global is "@DJErkenfresh".

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game Yes, it's the same reason I quit Everquest. I was playing up to around level 20 when I suddenly realized "what am I doing?" City of Heroes is of course more fast paced which keeps it a little bit more interesting. Then again, I'm considering trying Eve out again. I was thinking back to how interesting the economy system was on that game. Oops, didn't mean to hijack the thread.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game I started out playing on Freedom. Got a level 14 tanker there now. I'm starting to get bored with the game though. It's extremely repetitive. Does it get better later on? I am having fun making some "cash" at the consignment shop. I can buy candy canes for 6000 then turn around and sell for 15000. I've got over a million influence at level 14 lol. So it sounds like most from these boards are playing on the Champion server? Is that right?

Re: Entangle in Fantasy Hero Wouldn't the warrior have to chop through the net before he could get a good hit on the opponent? Off the top of my head, I don't remember this, but entangles take damage from attacks before the one being entangled right? And then once the net is all shredded, the warrior will have to spend time mending it. What if they get attacked again before he mends it? And shouldn't throwing a heavy unwieldy net require "extra time" and maybe "concentration"? etc etc. There's plenty of realisitc ways you can tone down the power of the entangle in question.

Re: Problem with Missile Deflection Try looking up in 5ER on page 559, meta-rule 5. That in itself goes a long way to supporting missle deflect (though I agree it's not a solid rule and rules are meant to be broken). I mean, I can come up with at least two ridiculous alternatives to MD just off the top of my head: 1. Extra Dimensional Movement, to a dimension where the attack didn't hit me, with the SFX that I blocked it with my shield. 2. Desolid, with the SFX that I blocked it with my shield. etc. Heck, with desolid, you don't even have to roll anything. The attack is guaranteed to miss. Though it does come at a 40 point cost. To me, if you want an SFX to deflect an arrow or laser with your shield, buy Missle Deflect. If you want the SFX that you take a ghostly form and arrows pass harmlessly through you, buy Desolid. If you want the SFX that you can avoid the attack or make it land in a tough spot in your armor, buy DCV. If you're a munchkin, buy EDM.

On page 136 of Tuala Morn, you go into the mechanics of the beneficial geasa. I think it's a really cool idea by the way! Anyhow, take two of the examples: Character can only be killed with a spear ends up being 36 points. Character can only be killed during Dovarr by a man... etc is 31 points. This seems backwards to me. Shouldn't the 2nd geas be worth more points since it's harder to get killed (unless the character just wants to die of course!) So, it seems like the custom limitation "can only be killed by..." should be worth more for broader ways of dying and less for more specific ways of dying.

Anyone out there played some campaigns using Tuala Morn? I just bought it in the online store cause it sounded neat but I ain't got the book yet. Heh.

Re: Military Campaign that morphs into Sci-Fi or even Horror Thanks for the input Ian (isn't that Magneto and Gandalf?). Sure, nuke sounds good to me. But, I'm guessing a ####load of explosives in the middle of it would do the job too. Remember Billy Bob Thornton's discussion about firecrackers from Armageddon? I haven't fully decided on if the players are a special "paranormal" unit or not. I think I'd prefer that they have a secret from both the Marine Corp and each other. The villianous CO may have some way of detecting this in their DNA and gets them all together for this very special mission. Perhaps a DNA scanner. Considering these aliens are all about gene research, it doesn't seem farfetched. Also, don't all military recruits have to submit blood for testing?... I'm not sure what you mean by "turning traitor to his own species?" Are you referring to the aliens or the humans? And, deliberately making a potential foe much tougher? Maybe these aliens actually prefer a fair fight, while simultaneously looking for new genetics. Or perhaps, they're trying to find new technologies that they missed along the way. "Hmm, we never thought of fission, it's 20% more efficient than using dilithium crystals..." Furthermore, the aliens might just be cocky, believing there's no way the humans could defeat them. (Think of the Saiyans from Dragonball Z... if you've ever seen it).

OK, so I've got a neat idea for a campaign. I'm sure things like this have been done before but any input on improvements are welcome. The idea is this. The players are a team of highly trained Marines. But, these Marines have special powers, like incredible strength or mind reading, which they keep secret. They get sent out by their commanding officer to stop a planned terrorist attack to destroy the Great Pyramid of Egypt. The storyline would lead them to the terrorist camp where they of course whoop some butt, but then find evidence that there's more to this attack than the players originally knew. The leader of this attack was some type of archaeologist. In some ruins of Egypt he found evidence of an alien spaceship, but kept the evidence to himself. With some more research, he eventually found out that the Great Pyramid and it's close neighbors were constructed with the help of these aliens as a communications device to their home planet. (There's a lot of research showing how many mathematical and astronomical truths there are surrounding these pyramids, and if I ran this campaign I'd read up on it some, so it lends some credibility to the story (note I don't really believe the pyramids were made by aliens, end note)). Eventually, he encountered one of these aliens, which conferred enough information for him to belive they had bad intentions. He began to believe the only way to save humanity was to destroy one or all of these pyramids. So, back to the party, knowing this, they might pick up the trail to seek out these aliens and when they do, the alien of course dilvulges their entire plan before trying to kill them. The aliens can shapeshift, and have put themselves in prominent positions thoughout human history to encourage wars among us (for example Alexander the Great, Caesar, etc.). The reason for this is that they believe wars bring out the best genes of a species, destroying the weak and promoting the strong. (Truthfully evolution doesn't work this way since the weak guys stay home ). And the aliens want the best genes as part of their genetic experiment to become the ultimately powerful race. Also turns out that the party's commanding officer is an alien, sending them out to get captured for the aliens' experiment. The PC's fight the alien, which could range anywhere from a wimpy humanoid alien up to something truly horrific that the PC's barely beat. (I'm leaning towards the latter). Whether they decide to destroy the alien communication device is up to them of course, but then they might become the world's most wanted criminals. The details: - Characters built on 25+25 or maybe 25+50 and don't pay for equipment. Characteristic maxima is 20. - All character are prebuilt by moi, the GM Players choose which they want to play. I'm doing this to ensure that each player fulfills a specific role towards the story. I might allow players to spend 10-20 of the points (and of course all the XP) on whatever they like to give them some creativity and investment in the character. - Players should try to keep their "special powers" secret unless in dire straits, the big reveal should be an interesting scene. - Campaign would be fairly railroaded with a set ending. In total, it could take about 5-6 hours.

Re: Blowing up your own power armor

Re: Dispelling Fires Just buy like 60d6 of dispel fire with the limit "only up to five times the mundane method being used". Then, you can work it out as each situation comes up.

Re: Build your Super Self I'd definitely want flying, like Nathan's power. First thing I'd do is fly around in public, but disguised in a goofy bright colored costume. Then the world would know supers exist. (Dunno why nobody's showed their powers in public for the last 16 years but now the world knows!)

Re: Fantasy Zero For the "less damage from falling" thing, I'd suggest rPD Armor that works only against falling. You can even wrap it up into a nice talent. Even better, have it require a Breakfall skill roll. I've run two campaigns with 75+75 characters and then one at 25+25. I think I like the characters that came out of the 25+25 scheme much better. And HERO does scale well down to this level. You just have to make sure their opponents are equally powered and not running around with 12d6 energy blasts.

Re: Rebuilding yourself

Re: Rebuilding yourself But if you buy her as a slavishly loyal follower, she'll do anything you ask, and it'll only cost a fraction what it would cost her. Then, under the old rules, she could give her points back to you to spend on a nice house.

Re: Converting Players to HERO I shall throw this M&M in your mother's general direction!

Re: Converting Players to HERO My friends and I played D&D for about three or four years, can't remember. My friend suggested trying a different game, maybe a science fiction based one. I went to the local gaming store and picked it up, 5th Edition Revised. I thumbed through the massive tome, already impressed by the breakdown of characteristics, skills, and powers. Then I went to the beginning and read the intro and it was like an epiphany (I swear there were shafts of light from heaven, yes inside the store even). I then went on a trip for business and took it with me to read. It took a while, but I read every page. Yes, the "barrier to entry" is quite large, but a GM with the will can do it. Unfortunately, to this day, my players still get confused about a lot of things. I'm baffled by this as they are all engineers and computer science majors, but I manager to retrain them for every session. HERO brings such consistency to all possible genres of campaigns. It's easy to see how a Fantasy Hero character brought into modern era would fit in (and not fit in). A Cyberpunk sent back in time to mingle with pirates? No problem, HERO can deal with it. And HERO does it in such a way that seems realistic, even in settings that normally aren't.

Re: Rebuilding yourself 20 STR, 15 CON, 20 INT. Buy off my distinctive features disad. Although wealth is nice, I'd rather earn it myself, so I wouldn't buy it. I'd probably buy a bunch of knowledge skills too. You can't know too much.

Re: Known Spheres, a Spelljammer-inspired campaign Sounds like you're having a good time with it. Try not to burn yourself out though!

Re: D&D Spellbooks as Bases KillerShrike hasn't responded yet. So, here's the link: http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/HighFantasyHERO/FantasyHERO.shtml There's plenty of magic systems available from there. I'm not sure which one is the most D&D'ish. But, you might find something you like better anyway.

Re: Ran my first FH session... some questions I let my players make characters on 75+75. I think it was way too many points. What ends up happening is some characters can be WAY more effective in a fight than others. More points makes it hard to have any sort of balance. As for damage caps, think about what the average person will wear for armor. Let's say most people use leather. Then you need to decide how much DEF this provides. I believe FH lists it as 2-4 DEF, but you can use any number you please. Based on that, think about how much damage you want a weapon to do to someone wearing leather. You can make it anything from barely a scratch (longer fights) to brutal (shorter fights). Once you know that, compare it to the average DEF of armor in your game to figure out how much damage weapons should do. I aim for an average damage roll doing 1-2 BODY to the average armor wearer which tends to draw fights out longer. Good luck. Welcome to Fantasy Hero!

Re: For your "inner Batman" Yay! Now I go down in history as the first man ever to call the gas-powered grapple harpoon "no fun".

Hi Steve, there one revolver in particular that lists the active points as 7 1/2 although it's a 1D6 RKA. (I don't have the book with me now unfortunately). Under notes it says "MICR" but I don't know what that means. I'd guess "Micro" meaning it's a small version of the gun, but I can't find the explanation.