Christopher R Taylor

I'm working on one for the Champions Begins project, the concept is really cheap for a hero build. With the Hero Form Only, its cheap (transform into magic girl!), and I had a magic skill roll plus a wand, making the spells much easier to use with the wand (and more accurate) plus it acts as an endurance reserve in it.

I like the idea of jumping spider, its coming up with a name really. Spidey doesn't have any venom so a special energy punch or something would be cool.

Vulnerabilities seem to be mostly a gold/silver age thing and then really obvious ones (Human Torch vs cold, for example). Not many characters created after 1970 had vulnerabilities that I can think of.

I have in the past fooled around with building an RPG before, and I had stats broken down like that: Strength wasn't just strength but lift, exert, that kind of thing. Dex had agility and manual dexterity, Intelligence had memory, discernment, etc. Its fun to work on and can be really precise but in the end pointlessly complicated for no good reason other than just being complicated. You don't actually gain anything in the game, its just fun to design and think about.

Depending on how often it happened, a simple physical complication could cover that. If it comes up much, then a limitation on stats above normal (perhaps only in alternate ID).

It depends on how the muscle was built I think. If he's just swole and built up bulk rather than strength, its probably a push. If he's focused on strength and increasing his lifting capacity, he's going to be better off. Its kind of easier to think of in Hero terms. Guy 2: 10 strength Guy 3: 15 strength. Lifting a 50 kg item takes about half of Guy 2's strength, but only 1/4 of Guy 1. So he's using less energy to accomplish the same goal. I know that sounds weirdly abstract, but its true that the stronger you are, the less effort it takes to move the same weight. But those guys that get huge just to have huge muscles and look ripped often aren't so much building up strength as size. They're stronger, for sure. but they aren't as strong as the guy that works on power instead of bulk.

You can define the "healing" of transform as "being taken away or broken" but an indirect, very long-range teleport could work (with a detect) or a summon on inanimate objects (although again, they go away after a while on their own).

I would consider indirect as a way of representing its reverse direction or at least a different cost. The reason explosion is cheaper than just a radius of the same size is that the bulk of its area does less damage. With this structure, you're increasing the area that does full damage, and hence reducing the limitation of Explosion. So in 5th and previous editions, I'd call this a +3/4 rather than +1/2 advantage In 6th edition I'd call it a -1/4 reduction of the area effect advantage rather than -1/2.

Well you can keep track here and contribute ideas and analysis I'm having some trouble coming up with a Spider-Man analogue that isn't just Spider-Man with a different name. What makes him so cool and interesting is... all the stuff he is. The webbing, strength, stick to walls, agility, if you build all that you end up with just Spider-Man again. Wolverine I was able to retask into Honey badger, so instead of claws the character is just really, really hard to hurt and utterly fearless. But Spidey is a bit of a quandary, maybe someone else can tackle that one.

This is true, being ripped doesn't necessarily mean in really good shape, I agree. But being strong doesn't necessarily mean really swole, either, so I would think whatever gains you get from strength would offset their weight, overall at least in terms of recovery and endurance in Hero. I've known some crazy strong guys that were very lean, they were built with steel cables and braided leather, or something.

Well Muscle mass actually gives more than it takes in terms of endurance. In other words, the gain you get in ease of activity outweighs its weight because tasks just take less effort to do. Strength doesn't equal mass. When you're in really good shape, tasks that used to be a bit tiring or take effort, aren't nearly as tiring or take as much effort. Such as carrying around 180+ pounds of human mass. So if you're strong, you'll carry that 180+ pounds easier than someone who's in lousy shape like me. Its a saying in the military: sweat now so you don't bleed later. Be in really good shape right now so you can move when you need to and don't get tired out. So you really shouldn't need to remove strength from recovery in 5th and earlier editions.

Unless you tried unarmed combat, then nobody knew how the rules worked or what was going on. Then the GM panicked and had a dragon show up or something.

Sure, but if they ride up to the dungeon entrance, leap off and go in, what happened to the horses? They aren't motorcycles, you can't just park them and leave them for days.

OK we need to get this ball rolling. Since Diamond Spear is computerless for the moment, here's what I have down for who's who and what people are willing to do (the parentheses are stuff that I suggest they be assigned to): Amorkca - character design Assault - writing, editing, proofing BigDamnHero - proofing, writing BoloOfEarth - character design, writing, publishing Christopher Taylor - art, writing, character design, editing, publishing Deadman - character art (Heromaker) Diamond Spear - Coordinator Massey - writing, character design Nothere - proofreading, editing (intro and player stuff) rdj59 - writing, character design steriaca - writing, proofing (format and design) So if that's what people are willing to do I am willing to take over the role of the "Editor in Chief." I don't see this as the role of someone with veto power, but rather a central manager with the vision to give the product consistent design and themes. It will be up to Diamond Spear to do this kind of post and keep the ball rolling. And that vision is this: The poll ended up with Deathstroke as the scenario winner by a small margin but I'd like to propose using Viper's Nest with elements of Deathstroke mixed in, to give it a bit more length and carry some of those themes. For example, the introductory scenario of Deathstroke had a guy in a costume with lots of presence acting dangerous to act as a distraction from the real theft, but fragile enough to teach PCs to hold back until they know what they are up against. I've built roughs of twelve different characters, presuming that 6 players is the maximum any GM can comfortably run and this gives each player at least 2 choices. When they're done I want to put them up for people to examine, edit, discuss, and perhaps replace with others if that would be best.

Yeah we've used that for a while now, mostly because it lets the player just tell me what they hit and then the DCV is somewhat uncertain. Plus this system allows you to simply put a roll next to a combat maneuver on the character sheet for new players. Fast Strike is +2 OCV, but if someone has a 7 OCV to begin with, then you can just put 20- on their character sheet. Then the player can just say how much they made their roll by, and not need to know all the details right away.

For beginning players, its useful to build their OCV in as just a straight roll. So instead of +2 OCV, +0 DCV, +2d6 on the Fast Strike maneuver you list it as 15- OCV, 7d6 damage. Do the hard part so they can just plug in and play. That OCV+11-3d6 roll formula makes life easier, but cutting maneuvers down straight to their resulting roll is even better. Say what you made your roll by and that's the DCV you hit! Then you can give them modifiers: well that is going to be -2 to hit, so they go 17- minus 2? That's 15-.

Chalk, of course. Seriously though its tough to get players to take vulnerabilities because of their very nature (this makes me weaker? And I want that why, exactly?) They add a lot to the game, and are fun to play if you like role playing and some puzzle solving, but not everyone is in that mode. I try hard to build villains so they have built in exploitable weaknesses like a personality quirk or vulnerability, dependence, focus, that kind of thing. Its fun to outsmart a villain or find their weakness to take advantage of, particularly the really powerful ones. I'll never beat Talos, the giant statue in a fist fight, but that valve on its heel looks significant...

Well its probably worth at least a chapter on how to use ordinary professions and trades in the game as well. The Bard example is a good one; its not just about songs that cause vines to wrap up your foe, its about singing and entertaining. The Fool's Guild series by Alan Gordon is a great look at the job of the entertainer in these kind of settings.

Yeah I'm working on a magic girl/boy that's a kind of Harry Potter/manga blend so its not too specific. I'd go with just the sailor suit magic girl but the scheme is to make them any gender. The problem so far is... its a super efficient concept (usually the magic girl transforms spectacularly into someone who can do all this stuff, so its all Hero Form Only). So I'm working on ways to make the character simple but not too powerful while retaining the idea and still spending 300 points. Its too easy with magic characters to stack on all this weird stuff, since it fits the concept (summon, mental illusions, teleport yadda yadda) but many of them are too situational (escape from being bound!) or stuff that is just too complicated for the starting character. Meanwhile the wolverine analogue is really expensive because he's a stat monster/tough guy. I wanted him to have the animal senses but I think that's going to be too much to pack into 300 points. After all, when Wolverine first showed up all we knew is that he was short and had claws. HE got the regeneration and even showed that the claws were not in his costume in later issues. So a lot of these things a character "should" have can be added in later issues when they come up. Which brings up a good overall point about GMing and character design: Yeah, the fire energy projector could always put out fires, it just didn't come up until issue 18. So you put that in the back burner and buy it later on with experience points. Then you say "always had it, didn't need to use it earlier." That principle can make building characters easier for people to grasp and spending xps make more sense conceptually. Working that into the GM book would be useful, I think.

Well, that's why I wanted to delegate specific tasks. If we have 8 writers, we'll end up with trash. So 1-2 writers at most. We don't need 5 people creating characters, but since they aren't getting done I just figured I'd bite the bullet. What's needed most is the writing on the intro and teaching portions, if we use Viper's Nest or especially Deathstroke, there's some conversion and updating needed, but otherwise its pretty well written.

Well in the interests if brevity and clarity, I'm trying to fold similar skills into single umbrellas. For example, there are a lot of kinds of people that work with metals, usually specializing in certain kinds, but I'm folding them all under blacksmith. There are 3 different skills and jobs in building just an arrow, but I want to stuff all arrowmaking, bow making etc into one heading. That doesn't make historical or strictly factual sense, but it works well for a game.

Some Golden Age stuff doesn't work as well in modern games. For example the constant use of death traps and the gullibility of heroes. Players just aren't gonna fall for the stupid like the lantern-jawed do-gooder of the past (although there are ways to enforce genre, such as giving out hero points and experience to reward proper play). Death Traps are best used with solo characters, but with a 6-person team, its a bit harder to pull off. And frankly, the combat monster is just going to die or leave the game if you put him in a death trap because he's going to be pissed he can't punch his way out and won't enjoy it at all. Heroes were captured a lot too, particularly after being clocked in the back of the head from surprise. That almost never works in a game, because players feel like they were robbed or were personally defeated. You have to use the PC capture very carefully and judiciously, and it happened darn near every comic to some heroes. Definitely, its hard to get players to tone down and focus. Almost all (but not literally every one) had a pretty simple, limited concept around one idea. Dr Mid-Nite could see in the dark, but only in the dark. It almost always works best to just have one power or one very tight concept of powers. Of course there was Superman and guys like Specter who could do just about anything, but for the most part it was guy with unusual ability.

I don't really understand why people love making characters quickly, since once its made all that's left is play. To me, making the character is part of the fun, its like a game in its self. But there are more than a few who do want to get it over with as fast as possible, so I'm working on making that easier for Fantasy Hero at least. The thing about Savage Worlds is that it looks easy, but its also very limited and simple. Its like Hero system 3rd edition; yeah its quick and easy but its also limited, and the GM has to just make up stuff to fit the empty gaps. The system annoys me in that its so abstracted and imprecise, but some people prefer that. After all, D&D still has Armor Class and Hit Points.

I'm not familiar enough with any of those to do any sort of build. I thought about doing a "kid in a mecha suit" build, though.

Well I'm less interested in jobs as such than in trades that can produce useful stuff for adventurers. I mean, anyone can take PS: Haberdasher and make hats in their free time, but the book is about recipes and stats, information and game tips on things that PCs make such as potions, armor, etc.