Thia Halmades

Re: An Open Request for Scenario Assistance I lied. I've attached Lee "The Machine" Park for you. He's your melee/heavy lifter/salvager/power loader operator guy. Let me know what you think. If you make any changes, just send 'em back to me so I have an updated & current version.

Re: An Open Request for Scenario Assistance I'll take the co-pilot; go with a comms officer/back up type. I'm assuming I can take down my copy of Alien Wars and use anything in there, yes? But you'll have this after I get back this afternoon, Mike. (i.e., I'm leaving, coming back, when I get back, I'll put something together).

Re: Excalibur? That's pretty much genius right there, I'd never thought of it. I'd also never allow it. But more importantly, I never thought of it. And I submit that's not an AVLD, that's an NND. Because No Normal Defense is gonna help you; it's luck or nothing. You COULD HAVE AVLDs Defense (usually Flash or sum similar). But LUCK? Heh. KYAGB.

Re: The Questions 6th Edition Really Needs To Answer That depends on whether the tongue in question is Armor Piercing or Penetrating. If it's an Advantaged tongue, then most assuredly less than an unadvantaged tongue, or a tongue with limitations. It depends on whether the Angels took shrinking, team work, and/or Extra Dimensional Movement.

Re: Kamarathin II

Re: I had a descussion with Steve about buying some Hero's books... Ew. Purple. Anyway. For one, I went through the same thing, but at the end of the day, the costing is completely different. FREX, as was mentioned, you need to drop ninety in straight cash, homey, just to get the CORE books for d20. And then all of your players need to spend thirty bucks. Now I should mention that all of that information is available, somewhere, in the SRD, but no one wants to navigate that. So really, while it's "free," it's organized in such a fashion as to be useless for anyone not already familiar with the rules. So we go with that. Now. You have the tools to play a d20 fantasy game! Congrats! And it cost you... ninety bucks, to get a limited group of classes, spells, and magic items, and you can only play ONE game. D20 Fantasy, if you will. that's it. The rules don't do anything else, and while you can brow-beat them into compliance, they'll never do it well. So you've dropped ninety bucks for three books (and to be fair, the Monster Manual really IS the best one online because it's all there in the same freaking format) and one game. HERO -- for fifty bucks -- gives you one system for as many games as you can think to play. Don't just think in terms of "I spent fifty bucks and all I got was this bullet-proof book." You spent fifty bucks and got your hands on a text that basically walks you through everything you need to simulate genre fiction and dramatic realism. On any level. Fantasy? I'm doing it. Gritty action-adventure? Done it. Pulps? Seen it done. And of course, Supers. Does it. We can all argue all day long on our OPINIONS of what it does well or not, but at the end of the day, if I try hard enough, I can turn HERO into Vampire without really batting an eyelash. Just convert my skill rolls on my stats to dice (Stat/4 oughta do it) and then each "level" of a skill I purchase counts as one die, and count the Normal Damage BODY. BOOM, DONE. It's like that. Is it expensive? Yes. Is it worth it? Um, "hell yes" I believe is what I'm searching for here. And if you need additional books, you can get 'em, and they cost, because they don't get rendered obsolete by the system itself. I suggest: Ultimate Skill HERO System Combat Handbook Champions (for you, Dark Champions for me) And... there's a package with a GM screen that's darn handy, and the Ultimate Martial Artist if you're into that sort of thing (I am). Anyway. Welcome to the boards.

Re: Alternate Universe: No Industry, No Guns

Re: "Never Miss" powers And AOE (Radius) and Accurate would be +1 1/2. Poof. Additionally, there's Comic's Change Environment construction which also enables someone to "always hit" by dealing damage in the AOE zone provided by CE.

Re: "Never Miss" powers That. Or we simply have the game represented version of Chuck Norris punching himself in the face; an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.

Re: Chocolate Orc I think I repped the Palindromedary too recently, but this is twelve kinds of flipping brilliant. Genius, my two-sided yet queerly identical regardless of which way I look at you friend. Genius.

Re: Fantasy Hero - Basic Questions

Re: "Never Miss" powers Also, don't forget, a large enough AOE (Say, Radius, Accurate) and the odds of you missing, even IF they DFC, is about zero.

Re: Pokemon: Gotta Build 'em All There are two thoughts here, I'll address the obvious one first: I do think you're right, and that like a sort of whacked out Summoning VPP, a Trainer can "slot" 6 Pokemon at once, and then call out any one of those six (Wobuffet! I choose you!) and recall it (Wobuffet! That's enough! Return!) as a free action. The payment then comes not from Pokemon CAPTURED, which is limitless, but of Pokemon CARRIED and summonable. This makes a LOT of sense. PIA to implement, but it also removes some of the painful "I can't Pikachu even though I caught it." You don't have to pay for it! It's captured. You DO have to have enough points to carry his Pokeball and call him forward. That'd work. Badges! Barely thought about it yet. Again, you make a strong argument that badges (and there would be no less than 17 and probably way more) should render specific effects, even if when some of the initial Pokemon are built, we can see what the point ranges look like. I'm not concerned about building Trainers until we've seen what they'd need to be successful and settled on some mechanics. I do think I would marry myself to the idea of "only enough points to support the party." That's very nice, good point. Basically you've hit on precisely what I was thinking of already; a Pokeball transfers a Pokemon from this dimension into a Single Dimension: Pokeball. Bigger, badder Pokeballs have different effects and strengths as they go up, based around limitations and bonuses (i.e., a standard Pokeball allows for a Trainer Roll resisted by a BODY roll on the Pokemon, or an EGO roll, or whatever; a Dusk Ball gives the Pokemon a penalty if its Ghost or Dark, and so on). The biggest one, the Master Ball, simply has no limitations; it's a straight up XDM, UAA. Poof, you're in the ball. have a nice day.

Re: Why are so many people upset that Cryptic is only using the Champions IP? Call it a giant moment of 'meh' for me, but I don't see a need for "t3h mechanics" to be included. I would like to see a very wide open level of customization, sure, but the HERO system is not intuitive. As I've said on many occasions, what I really want is a streamlined GUI (to stop scaring n00bz) and a complete toolkit beneath it, so I can crack open the casing on any object and redesign it, no muss, no fuss. I don't really give a hoot if COMMO uses the "HERO System" -- I don't anticipate using HERO Designer to dev my character. I really don't. I would like to see some of the terminology kept for flavor, but I have no illusions that the game itself will run on its own engine. So... I suppose that isn't what you're looking for, but I'd like to sit down with the game and have a feeling of familiarity. But I don't want to play HERO: The MMORPG. Bleh.

Re: Foxbat? Why am I not surprised... How about "delirious?"

Re: Excalibur? I know of no such reference, and after some Googling/Wiking, found no such reference. Possibly in the Tennyson poem? But not in the original work. Steve Long might now, though, having done Tuala Morn.

Re: Champions AND Dark Champions

Re: Fantasy Hero - Basic Questions Oh, I'm aware of that NOW oh My Bespectacled, Ice Cream Issuing Overlord, however, I submit that I was completely misled by the text in this case. The line (to me) chosen & defined at the time of purchase just tail spun me for some reason. However, I'm happy to be wrong, as that's just one more thing I'll be right about tomorrow. Discretely flicks Pistachios at Steve What? Someone's throwin' stuff...

Re: Excalibur? Film, meh. By canon, don't matter, unless I'm seriously misremembering my Morte D'Arthur, but then, there's two of the damn things in that book anyway. *shrug* It's fine. It's RIDICULOUS, but it's fine.

Re: Fantasy Hero - Basic Questions I would have never, in a million years under a million suns, interpreted that rule like that. Wow. And I've read (and re-read) that text SEVERAL times and EVERY time I've come away with the EXACT SAME INTERPRETATION. Thanks. My players will be quite happy with this! But yeah. That one caught me totally off guard.

Re: Druidic Magic 3.5 Conversion to HERO A funny thing happened on the way to the Barghest: So the Druid casts Call Lightning but blows his RSR. Pity. Meanwhile, the Arm Follower of the party face decides to save his host by casting Scorching Ray (2d6+1 AF 2). Makes his skill roll. Makes an attack roll, by a wide enough margin to land both hits. Makes two hit location rolls (Chest, Shoulder, both 1xBODY and 3xSTUN). Drops Box Cars for the first round (13 BODY) and 9 for the second (10 BODY). And the stench of Fresh Roasted Barghest filled the room. Awesome, awesome sight to see.

Re: Fantasy Hero - Basic Questions The Ultimate Skill, p.112: "Combat Skill Levels costing 3 Character Points apiece can grant a character +1 OCV or +1 DCV or increase damage with one of the following, chosen and defined when the character buys the CSL." In other words; it does not float. It is selected and set when you get it. I should have amended the post to "OCV, DCV or DC," so if that's what you meant, then yes, I'm off base slightly.

Re: Fantasy Hero - Basic Questions BLEH, can't get past your formatting. SO. 1. No, you were doing it right. A 3 point CSL must be dedicated at the time of purchase to OCV or DCV. 2. Second, a +1 DCV (vs. everything; it's just +1 DCV) is set in place, and can't be changed, which is the point. A five point CSL is either for Ranged, OR Hand to Hand, not both. +1 DCV (5 points) affects everything. It makes you plain old harder to hit. In Hero Designer, if you scroll down, you'll see "with DCV" somewhere in there. That's what you're looking for. 2. Unless it's purchased as an Ultra in a slot, absolutely. He does not need to expend the full effect, anymore than Superman needs all 45 STR to pick up a cup of coffee. Consider this: in the rules, a Multipower Slot is more restricted when it's Ultra (1/10th cost) rather than Variable (1/5th cost) because more restricted things are cheaper. Hence, with no restriction, that's the Maximum effect he can generate.

Okay. I lied. New thread! Since I've pretty much begun this project, I'm going to post what I'm doing here, and give my layout on "general design & philosophy" so everyone gets the gist of how I'm converting things. So let me lay out the basics for you: Right now I'm working on POWERS, because that's where just about everything in Pokemon that makes it "cool" stems from, but there are five basic categories that need to be covered: * Trainers, how they grow, develop, and get better. Does the strength of the Trainer determine the most Powerful Pokemon you can summon? Should a low point trainer be able to call forward, say, Charizard? I don't know, I'm thinking about that now. Lots of things I haven't really had to think about with it yet, as the project is fledgling. * Powers. Powers are all being built using the alternate rules from UEP, because it's the best way to, by canon, delineate among powers & abilities. Also, it means that Fire based attacks get their limitation, and so on. This is POKEMON, so it's squarely "super heroic" in style. Knockback and such will be in effect, and should be, but that's later down the line. Additionally, powers cover Status Effects and such, which I have yet to find a build for that is either "in canon" or simply "acceptable" to me. * Pokemon. Pokemon are being built as characters, with their evolutions being built as "templates." In other words, you start with, say, Pidgey. Great. You've got Pidgey (who'll be a rough translation from the video-game canon edition into HERO mechanics). You work with Pidgey and gain it the XP needed to learn new powers for its MP, improve its stats, give it new skills, whatever. At some point, you'll have "saved" enough CP for Pidgey that it can Evolve. That's right. The user (the trainer) pays for the Evolution via CP earned by the Pokemon in combat, and (quite possibly) the Trainer's OWN CP can be "donated" from a shared XP pool (in other words, you and your party are all gaining XP together, but I haven't settled on that yet). This means that the user will always be choosing between saving XP to get all the goodies tied into an Evolution, or trying to build up the Pokemon as is. What applying the Template (or I should say in HERO, "Package Deal") does is it ensures that whatever was already done in terms of leveling sticks, and then any new powers are automatically applied at the time of level up. I don't see another clean, "honest" way to do it. * Items. This isn't a big deal to me; someone somewhere will build them, but it isn't terribly critical at the moment. This is an attachment to the foundation of the project, not the project itself. * Capture/Pool Mechanics. Pokemon are likely built as Followers, and as the Trainer gets better, they spend XP to grow their pool and their most powerful Pokemon. This is unfortunately very limiting, simply because powerful POKEMON get... well. Dialga. Nuff said. So that's on the list of things that needs worked out for the whole thing to work (unless someone suggests people get Pokemon "for free" and then that'll start a whole nother series of problems...) Okay. So you have the gist of where I'm going and what I'm doing, and I'll throw in some more nitty gritty detail: Powers are being built straight off of the video-game canon version, and that includes Charges. I know, I know; most people would rather see it built on END, which I've strongly considered, believe it. However, for now, I'm doing a literal translation. I can easily "unclick" charges later on. Additionally, I want to see Pokemon built with Multipower Pools, although an argument can be made for ECs and VPPs. Once a power is in effect, though, it tends to stay in effect, although things like Barrier will, if I understand correctly, stop functioning if switched away from even if built on Continuing Charges. So the correct design is something I'm struggling with. Beyond that, there's also the issue of how powers are slotted; technically, by video-game canon (again) a Pokemon can only "know" four powers at once. I'm leaning much more towards having a custom-designed Power Pool (possibly a VPP Variant) wherein one can slot in powers at any PokemonCenter, so keeping "four active" so things stay tactical, but leaving the rest "learned" to avoid confusion. I'm open to any thoughts on that. So the project is huge, daunting, and not nearly as cute'n'cuddly as one would think, but I'm starting on it and taking any and all help.

Re: Pokemon HERO Well, this'll vary but that isn't "how I would do it," as it were, as I'm working on powers now. I was going to draft a new thread and then said "2 h3llz w1d it" and figure I'd just use this one. SO. Really Big Question, "How the Hell does a Pokeball work?" WELL. My concept was actually (don't hate me, kids) an Extra Dimensional Movement that is directly resisted by a BODY roll. This means I can build Pokemon with Extra BODY, "Only to Resist Capture." For the big palukas this'll come in handy. However, the whole thing needs to be set up properly. "Can only Capture conscious Pokemon," and such needs to be on there. Also, Status Effects should apply penalties to the Skill Roll to resist, and SOME kind of "capture" mechanic (Your Skill, "Capture," plus any Skill Levels the Ball imparts, vs. the Body Roll plus any resistance a Pokemon may have). The whole idea being that smaller, weaker, "low level" Pokes are easy to capture (Furret, Whismur, etc.) while more powerful ones are innately harder. So the system needs to reflect that. Additionally, the system is built around "KO" and not "BODY" damage, so I'm still fiddling with the exact mechanics. But I haven't settled on anything I like yet.