theinfn8

Sometimes you can. I ran a D&D 4e (the most maligned, but oh so balanced version) campaign for almost three years with basically the same group. Started with everyone at the table in person, then people started to PCS across the US. Ended with the game being my wife and I at home with everyone else virtual. We would still be running, but babies dropped four players (table was mostly couples). But it's totally possible to play remotely with people you know and/or like if you aren't happy with who you're playing with. The other option is to run a weekly open table game of some sort at your FLGS and hand pick your favorites for an invite. That's how I put together my current group. Downside is dealing with some really poor roleplayers till you find the good ones.

Congrats. This is why I tend to prefer running short form campaigns. A discrete story that shouldn't last more then three to six months. With the demands on time that comes with being an adult, and the changing nature of my work environment anything longer will probably fizzle out and die as players have scheduling conflicts, pop out kids, move away, etc. I've found far more success using this approach. And to anyone who's been gaming with basically the same people for like 10 years or more, more power to you. I'm happy you have a stable group of players

My favorite use is for representing martial arts in ways that aren't as accessible otherwise. I think I've already used the example of the use of a montante as an area denial tool (change environment with a ton of -running or some such). But there are also techniques for protecting someone else (Boost DCV gestures throughout?) and more. And that's real life martial arts without getting into more fantastical martial possibilities.

I'm going to take your challenge as a call to open discourse and not argument, so please take anything I say with that perspective in mind. Everybody's game, group, and players are different. I trust my players with character creation Rule #1: Don't cheese your character. If everyone follows that rule, then there are usually no issues, since Hero character creation really needs to be with a concept in mind (which is going to be narrative at that point). I'm also never so wedded to my vision of the world and fiction that *I* want to create that I can't tweak things to fit the fiction that the *group* wants to create. I imagine creating everyone's characters would feel a little... on rails, after a couple times. Now, I also run short format campaigns, no more than six months (usually aimed at about three) because giant epic stories usually die out and never finish. So, new characters is a relatively frequent occurrence for us. I'm also a firm believer in a session 0. The players come with their ideas and we all sit down and hash out the basics of what everyone expects, times (if it's not already my regular group), and everyone should leave with a mostly complete character. Everyone has buy-in, character creation with your friends sitting there is faster, and everyone can police for cheese or be clarified on a plot point that might be contradicted. All that being said, everyone runs their game different and that's ok.

It was certainly not my intent to drag up old arguments as well Just figured it would be useful for anyone who might do a search on the forum to have as many options as possible in one place.

Not to resurrect an oldish thread but I didn't see anyone mention this option. For completeness sake and because I prefer KISS, what about the Shove maneuver (6e2 pg 79) or Martial Shove (MA pg 6)? What you're describing is exactly what it's for. A hard shove/push to move someone and not cause damage. If you need more KB, just buy some STR limited for "Only for Shove".

I would combine option 2 and 3. Turn it into a world wide cataclysm that devastates the world in unpredictable chaotic ways. Huge canyons and open lava fields in parts because of dwarven cities and fortresses that were ripped out of the ground. Abnormal weather that destroyed large swathes of forest and are isolated in areas (permanent winter on one side of a line and drought and desert on the other). It is the survival needs of the bunker/safe cities of the alliance that require the party to venture forth into this blasted and devastated world. Wandering in the world are shades of the former inhabitants, incapable of really communicating, but reliving their war and hatred with the shades of the other side. The party will eventually come across (or be tasked with investigating) a capital of one of the sides and find a city still populated with undead of the species. Does the party find the source of the devastation and reverse the unfinished ritual before it tears the rest of the world apart and returns many of these shades back into being? Or do they complete the ritual and end both races to give the world a chance to heal?

If all your worried about is it being difficult to find, you can have the Sanctum Sanctorum buy Concealment and run it up to something high (21-?). This would mean the base rolls against the skill of the person trying to find it, with the higher success winning (check 6E2 pg. 190 under perceivability). It wouldn't be perfect defense (is that really much fun anyway?) but it would have the same effect without the cost. Anti-Location Sigils: Concealment 21- (39 pts). With the base discount: Real Cost: 4 pts.

This is actually covered in the Equipment Guide (in more general terms). Basically, if the transmissions are completely undetectable, you apply the Invisible Power Effect advantage to the sense ability tied to the radio receive/transmit. Season the special effect to taste. There is a second option discussed that gives a more "this is highly encrypted" feel to it, but I can't recall what it is. In short, yes. I was starting down an AoE-based Invisibility rabbit hole on this, but the KISS answer is, Selective (+1/4). Since Darkness is already AoE, you tack that advantage on and just simply choose to let anyone inside the AoE be immune to the effect. Which can include yourself. People outside of the Darkness are still affected in the same manner that they would be normally and that actually answers both questions. Unless you want a personal "can't read my aura" or "can't be tracked with scrying", then it might be better to use Invisibility with a "Mystic Senses" sense group, or some such. But it's after midnight and I'm not going to put more brain power into it ATT. Hope that helped!

Did something similar to this once: Always has a cigar handy to smoke. I suppose you could call it, "Love it When a Plan Comes Together"

Welcome to Hero! You're definitely on the right track with trying to create the characters based on their feel and not trying to completely reproduce the original characters. That's the road to hardwork and disappointment. As far as level of play, you're going to want to stick with Heroic, methinks. Start with what feels like a reasonable amount of CP to build the characters (225, why not?). But don't be completely wedded to that number. You might find that the characters are adequately represented, but they might also not be. In that case, bump it up a bit. (Conversely, if you *really* trust your players, tell them to build their characters and don't really pay attention to the end cost of the character.) There are a ton of dials that you can turn and switches you can flip in Hero, so don't be afraid to test some out as a group and make a collective decision on them. You are also going to need to figure out how to make magic work for you. If your wizard has spell analysis paralysis then be careful with the method you choose. Variable Power Pools that can be changed on the fly are awesome and powerful, but if you think choosing from a list of spells slows you down, this can be worse. As was said, combat doesn't change pace much as you get to higher levels. But there are some things you can do to speed it up a little. You can ignore hit location for now (but it does add a fun new dimension to combat.) Make a chart with everyone's speed that shows what phases they act on and has their major combat stats. I put mine in a plastic report sleeve so I can write in the bad guys and notes as the combat goes along with a dry-erase marker. Then I just erase it when I'm done. You didn't say which books you have, but I do recommend getting the Fantasy Hero genre book if all you have is the core book(s).

Hah, love it. What's the saying, "No game survives contact with the players." Though, that is a narrative resolution. Roll some dice (Demolitions skill, Piloting to aim it and include the hotshot pilot?) to see how effective it is and narrate the results of a beautifully exploding enemy spaceship. End the session there on a high note or go to the bathroom, flush your plans down the toilet, and then come up with something else before returning to the table.

Mostly, I avoid ship to ship battles. And if I can get away with a narrative based resolution, I'll take it. Starship battles look cool in movies but I've never seen one that really brought that kind of energy to a tabletop. I ask myself, what's the point of the battle? Will it bring anything important to the story? Can I make the hotshot pilot not have wasted all those points in stunt flying without making the rest of the table pull out cell phones or take a nap? Usually, the answer is that I can accomplish the same goal without resorting to an actual combat.

Looking through the agreement, I have to concur. I don't see anything that says "no adventures." I could also justify saying an "adventure" is really additional setting information, which is explicitly allowed (since it expands on an already existing setting by adding new characters and events.) Or, if it isn't tied to a pre-existing setting is publishing your new setting info.

My thoughts on this. Warrior type characters can just as easily build abilities that mirror fighting techniques that don't fit into the standard martial maneuvers. For example, there are sword techniques designed for the montante (a style of two-handed sword) that are denial of movement techniques. For the sake of argument: CE -24m Running, Selective 4m AoE, Gestures w/ both hands throughout, No Range, and IIF (Great Weapon of Opportunity). This is a warrior "spell" which would be no different from a mage casting a spell that required a mage staff. In fact, it would probably be cheaper for the mage, since he could tack on additional limitations pretty easily (incantations, OAF, etc.) For a "standard" fantasy game, I would give no cost break to either of them. Both players have the opportunity to build out additional effects for their characters, there's no reason to offset that. Ultimately, that's my personal take on it. I might change that if there was some really compelling story reason that made me want to highlight magic. The cost break in TA is to support the fiction/genre emulation. And as much as I am tempted, I am not getting pulled into the debate raging above. This is my opinion and what works for me. Take it or leave it

BLUF: It likely won't affect your game at the Heroic level of play. I would just do the math for whatever character you're looking at, and if it looks like they will never have END issues, then just ignore it. From what I've seen, END usage by non-casters is really low. The amount of REC most will have, combined with END levels will make it of negligible importance. You're looking at most spending maybe 4 or 5 END a phase on the high end. That means with SPD in the range of 3, 15 END spent a Turn, then they get that recovery. Even if you don't put anything into your REC, that means you have an END deficit of 11 END per Turn. Which gives you most of a whole second Turn before you have to worry about END (assuming starting END of 20). Depending how deadly you are playing, hit locations, healing capabilities, etc, then most combats won't last more than 2 or 3 Turns. Even your casters, unless they're cranking out a ton of powerful spells, will likely not even have an issue. I observed this over the course of the 5 Magics campaign I'm finishing up. Even for the front-line Evocation combat mage, he never ran into an issue where END was a problem. Almost everyone pushed their REC to 8, END to at least 30, and left their SPD at 2. The only time END came up was when someone was maintaining a couple spells and trying to cast Phase after Phase. And then combat was over very quickly (due to the deadliness dials, they only got in fights if they could control the battle.) I suppose a few bad attack rolls could have made it more of an issue. Technically, they paid for the ability to ignore their END expenditures with CP. Someone else could have chosen to gimp themselves in that area to pick up a few more spells, skills, or to emulate their character concept better.

Having read some of the setting info in my Extinction Event book, you aren't looking at a full blown wastelands and mutants type of post-apocalypse. It's more of a... soft apocalypse. Yeah, it changed a lot of the world order and there was rebuilding, but the world wasn't *completely* devastated. You could probably find a module that has psionics as a front and center theme and convert it to fit your idea. *Note, this is in no way me saying I don't like it. What I've finished so far is still really cool. Just not a hardcore apocalypse like seems to be implied by the question.

Sorry. Of course, when I checked the link I was still logged in, so it loaded just fine! Should be fixed. I updated the original post.

Just finishing up my mage only fantasy game. I was planning to link the starting info here if people were interested, so I will take this to mean people are interested. Some caveats to the primer, it is a living document and as such contains notes and modifications, but we had to tweak some things on the fly that might not have made it in. For example, I would probably drop the Ranks AP ranges down and change the skill penalties to match. No one had any reason to buy access to anything higher than Rank C. In any event: 5 Magics Primer If anyone was interested in the Traveler based character gen we used, here's the whole directory: 5 Magics Setup Documentation

Suppose there are always things that are vaporized and can't be repaired. Maybe structures that are too big to repair easily. Imagine the BODY for transforming part of a six story building. Plus there's always new construction. The guy disappearing could be it's own organized crime subplot. If I were the mayor I would probably send the guy out with a security detail.

We were having a discussion during my last supers game about comic book combat and collateral damage. We figured the City employed a guy that has the singular most useful power in a superhero universe. "Restore Infrastructure". Basically, Transform damaged infrastructure into undamaged infrastructure. He's antisocial, so works nights only, and as the City, why wouldn't you let him? He saves you a crap ton on demolition and building materials every time he does his thing. He doesn't care about taking credit and he just wants to work till he can get his pension. Half the super team didn't believe he existed.

Some gunslinger type talents? Speed reloading, hawkeye vision, trick shot for a PRE boost, ability to track someone with rapidity (some kind of altered sense?). Honestly though, not really sure. I've never run a western game before. Though I think I would use such a source book for a Firefly-esque sci-fi western.

Sometimes I shamelessly steal other people's equipment lists with prices (there are a ton free online). I might base it on modern equivalent pricing. And sometimes I price based on how much I don't want the thing in my game. Current game I just said screw it, everyone has the Pathfinder equipment guide, we're using the prices from that. Oh, and you can always go with an equipment pool if you think managing money isn't fun.

If you're just talking minor effects, I don't see a reason your fellow players should have a problem with it. As with everything though, an honest and open discussion with everyone involved is always the best route. Communication is key to any healthy relationship, and that goes for the relationship you have with your fellows. Personally, I would use your concept as a springboard for some good roleplay interaction between my character and yours. Perhaps play out the "learning to accept the leader" story arc that is fairly common in the fiction. As for powers, I run 6e, but they are pretty similar. It sounds like some Aids, maybe with Requires a Roll on Tactics or Leadership (if you want to really represent that super skill level). I did like the the Invocation limitation from above, but with communications technology being what it is, I don't know that I would limit to must remain in LoS. If your building this character with mental powers, you could consider a Mind Link for your group and limit to only people in that. Basically simulating a "group think" kind of deal and allowing the ability to pass your orders/directions easily. Just some thoughts.

Maybe a Triggered Heal END with some seriously reduced recast time? You could bring the cost down by limiting "for the Hammer End Reserve Only" and "Limited to amount of damage absorbed” or some such. I'm personally tempted to say this is something more in the realm of effect description than needing an actual mechanical description. You don't even have to hurt them, just hit them. How often would you not have the flame running? But then, my players would smile, nod, and roleplay if they went to attack and I asked them, "It's been a while since you hit anyone with that hammer, do you think it just went out?" The strict mechanics being less interesting. But I'm blessed with players that want to create a story. YMMV.