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Christopher R Taylor

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Everything posted by Christopher R Taylor

  1. Christopher R Taylor
    Ever since I read those excellent GMing articles in Champions III, I've tried to put fights in interesting places or have something odd or unusual happen to mix them up. its not just a fight, its a fight on top of a runaway train! This isn't just a tavern brawl, the tavern is slowly tipping off stilts over a cliff! Sure, you're fighting Nazi supervillains in Dunkirk to help with the evacuation, but a sinkhole collapses and an awakening dragon emerges! (long story, that one). Adding just some other element can turn a usual fight against agents into a suddenly interesting one.
  2. Christopher R Taylor
    Yeah, technically it should have variable special effect, except this was specifically built for an HKA attack from surprise (a blade) for a rogue. Its a D&D backstab attack, not some mythical "I get to hit harder because I bought the feat" attack.
  3. Christopher R Taylor
    Even Catwoman made money, kinda. Such a horrible film.
  4. Christopher R Taylor
    Honestly, there have been so many MMOG projects that would have been better off cut before release I'm fine with that happening, I'm just disappointed that a more up to date and better-built EQ was one of them. So much potential and such a great setting, its too bad they couldn't do the job.
  5. Christopher R Taylor
    Yeah, that's why my build is more specific: they have to be unaware for it to do extra damage, not merely from behind. Someone with Defense Maneuver IV would not suffer the extra damage
  6. Christopher R Taylor
    Sure but all that is a problem with munchkins, not selling off MCV
  7. Christopher R Taylor
    Possibly, but as munchkin goes, 9 points isn't exactly breaking anything.
  8. Christopher R Taylor
    Right, I'm fine if you don't want that in your game. Its your game, you can say no and you don't even have to explain why. And players can decline to play by the same standards, if they wish although this would be an awful petty reason to do so. But claiming that your definition of OMCV and Ego is rules and the way the game works is just not accurate.
  9. Christopher R Taylor
    I'm misunderstanding nothing. Mechanics were made to represent special effect from the outset You have that backward. You build the mechanic and pick a special effect to represent it. That's why there's 100 ways to build anything in Hero. When someone asks "how do I build a taser in Hero" you don't get "look up taser!" you get "energy blast, or NND, or AVAD vs power defense, or drain, or transform to stunned target, or..." there are many ways to represent any concept. You are insisting that OMCV must only and always without exception represent one special effect. That's not how Hero works. You have the mechanic to simulate how the character interacts with the game at the rules level, and the concept and special effects that simulate how and why it works at a roleplaying and idea level.
  10. Christopher R Taylor
    There's no need to rewrite the game system to appeal to those players. All that's needed is to treat the game rules as the background and present built settings and information for players and GM's to jump into. Look, D&D has a meta system they use to build their stuff. That was explicit in d20 and how they had all those other games come out built around it like Pathfinder and Mutants & Marauders. The d20 system was the background, those products were the settings. The same thing could be done with Hero quite easily. I'm trying to do just that with a Fantasy setting. We're working on an intro for a Champions setting just like that.
  11. Christopher R Taylor
    EverQuest Next development killed. According to the lead developer "Unfortunately, as we put together the pieces, we found that it wasn't fun." So... better than finishing and releasing it like ESO but still, too bad.
  12. Christopher R Taylor
    You're misunderstanding how the Hero System works. You are attributing special effect to mechanic.
  13. Christopher R Taylor
    I disagree. OMCV can indicate force of will, but like everything in Hero, the special effect is up to the build. It can be a psychoreactive targeting system. It can be an innate ability to find and target minds. It can be learned skill in penetrating mental defenses. It can be a million different things. EGO is will power, and someone with low willpower will find it very challenging to carry out certain particularly difficult deeds (ones that require an Ego roll) but combat value is up to definition.
  14. Christopher R Taylor
    Here's how I built the backstab talent BackstabThis maneuver is a method of striking a target with particular skill and accuracy, from surprise. It is used with lethal weapons only and requires preparation and concentration to succeed POWER: Ranged Killing Attack +1D6 MODIFIERS: OIF (weapon) (-1/2), Extra Time Delayed Phase (-1/4), Concentrate ½ DCV (-1/4), Must be behind target (-1/2), Only t,o targets unaware of attacker (-1/2) Only to add to weapon damage (-1/4), No Range (-1/2) [-3 1/4] Cost: 4 END Cost: 1
  15. Christopher R Taylor
    Games like World of Darkness take hand waving to Kermit the Frog introducing the Muppet Show levels of excess. Any "storyteller" system is basically leaving the game in the hands of the most abusive, munchkinny type. It can work if everyone is a fang-packing super deep role player, but if someone likes to crunch numbers and find advantages, they'll dominate the game. Not my favorite style of rules. Hero dampens that down by making things more codified and precise, which is a better end result, and role playing is wholly distinct from the ruleset.
  16. Christopher R Taylor
    Call of Cthulhu is another game that doesn't translate well into other systems. You can simulate it with Hero but it doesn't feel the same as just using CoC.
  17. Christopher R Taylor
    Meh, that's what multiple power attacks are for.
  18. Christopher R Taylor
    I can be, if it works for everyone. Its worth hashing some basic concepts out at least
  19. Christopher R Taylor
    That hurts Hero, as does the desire to leave the "toolkit" open and visible all the time. If I'm playing a fantasy game, I don't want to be told all the different ways that you could create a magic system. I just want a cool and unique magic system. I want somebody to have already done the work, and present it to me in an interesting way. I don't need to see "costs end, incantations, gestures, requires a skill roll" written on every single spell. When I built the Codex, I supplied an optional suggested magic system, along with notes on how to build your own. The spell write ups are in digest form as a list, then descriptive, but each description starts with a simple description of the spell with stats, a full description, then the crunchy build afterward. The theory is that new or more casual players can just use the first parts and ignore the builds, while GMs can know the full build.
  20. Christopher R Taylor
    So, ablative armor, but increased run speed that grows as the armor lowers? Sounds pretty cool
  21. Christopher R Taylor
    I never did Marksman but my conversion (direct and literal) from 4th edition Crusader is in this thread.
  22. Christopher R Taylor
    I built a talent for backstab, basically its a bonus to damage situational on surprise or being unseen and attacking from behind.
  23. Christopher R Taylor
    My house rule is that attacks from surprise half CON for purposes of being stunned, not double stun. When you walk into the cupboard door by accident it doesn't knock you out any more than being bonked in the head but it hurts more than usual out of sheer surprise. But I do like the thinking of using this as backstab rather than the multipliers etc used in other systems.
  24. Christopher R Taylor
    Correct, stun multipliers before defenses, body after. Even with normal attacks.
  25. Christopher R Taylor
    It came up in this discussion of splitting out damage into different types based on physical characteristics. I like the idea so much I'm using it from now on in my heroic games and its going to be in my Jolrhos Fantasy Hero setting when the Player's Handbook and Treasure books come out.
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