Agent333

Womble, I've played Hero the way you describe for over a decade now. The idea is "Beat Ten" with your 3D6 roll and modifier derived from your skill number. Your modifier is simply your skill roll minus eleven [8- becomes -3 modifier, 11- becomes +0 modifier, 13- becomes +2 modifier, etc]. Critical rolls are made on natural 16, 17, or 18 and only with skills with +0 or higher level. If the skill is performed under difficult circumstances, I usually just subtract the negative modifier from the dice roll and skill bonus total. [player rolls 11, +2 for skill, -3 for difficult circumstance = 10, a barely failed attempt] In combat, I usually go with Attacker's OCV +3D6 > Defender's DCV +10. It's quick and easy to introduce to new players and it doesn't change the basic math in any way. I still allow crits on natural 16,17, or 18 and critical hits do full damage rather than double of what is rolled. I like to keep low rolls in the case of Disadvantages. Example: an Enraged roll might have 11- to activate, but I will usually reverse the recovery roll to an inverted bonus, going from 11- to recover into +0 roll to recover. I like this method and it's served me well. YMMV

Geocities recently shut down my site where I stored my favorite little contribution to the gaming community. I just got around to moving it to http://hrclark333.tripod.com/Hero_Vamp_Masquerade_A.pdf For those interested in keeping this old stuff archived, please update all your links appropriately. Thanks a bunch to all of you in the community who showed interest and gave support. It's always meant a lot. -Agent333 (aka Ryan Clark)

Re: The Void Thanks so much Susano. I wanted to introduce an invasion fleet based on the Necromungers from the Chronicles of Riddick movie. I'd love to use the Void as the (source of/entry into) their version of the "underverse".

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... The Host by Stephanie Myers. I give it 5 out of 10 mainly because I'd never thought about the idea of a "Body Snatcher" alien (Puppet Masters style) being semi-possessed by the human it's riding in. Past that, it's a soap-opera that uses the personal angst of a small cast to wrench out the "life on the lamb" style drama while eschewing some of the larger questions I had about this world dominated by alien invaders. I'd have rated it higher if it had indulged my mean streak and really gone for a much darker ending that questions whether humans can co-exist with an alien species whose way of life is inherently immoral. And no one cussed! Goddamnit, Stephanie! People running for their life cuss from time to time. Lack of Carlin-worthy expletives in the dialogue distracted me, I'm sorry to say. (Although, Ms. Myers does write mainly teen-level fiction I understand. What's this Twilight book of hers anyway? )

Re: CthulhuTech? A good friend and rpg player recently asked me about Call of Cthulhu after I laughingly told him about Cthulhutech. Surprised that he never experienced the game I had to dig way back in my memories to describe it and explain why it was fun despite the lack of "Kill stuff. Get loot!" In doing so I recalled that as bad as the eldritch horrors from beyond were, the worst part of the game was the cult conspiracy. You never knew who you could trust, you constantly had to hide your "eccentric" or even illegal activities. You can't tell anyone the truth and if you did you only helped the conspiracy further their ends. I mean, flying fungi from Pluto? He must be mad! Humanity at large simply will not accept these things. It was then I saw that Cthulhutech is merely a future Earth that has "awakened" to the realities of the universe and is desperately (and dramatically) dealing with it. The conspiracy is real, monsters go bump in the night and the boogey-man really will get you in your sleep. A quick glance at sci-fi and horror movies from the past decade might lead one to think mankind is sub-consciously preparing for such a future. It would be sweet irony that after the great enlightenment defined a more rational reality, mankind meets the fact of an irrational universe with the same reaction: overreaction. So, naturally, if 50 foot monsters are battering down your city walls you gotta build 50 foot robots to fight them off (at least until the Elder Sign ritual is finished). That's reasonable, right? And if civilians are becoming possessed by ravenous horrors that warp their shapes into carnivorous beasts you need to make a living symbiote that can shape your own body into an equally dangerous killing machine. I mean, that makes sense. I'd do it. And if a man attacks me with a knife, I want a gun. So, when a cultist sics his bound demon against me guess what? I'm gonna go bind a bigger demon and sic it on him. It's only reasonable. Rational in these times, I'd say... That's what finally sold me: this vision of a tricked out, slick as snot future where Humanity is fighting back against the unnameable horror and seemingly holding its own. But it's not. These people are INSANE! Their desperate attempts to preserve their way of life and the very idea of what it means to be human is being destroyed by their efforts. It's a dramatic game where you get to play out humanity's last days (whatever form that takes). The philosophy of "Careful when fighting monsters that you don't become one yourself" is in full swing here. I doubt I'll ever get to play the game, but it seems like it would appeal to the World of Darkness crowd that didn't get their sci-fi "emo-rush" from Trinity/Aeon. I think this game stands in contrast to CoC the way James Cameron's Aliens contrasted to Ridley Scott's Alien. Alien is a mostly straight horror film while Aliens is a drama-drenched survival horror story with guns. If you want to weep for fallen comrades (or your lost humanity) while pumping rounds of explosive ammo into Ghouls and Deep-ones and the Star-spawn of Cthulhu, this is probably the game for you.

Re: Making paperminiatures Yeah, just need a picture and a graphics program. I use Photoshop, but I could probably do what I do with MS Paint if need be. If you need to make portraits of characters you can use the following program: http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/heroMachine/classic.asp http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/heroMachine2/heromachine2.asp http://www.heromachine.com/

Re: Hero Machine Thread Awesome! Glad you like the colors, I was trying to get that "My suit's on fire" look. As a DC villain my mind boggles as to what he might become: he almost looks like a murderous martial artist in that suit (like an evil version of Bruce Lee's yellow jump-suit). Have fun spooking your players with him I'll second that, I like the line-up! They seem to cover the bases nicely and have almost a silver-age flavor to them.

Re: Cybermen Considering the fright I got from episode 6 with the Dalek, I simply cannot WAIT to see the terror that will be the new (hopefully) upgraded Cybermen! I have been very pleased with the new Doctor Who, I just hope the loss of Eccleston and Piper won't ruin what I consider one of the best doctor/companion relationships since Tom Baker's Doctor and Ramona.

Re: Hero Machine Thread No way am I doing the Joes, nothing else would get done I originally had the idea that my friends super-team would meet and deal with Cobra, but that never panned out. Major Bludd was reversed using Adobe Photoshop, but it could just as easily be done in MS Paint I think. This was done b/c Bludd's robotic arm is his right arm. HM doesn't do robotic limbs very well IMO. Your villian looks very intimidating. Anybody can wear a suit of body armor while carrying a sniper rifle, it takes a scary M-Fer to slap horns on it and shoot super-heroes! I too believe that horns can make the villain, one of my favorites is from my Champs games named Speed Demon (a mutant speedster).

Re: Hero Machine Thread I wonder if I'm like others here with the HM program; just a HUGE stockpile of pictures that I use for gaming and cannot really pick out just one as my favorite. I cannot say enough good things about this program and as a completely inept artist it is a godsend! Just for fun I used HM 2.0 to make my favorite Saturday morning villain team:

Re: Question from a new GM

Re: More Strength for Martial Artists? But if we must, remember to get your drink on!

Re: More Strength for Martial Artists? BINGO! That's what I was missing Thanks Dust Raven.

Re: More Strength for Martial Artists? Bonus PD, Bonus REC, Extra STUN, added damage to HKAs.. stuff that STR does but HA won't touch. Bricks get these benefits while MAs have to buy the "parts" of STR individually.

So there I am writing up villains and I tripped over two guys written one after the other. One was a straight up Brick, the other a rather vanilla Martial Artist. Seems that it finally clicked in place for me, these two guys have the same job (almost exactly): beat up the other guy and don't get hurt. The Brick buys up big defenses along with his big STR (maybe a brick-trick or two). The MA buys up maneuvers and his DEX (maybe DCV levels) So now, I'm looking at the way they are made: Brick gets a big boost on his way to being a tough guy thanks to his Strength and then he's dumping 40+ points into defense. The MA is a bit fragile in comparison, but spending over 40 points in DEX does make that go down easier. As for their hitting power, I get a bit of a disconnect. The Brick spends 50 points for his 60 STR and all its benefits. My MA guy buys 20 STR and then buys DC levels for his Martial Art maneuvers. Looking at this I realized my MA was throwing down 16 points for the DC bonus and still had to pay points to get his REC to 10 and his PD to 10+ not to mention topping off his STUN. Now, I realise the DEX is the big equalizer overall between the characters, but it seemed to me that I would have been better off spending the 16 points for more STR instead of the bonus DC. Okay, I can already see some of you guys rolling your eyes, cracking your knuckles and getting ready to type me the "DEX lets you hit more often" speech. Been there and done that back in the 20th century. What I'm going to bring up here is this: besides genre conventions (or common sense, your pick) why aren't the MAs buying a limited form of Strength like "Does not add to lifting or leaping ability (-1/4)"? I mean, it would be the same 4 points per +1D6 you spend on bonus DCs except now you get a bonus to your PD, REC, STUN, etc... or would it not? What really got me going on this train of thought was a brick that I finally gave some MA maneuvers to (see Brick Tricks in TUB or UMA). The dude was incredibly effective afterwards and with just 11 points of maneuvers (Fast Strike, Martial Grab, Martial Block), I dare say he was showing up the Martial Artist (...just not hiting as often... ) What do you guys think? Am I missing something or should MAs get to buy more STR than usual? Maybe a limited STR like the one above?