Thia Halmades

Re: Dagger, Obviously Missing something here. No lockout, that's likely just "what it is." You can always try adding +1 OCV as a Compound Power, and see if that doesn't raise the value -- a few weapons have those but they aren't super common.

Re: Persona: The Fighting/RPG I lied. Of course, I spent more time watching Supernatural than I should, but that's separate. I'm real curious what a field test of this is going to look like when all is said and done. I added the Magma chain just for effect as it came up from a Persona 2: Innocent Sin character. They should really build faster than I've been doing it, but I'm also considering each one carefully. What skills do I want "Pixie" to have? What about Air Getlam? What skills do you give a persona of the Faerie King? The texts and wiki don't always tell me everything I need to know. Conversely, I want them to be supportive without flipping it around and making the player a talking dummy that wears masks.

Re: Your "2013" Pet Gaming Projects Also, take note, Persona HERO is already coming along really well, coming together quickly given the discipline I'm bending to get it done. There's a lot of slogging doing single Personas but it's worth it.

Re: Persona: The Fighting/RPG So I've developed something akin to a ... business briefing document to break down what i'm doing for my players and give them an idea of what's what within the setting, for their Personas and Social Links. I want them to have an idea of what the people they meet will be like who are Major Arcana (which as I'm certain most of you can noodle through is only, maybe, 44 some characters as I see no need to have 7 NPCs all represent Death (XIII). I did some slogging, digging and organizing, and I've boiled it down to 10 Persona per S-Link, for a nice straight walk up the ladder. The World was the hardest, that took some fiddling. There are a lot of powers that have come and gone in the history of the setting, so settling on "3, 4 and Arena" was probably the best move I made to date. It keeps things relatively consistent and let me do more with the powers and keep it open without really hamstringing myself or the options of the players. I did make the mistake of building out one of the major NPC Personae, Hermes. Oops. That didn't come out right. Well, it did, but where most Persona have 4-8 powers, this one had nearly 15, and I didn't put it together til after (I was well into being cross-eyed and pointing and clicking for the sake of it at that point). After that, I did my first "real" Persona, Nekomata, and she came out really well, Two starting powers, 3 locked powers, and skill enhancers. Those can be bought up independently for cheaper than you could buy them for your PC, because for every one point a PC gets, a Persona gets 5. Lastly, I'm uncertain if I should do "giant MPs" or just have people buy skills at a set ratio. Frex, all "Level 1" skills cost n. XP, all Level 2 cost n1+n2 XP and so on, or if I should just let HERO do its thing and make sure I give out sufficient XP to cover it all. The "obvious" answer is an MP, but they already have 3 categories of skills (Active, Passive, Resistances). I'll have to give that piece more thought. But, it's coming along really well, there's not much left before I can start putting the document into my player's hands.

Re: 6E 1 out of print? So wait. They condensed 6E1 & 6E2 into a single volume?

Re: Splinter Cell's "Mark and Execute" ability? Wow. Elegant. Almost too easy, in fact, but elegant and it would get the job done.

Re: Horror Hero Resources Oh, and if you can find it, the Ravenloft 3.0/3.5 material. http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/wiki/Main_Page http://ravenloft.wikia.com/wiki/Ravenloft_Wiki

Re: Looking For Input On Potential New Fantasy Product Nope. They all have multiple books, because they all have the rules in 'em. and a cornucopia of spells. Spells take up a LOT of space. The original book that Old Man linked too might have had it all, but even in the box I remember multiple texts. My memory may be faulty, however.

Re: Looking For Input On Potential New Fantasy Product Having not read all of the responses (y'all know that I rarely, if ever, do) I apologize in advance for toe-stepping, but I want to reiterate what KS said in the first post here: If you want to sell Fantasy, you need to make a companion text to HERO 6E that carries the right look and feel, is simple enough that it doesn't make newbies reach for a new pair of shorts, and deep enough that it offers replay value and acts as a solid gateway to the fantasy genre. For me? I'd repub Fantasy HERO 6th. That's me. So let's assume it isn't about me, and talk about you. What do you think about me? Wait. Don't answer that. So let's pull from a couple of texts; the... Slayer's Fanbook and my personal favorite, the Dragon Age: Origins Collector's Edition. Why the DA:O text? Because it's a book about how to play a game you already own, about walking you through an experience you're trying to have. This is where HERO has a chance to differentiate itself. We all know that the core texts are complex and hard to get your head around, so why not streamline the whole thing? What is a Fantasy experience? Race. Class. Alignment, if you're so inclined. Stat assessment, gear, monsters, dungeons, and women in refrigerators for flavor. To wit: * Races. Aelves. Dwarves. Gnomes. And people with furry feet who are vertically challenged (but don't forget, Hobbit is always capitalized and owned by someone else!) * Classes. Class packages, introduction to Fighter, Rogue, Healer, Wizard. Do a spread. Give fighter some space. Talk about super skills, WFs, all that. * Martial Arts. We can do this. We have the text space. You don't need all the MAs, not even 1/100th. But a classic "thug" style, a "Trained Knight" style, and a Duelist/Assassin style for the Rogue would be great, and give a strong lift. * Healer. How do you heal? Resurrect? Turn undead? Make some undead? * Mage. Mage... you know. Mage. Pick a magic system or two. A gear list, and a "magic" gear list, again, to whet the appetite. Finally, some basic monsters, an orc, goblin, dire wolf, a dragon or faerie or two, and you're off and running. Also, when building spells, I strongly recommend not including the whole build, just a text block. Damage, Range, Advantages, real cost, etc. In other words, I'm advocating selling everything "pre built." "Don't wanna learn HERO? You don't have too! Here's how to just play the game. Enjoy!" I think a line of "gateway" products would help make some headway and, fantasy is always popular. My... that was at least a quarter. We'll call it $0.32 with inflation and the fiscal cliff adjustment.

Re: Persona: The Fighting/RPG Now the real work begins. I've built out the basic powers, I have an FAQ for going to the Velvet Room to see Igor and Margaret (she is far hotter than Elizabeth) and combining Personas, all of that is in place. That's all "step one." I know how they blend (roughly) and I'm still making my way through the Persona Wikia. I'm working on a concept for this edition's Rise/Girl from P3 who operated as the monitor on the outside. I know that certain cards tend towards different story arcs. Good, all good. But this is HERO, and this is a table top RPG, it has to go beyond "just" being a videogame conversion. Comparatively, HERO: Combat Evolved was easy. That's just a pile of alien profiles and equipment builds, then you build a story and equip your team. Here, things are a lot more complex, because of the combination of pre-set powers, social elements, fighting styles, and group interaction. So, to better represent each Social Link, I wanted an "in-game benefit" that carries forward, similar to leveling up. I have two core ideas: Idea 1: Granting Bonuses based on S-Link Level. Let's take The Lovers (VI) as an example. At Level 2 of the S-Link, you gain +1 to all Seduction rolls -- if you don't have Seduction, this doesn't do you much good, and instead your get Seduction as an Everyman skills. At level 5, you get +2 to all rolls, or, Seduction as a Proficiency. Level 8, then, grants +3 or Seduction as a Skill. And so on. This helps keep the S-Links relevant outside of just a combat based structure of the Persona. Idea 2: Improving the Persona so they remain relevant outside of combat. In Persona, you only get the Passive effects while wandering around in dungeons -- because no one needs constant healing when they aren't fighting. But we know that we can't segregate combat to "just" the Second Realm, that's ... kind of stupid, and sets up a false sense of reality that's too easily broken, and, is just a little dull. To that end: Persona Passive abilities become "always on," in either First Realm or Second Realm. Second, and building on Idea 1, I am strongly considering adding specific, Persona-relevant improvements to each one. So equipping Apsaras makes you more attractive (Suddenly, everyone behaves as though you have Striking Features). Equipping Mitama dramatically improves your lifting capacity, equipping Orpheus means you can actually play a string instrument if you are so inclined, and gain Perfect Pitch, and so on. I want them to be minor, a few on the fun side, but meaningful. This can also help players fill in weird gaps that they might not have otherwise gotten into their characters. Not sneaky enough, but you need to break into a corporate security building? No problem! Equip Nekomata and you're off and running. Now, can it replace a character who has all the skills and synergies to be the party thief? Of course not, and it isn't meant too. What it can do, and what my intent is, is to allow people who might not have skill X to still be able to move with the group because they made strong Persona choices. So those are some of the ideas I'm having to help push this out of a pure, simple conversion and into a bona fide HERO campaign, with depth and development. Thoughts?

Re: Persona: The Fighting/RPG Good morning! So there's a couple of ways to think about what I'm doing here. You raise a valid point: "If there's a mechanic to do this, why not enforce it?" Well, I'll tell you! "STOP! STOP WITH THE SINGING!" ...right. Your answer is: Let's assume for the moment that as you rightly noted, the focus is on the individual development of the character and any given Persona, and equally assume that XP and new personae will be doled out comparatively slowly, by which I mean, saving all your XP so you can build up Messiah or some other ungodly powerful Persona that you're highly unlikely to have for a couple of years means that you've hamstringed the team in the interim. Second assumption: Everyone summons. Then it becomes less about differentiating "power levels," so to speak, and more about differentiating team members, tarot choices, and the like. My third assumption: I'm already having everyone spend points building up their Social Links through the Contacts function, and of course, spending XP to improve the Persona itself. With all that, ultimately, building a Summon power, while certainly "correct," wouldn't really have the correct flavor. You'd be attempting to Summon constantly, when in fact, your Persona should be "equipped" all the time, in the character sheet slot marked "Persona." Someone a while back said "It's a focus." I poo-pooed the idea, because a Persona is not a Focus, by which I took literally, "it isn't bought that way." However, the idea is sound. It's always equipped, it can be changed, it can be improved, and so on. So, as though they are equipment, no one is charged for the Persona itself. There are a couple of things I've expanded on (next post) that I'm also excited about, and giving other various considerations too (although I'm unlikely to go to the full extreme I considered, the mechanic is cool conceptually).

Re: "Shock," a Status Effect AHA! But that's so... obvious. I will find a functional backlash that will work. Thanks my ninja!

Re: "Shock," a Status Effect I'm talking about the character having to push through the pain/struggle through the effect to move. I have lots of different status effects, and "Entangle" is an obvious choice, but I'm having trouble getting that to materialize in a construct I can show to other people. It's a rare case of "I know exactly what I mean, but can't write it in HERO."

I need this power to have two results: The classic "Gzzzzt!" of being electrocuted, and, the part I'm stuck on: If you move (take a step, run, attack, use an item) the "shock" kicks in, or possibly, has a chance to kick in -- it could be overcome with a ... CON check? I'm open to thoughts here. I'm not sure how to achieve the end result without making it so complex even my eyes might bleed.

Re: Persona: The Fighting/RPG I'm now moving onto "Phase 2" of design, where I'm beginning the re-write of every effect into a more "Heroic" vision. Frex, I don't just want all AoEs. That's boring. I want fire to have AOE: Line, and a "Fireball" style attack. I want people to look at the spells and not have them be cookie cutter, but to really pop, and to push the desire to get access to different abilities. I've rolled in the Shock status effect and other such pieces. I'm starting to strongly think about how I want Personas to behave. Right now (I may have posted this but I'm not going back to look) where we are looks like this: Personas are "equipment," but not foci, by which I mean, they are not paid for by the players (although they will pay experience to improve the Persona, the Persona itself is free, along with its base skills). Personae are tied to their Tarot, and each player selects one Tarot (and the person tied to it) at character creation. This is really important, because as they develop their Social Links, and complete missions, quests, what have you, they will want to spend time in the velvet room, fight shadows, and improve their personae in general. Only by building Social Links (including their base link) can they earn the right to equip new, more powerful Personae. Third, as I stated in the mission statement, this system is going to avoid "Frankensona" at all costs; I realize that this is still a head twister to people who are so ingrained in HERO that they speak the language and in turn feel that all players should be free to build what they want, given a few rough guidelines. This game is more focused on creating an experience for my group, and letting them focus on creating memorable characters, rather than trying to give them all the rules, lists, concepts, and mechanics to create a Persona. They'll have a rough enough time picking a Tarot, a Martial Art, a college major, building a story and then seeing it integrated.

Re: Your "2013" Pet Gaming Projects Persona HERO. You can find it in the Other Hero/Genre group. I'm about to post there now, in fact.

Re: 1000 Star HERO Weapons Eh, you can borrow whatever you like from HERO: Combat Evolved.

Re: Splinter Cell's "Mark and Execute" ability? An interesting puzzle! Let's see what I can come up with off the cuff here: Caveat Emptor: I'm less concerned when I model something about how many dice I had to use or what twist I had to put on the mechanics, and more concerned with capturing the look & feel of the mechanic in question. With that being said, I see this: Step 1: Mark Target. This is actually Cover, to my way of thinking, just taken to a whole new level. IOW, you're making a to-hit roll in advance. Which raises the next question, as E84 brought up, how do I hit multiple targets at once? Step 2: Hitting Multiple Covered Targets at Once! This is probably best done as an NPL Auto-Fire, "Only for Marked Targets," (-1/2). Step 3: Murder. Sam greases a bunch of dudes, which is best done as a Triggered RKA, Set Trigger: Hit Marked Target. You can add dice to flavor, but he should be able to, if not kill, STUN-out most non-armored, unaware opponents. By itself, Cover isn't a "power," it's just an attack roll made in Advance, so that's probably the hardest part of all of this to model, because there isn't an existing power I can map this too easily. My first thought, as "out there" as it might be, is a super-limited Summon. You Mark a target with cover, and Sam creates another "Sam" who is always with him, and never leaves, who is him, and who has one job: to pull the trigger (you could do it as Duplication as well). Another variant is to build Sam with a "firearms skill" of 4d6 Killing, OIF, "Firearm of Opportunity," thus allowing you to buy Delayed Effect and Autofire. Of all the ways I can do it, the last is probably what I'd go with. Buy Sam so you own the damage dealing element, then add a Trigger for additional damage to Marked Targets, with Marking being an OCV attack, usually at 1/2 DCV because most people are unaware of his presence. Lemme know if that works.

Re: Parry. A third defense option. Right, which is what I said just in fancier, palindromedarily approved linguistical patternalia. He talks purdy.

Re: Parry. A third defense option. Grailknight: Actually, they do. Block, by nature, is OCV vs OCV. If successful, then the AP/Pen functionality of the attack is waived, they have no effect. Penentrating only comes into play when an attack would otherwise be defended against, rather than defeated through a defense maneuver. I'll give Christougher this, he has designed a mechanic that is no more or less functionally viable than Block or Dodge, but relies very heavily on luck. I hear what you're saying, and I agree in premise: in all other cases, there's some of kind of existing mechanic/active defense. Here, you are "taking the damage" but ignoring the Advantages. My disagreement, however, is that this is still a Abort Defense, and as such, has the same benefits as all other Abort Defenses. That's not my underlying issue, though. How do I put this? If I'm fighting a mook on a bell curve, I have a really good idea of what's going to happen when he attacks, and an equally good idea that if I abort to Dodge (+3) I have a very good chance of not being hit, because most people don't put their points into OCV. Unless they're me. Note, I said most -- IME my players value their DCV much more highly, but that's an aside. If I attack with a 4d6 RKA 2xAP, and you Dodge -- the AP has no value, no? As though it was never there. If I throw the same attack under RAW and you Block -- again, the AP has no effect, nor would Penetrating. It's Blocked, in a sort of "Well, that's that, next!" kind of thing. Similarly, if I were to Dive For Cover (or as I call it, "DFC,") AP and PEN do nothing. My issue with the ability isn't based on whether there's a level of sense to it. I see what Chris wants to do and I see a certain validity in it. That being said, as I noted prior, "I don't know art, but I know what I like." Something is missing here. If you now it's a mook with a pistol, in most cases, you're just going to soak anyway. Fine. He might get the odd lucky shot and max out his STUNx, but it's really unlikely. I guess the way I see this alternate version of "Brace for Impact" is that it temporarily doubles your Defenses only to determine if you would absorb all damage, otherwise, you get hosed. Again, this is in line with all other attack/defense patterns. Maybe it's the math of it all that haunts me. That if you have 10 rDEF (for... whatever reason) you can soak a lot of BODY but doubling that to 20 won't really save you even from a basic STUN attack. I see the premise but it isn't synchronous with the mechanics. Also of note, although whether we should care 30 years later is a whole nother question, is that all other defenses rely on the attack roll, or a Skill Roll. Dodge relies on the attack rolling too high; DFC is a DEX check; Block is an "attack" by the player against another player. This is very passive by nature. It could have a place in ship-to-ship combat; if you're otherwise protected by a bulwark, if you have something to "hang onto."

Re: Real life Foxbat ???? Mind-Control: You can't leave until all of your pancakes are eaten! Drain SPD: It's sticky, and sugar makes you fat. Hunted: Dudley Do-Right.

Re: Military baseb character with an eyepatch Hugh, you forgot: He's actually an alien who has no knowledge of his legacy, and his hyper competence is a racial trait. IOW: What they said. It's less about permission (we can give it, but it's functionally meaningless) and more about "how you want to do it." We're much more effective with these questions: * What are strong write-ups for cybernetics? (+15 STR, only left arm (-1/2), restrainable (-1/4, EMP pulses) * What package do you recommend for "Super Soldier?" (Whatever you find in Dark Champions is pretty great) * What Martial Arts should I pick (6th Ed Martial Artist is dope) * Is Immortality worth it? (Answer: unlikely, 400 years is usually enough). And so on. That's when we shine brightest. The rest is all entirely up to you.

Re: Parry. A third defense option. I wish I had this in an email, because commenting inline that way is just easier than it is here, but regardless. This conversation got a little heated, and it's unlikely that my response is going to be viewed any more favorably in the vein of "So all anyone can do is quote rules, etc.?" Well, this is HERO. Quoting rules is kind of what we do. In 99.99% of all cases, there is already a rule, option, or function that does the thing in question. So today we're going to talk about Parry as an optional maneuver. Fine with me. I like to Parry things with my ego. Seriously. Ask anyone. What's funny is that it works about 10% of the time! The other 90, I just get a bruised ego. I say this without malice: My opinion, officially, is that Block already handles the job at hand, and we have Counter (and other follow-through maneuvers) that work nicely after a block is delivered. For me, Parrying is a setup to handle the next attack. With that said. Parry is a 0 OCV, 0 DCV, 1/2 Phase, Abort as you're describing it, halves damage before defenses, and is guaranteed to work, except when it fails. So I receive... 10 BODY, 40 STUN. We halve the damage up front before DEF is applied: 5 BODY, 20 STUN. The Parry is successful if the remaining defenses (I'm assuming you mean my listed defenses; armor, iron skin, etc.) soak the damage. It fails if even 1 point of STUN gets through. 1) I believe it was noted prior, but this is very brick-heavy. I would be more inclined to build it as a Brick-Trick than I would an everyman defense 2) It's math based, more so than other attacks. Yes, while "more dice" would solve the problem of how to overcome it, I don't like the balance. 3) This doesn't represent the special effect of "Parry" to me. Having parried many boffer weapons (and a few foils) in my time, I'm in accord with the board, parry is a weapon special effect of block. Technically, parry is unique to long thin blades as one jockeys for position. In either case, this mechanic doesn't say that to me. 4) Perhaps most of all, this is going to be a "gotcha" more often than not, because other than the Brick, few characters are going to trust their defenses to an unknown, such as how much damage something might deal or the STUNx on the attack being crazy high. You can easily counter this argument by saying that Dodge performs the same function, but I disagree. A Dodge, especially a Martial Dodge, has a long storied history of saving people's hides because +5 DCV is just extreme. Likewise, if Block is an option (and the GM can always say that it isn't, if they so choose) you have the "Offense Meets Offense" style of Parry. Hence, when I look at it, I just don't see a need being fulfilled or a gap in the system.

Re: When is a Limitation a Limitation? I'll give you the best answer I've come up with to date, but at first glance it'll look like I didn't answer your question: A "power" is the baseline. It determines the starting shape, such as "blast," or "entangle." An Advantage, then, gives the power a specific lift beyond it's original form. A blast with Area of Effect, for instance. A Limitation then defines the shape -- if you think of Limitations as defining what a power looks like, you might have an easier time. For instance: A character has "blast." That's it. There's no definition there. It's just "blast." Let's say they have a "Blaster," ala Star Wars. Now we start stacking on Limitations: OAF -- Obvious Accessible Focus, because it's a hand-held weapon (-1). Charges, because it needs some kind of energy to run. Real Weapon, it can break, it's subject to other effects, it needs maintained. For weapons, you can always follow my link to HERO: Combat Evolved, where you can see the evolution of the modeling I did for HALO. Insofar as powers go, yes, if the character must always make a specific motion, you can call that Gestures require both arms, or the full extension of the arms, etc, you could call that Restrainable. The beauty of the system is that it's pretty wide open. I'd invite you to post some builds and give the team a chance to examine and comment, we're always happy to help.

Re: Mortal Kombat characters? Kitana's ability to "force levitate" someone is a special effect entangle that nukes their DCV. The hovering is a special effect.