Thia Halmades

Re: Chronicles of Gor It's like India Ink, dude. That **** don't come out.

Re: Complicate the Person Above Bazza once bit the head off a live bat on stage, and is now a fugitive from PETA. They have guns. Lots of guns.

Re: Help needed designing a magical store catalogue What book is Computer Link in, I didn't see it in FREd, and is a large part of why it didn't even cross my mind. Because I either missed it, or don't have the source material. Is it a Dark Champions/Star Hero option? Or am I digging in the wrong place?

Re: Gyren Dark Magic, as reflexive effects Thanks, Mark!

Re: Magic system opinions Which is why he's so apprecaited, and well and consistently referenced, even among my own group as a launch pad for how we get it done. Cause he done got it done.

Re: Chronicles of Gor O. M. G. I hate you for this. Seriously. Repped. ...

Re: Magic system opinions Sorry, mea culpa, when I say "DC" I usually still mean Difficulty Check, not Damage Class, which is rough for people who are using HERO, because I just borked their flow of the passage. Oops. Okay, so I have the gist of it then; when going to cast a spell while under duress (which I'm already using) then any additional lims (things that limit the spell, but are not 'time' based) make the spell easier to cast. I can get behind that. I'd read it backwards originally, and that really wasn't making sense. Thanks!

Re: Complicate the Person Above Cancer's recent 'encounter' with Geraldine would put Gone with the Wind to shame for sheer drama; after a heart-racing blaster duel, their meeting progressed into hand to hand combat... and then the guards arrived. One kiss and under a hail of poorly aimed, Storm-Trooper quality laser fire, our hero is racing through the catacombs of the Orbital Station to return to his ship, calling on his trusty crew for aid, when suddenly...

Re: Magic system opinions That was the one I was referring too in my post. I just don't use the Talents for it, but that's because of how I'm handling it IMC. mudpyr8 - you're saying (if I understand correctly) that for every modifier beyond the base set (I use a charge system and a variable -1 pool (-1/2)) so that anything beyond that base -1 forces a skill roll, and that the roll is affected by those things which alter the composition of the spell against the player. So a +2 to an 11- DC would be a roll of 13-, yes? That may be too brutal, but 1/2 may not be enough. Hrm. That might work, and it would certainly give players food for thought before casting, but I also think it may be 'too' different from d20 (and there's a look & feel of reliability I don't want to sacrifice). This is an awesome suggestion, and one which will likely make its way into my Urban Fantasy. Thanks!

Re: Magic system opinions Good morning, mudpyr8! You said this: And I'm pretty certain I don't understand what you're saying. Can you give a clearer example? I am, in fact, using the RSR under duress (1/4! Hadn't thought of that, thanks!) but I'm at a loss as to how you're handling the rest of your example. Can you clarify? Thanks!

Re: Another SPD thread Seems to me that Sean really hit on something here. To hearken back to my 1st Ed. D&D roots, there were two factors in determining initiative; what you rolled, and the speed of your weapon (based on weight & manueverability). It didn't have a hard & fast mechanic, but the concept was a knife fighter would be able to attack faster than a gent with a 2H Greatsword. Simple nuff. I think if you base everyone's speed on three you're doing an injustice to the system and the people who've bought that stat up; mind you, I don't have the full breadth of the experience these other folk do in terms of when to HR something, but the first question is always "Will this enhance the gameplay?" There's already STR minima rules on weapons for swinging purposes and the ability to stack damage. I think if you also apply DEX caps/requirements on them you're over using the DEX stat a bit, and it's already heavily involved in everything in the game as is. You'll also lean towards everyone building up their stats more than usual to take full advantage of a possible 'free attack.' Insofar as getting the feel of weapon speeds down. *chews lip a moment* I guess I just don't see DEX as being a definitive factor here, but that's also because I've been vested in d20 for so long that there's an ongoing struggle at times to unlock certain assumptions in my head of how things should work. If anything, I would possibly consider slowing people down based on STR - we know it reduces damage, you could also roll it in to reduce speed (not only can you not heft that blade, now you're having trouble actually moving it.) Some thoughts.

Re: Martial Arts versus Powers PDF doesn't do me any good without a PC in my house. I need a nice, normal hard copy of the b3wk.

Re: Complicate the Person Above Death Tribble was there, standing in the center of Trafalgar Square, wondering why he couldn't see the whole of London when the Antichrist swept through on his bicycle. - Gratuitously borrowed from Good Omens.

Re: Magic system opinions I did. Easy to miss, but I did. I don't use the END Reserve, although I like it as a basic idea, Elemental Controls were my solution for Sorcery in my campaign; it makes sense, you 'gain power' as a Sorceror, the whole shebang. It's a great build, and as Killer Shrike said, it's one of the few that increases in value over time. The VPP is pretty easy once you wrap your brain around the general concept of it; using it for Wizards has proven entirely suitable. I had a Sorceror use an MP as I mentioned, and that got ugly fast. However, Markdoc made a point on another thread, which is that it is important to charge folk for the spells they take, to avoid them picking a single ub3r sp3ll and hosing the deck with it. I also think I'm going to have to impose a limit on the max points in a given spell, but I don't know where it is yet. Hrm. Good morning!

Re: Chronicles of Gor I'm with McCoy on this. I need a drink. You know... they did spend an awful lot of time in that tent... Now that I've destroyed another child hood memory...

Re: Gyren Dark Magic, as reflexive effects Good point, Mark, and that's exactly why I went with the framework construction. I hadn't actually considered that as a possibility. Out of curiosity, if you've seen Teen Titans, how would you build Beast Boy? The others are pretty easy; Starfire is using a Multipower/EC type build (Star Power), Raven is using a VPP with limited effects (it includes Force Fields, EBs, TP, Flight, Shape Shifting - she's a magic user who built a set of standard effects, but has been known to go outside of those on occassion). Robin is a Martial Artist with a gadget VPP like his trainer, and Cyborg is another gold-standard MP (Cybernetics) with a bunch of skills (the balance character). Those are my guesses. Within that is Beast Boy, if you haven't seen the show, he's a mutant who's always green, in any form he takes. He's limited to "Any animal he's encountered," so if he ever met an honest-to-goodness dragon, it's reasonable he could shift into it. He had a radiation accident in season 3 which gave him access to a high-combat Werewolf/Crinos form, and when visiting other planets he can shift into their forms as well. Would you build it as a single power? As a VPP with strict lims? I haven't been able to pin it down. I'm assuming it's built as a VPP via Multiform. Help?

Re: Martial Arts versus Powers Sorry, someone said UMA (5th) is out of print - does any one know why? Is it just 'out of its current run' or is it flat out of print? That's an important question, because I don't want to pick it up if it isn't going to do me any good. That being said. Good morning. I think I understand that the current state of the discussion is that an Advantaged HA using MArts rules can go beyond the doubling rule, yeah? That you can exceed the base damage of your attack? My primary question would be, what's the base? If STR is the base, then there's an extent to which this makes sense, because if you're using NCM than you'll never have more than 8d6 HA or a 2d6 & 1/2d6 HKA. Yucky. However, I agree with Markdoc that the whole thing is much more easily solvable buying it as powers (whether in or out of a framework) because in a sense, especially in a Wuxia campaign, that's what they are. See Jade Empire for a decent example of this 'in action.' If you haven't played Jade Empire, rent it, because the system is flawed and there are a couple of game-breaking combos in there that once you have them, it's almost impossible to not use them. Kind of frustrating, because I was hoping it would be more challenging. Where was I? Oh yes. I just built a 250 MArtist based on Street Fighter because those are my roots; I purchased his Ch'i as an EC, and built in some standard moves as special effects (An HA with Autofire that acted as his "spinning kick" - for those who've played Street Fighter, this is a standard Ryu/Ken/Chun-Li manuever), a 4d6 RKA for his Shinjin Hadoken and a 12d6 Autofire 2" Hex Radius HA for his Shinjin Hadoiken-Drugan (sp). Worked out nicely. Also had a nice straight 8d6 Hand Attack, but hadn't figured out how to build his Shoryuken in a way that I liked yet. A little super leap, a little Ch'i healing, he was ready to rock. And built the whole mess in NCM. With that build, how do y'all think that UMA or Steve would've interpreted the construction? Valid? Invalid? Good? What would you guys do for the Dragon Punch?

Re: Chronicles of Gor I read Narnia through multiple times; it amazes me how the book was so subtle in its allegory (I was young, I missed it) and the film was so blatant, all without making any effort whatsoever. True story. I did ask. Like a dumbass. Faerie Tale is still a good book, and you don't hear a lot of people calling Morte D'Arthur cliched, now do you? And as I said, the bulk of my fantasy were Grimm fairy tales. Speaking of which, did anyone see the film Brother's Grimm? Did it suck utterly?

Re: Chronicles of Gor See, those were the fantasy books that I loved - truly loved - although I'm not about to contest that it was pulp, at best. That's the joy of having read it in my teens and letting those memories stay with me. I never actually concerned myself with how many cliches Martin Longbow swam in, or his generally cliched personality. What I actually found interesting was the 'other' world because the concept hadn't occured to me up until that point, to do a world that had no metal, super strong ceramics, yadda yadda. Agreed, court politics made for some great opening plot and those characters were involved throughout the bulk of the plot. The one that made me twitch was that the "big bad army leader" with his Golden Eagle on black and the Noble Honest Duke had their falling out over a woman, and it carried into blah blah blah... *sigh* See? I was much happier with my memories, rather than trying to guage it against my current ability to story tell. Thanks for ruining a perfectly good childhood memory, CHUCK. I'm leaving you very negative feedback. Hmph.

Re: Chronicles of Gor *stares at the empty wrapper, a forgotten remnant of his now destroyed roast beef sammich... and wonders if he's still hungry* But - what do you think of Feist's Riftwar Saga?

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Catgirls... are they anything like Showgirls?

Re: A Game Of Questions Would he find dental work appropriately distressing?

Re: Chronicles of Gor Oh, hey, all the better. I was always under the impression it was Lovecraft. Meh, that's the ravages of time for you, and thanks for the clarification!

Re: Complicate the Person Above Enforcer84 always finds a way to make me smile, despite never having met him and being on a keyboard. Never fails. This is because he uses complex phermones which he's managed to transfer via internet connection and will soon be selling on the black market for ABC/Disney/AOL/Your Cousin Bob (a new gaming company). Watch for it. look - a twofer - a compliment AND a complication all in one! ~DEM

Re: Gyren Dark Magic, as reflexive effects *nods* Thanks for the compliment - it's always appreciated. I think that this alone is probably a good foundation for any number of campaigns, or one massive module (The Trip up the Dark Tower, and other appropriately worded phrases of doom) and then, once inside, create the "world" of the tower as the PCs struggle to unravel its secrets and Save The World .