Eyrie

Equality. In my little world, the oldest recognised child inherits title and land. If, by some random events, someone would inherit more than one title, the next generation with more than one eligible heir would divide the titles among them, the eldermost child taking the most prestigious title/richest holding.

I have no idea if I ever posted these before, but anyways, enjoy!

For all of you RUSH fans out there, I just wanted to let you know that Aaron Allston's Strike Force Universe had a hero named By-Tor and another (a canine) named Snow Dog.

So much of this depends on as-yet-unstated-in-the-thread expectations about what the table play actually is going to be like.  If 3+ hours of every 4 at the table is spent in combat, then yeah, characters all need to be combat gods and noncombat skills are wasted character points.  If there's actually a story plot that players can sculpt if they think about it, and where intrigue in court can accomplish the players' ends, then a character's ability to do something something beyond swinging a sword might actually matter.  Discussion of this meta-structure for the game needs to be open and frank before character construction begins.

I blame the fans. 
 
The game didn't bill itself as build the game you want.  The game billed itself as build a superhero.
 
Shortly afterward, the game creators offered a tweaked version of the rules and said "build yourself a spy according to these rules."  Fans said "this is exactly like the superhero rules!"  but it wasn't.  Very, very similar, at least in key high-profile bits of the system, but not the same.
 
Then the original rules were tweaked again and they went back to "build youself a superhero."  Then those rules were tweaked and,altered here and there and we fot "build yourself a superhero," and more variants and twesking of the superhero rules and spy rules lead to "build yourself a sorcerer" and "build yourself a cold war operative" and "build yourself an intergalactic adventurer" and even "build youself a mech."
 
And each one of those rules sets was _different_ in fundamental-for-their-intended-purposes ways, while retaining a lot of key similarities to the rules set that inspired the tweaks.  Unfortunately, they were similiar where the system is the most obvious, which lead to a lot of claims of "it's the exact same game!"
 
Sometimes, this was hyperbole by folks who noticed the similarities; sometimes it was sincere from folks who sae the obvious similarities and too few of the differences.
 
One thing lead to another, and we have the world's biggest set of "build yourself a superhero" while we run around proclaiming "build anything you want!"  While each subsequent edition has gotten more and more complex, and has, in its own way, tried to invent a balance that has never once existed within the rules, very little has been done to move it away from superheroes fundamentally; there have just been a thousand options dumped on top.
 
For example:  weapons familiarity, strength minimum, martial Arts, magic schools, incantations, gestures, spell components-
 
Absolutely _none_ of these are  necessary to build "6d6 magic missile" or 3d6 HKA battle axe."
 
They are just a bunch of points-sucks (for "balance") and options laid on top of Optic Blast and WolverClone and called "fantasy stuff...."
 
You _can_ make fantasy, and you dont have to squint super-hard, but you do have to pretend a lot of options are absolutely necessary, and ignore that you are using a system that, no matter how hard it has tried, to this day is optimized to make superheroes.
 
 
 
 
 

It's not the hypothetical owl stealth that matters (which doesn't apply anyway since the hybrid can't fly - owls are not especially quite on the ground), it's the neck rotation and incredible night vision that also picks out movement well thing.  Hypothetically it's harder to sneak on an owlbear than a regular bear, which makes it a superior guard animal.  If anything the bear's own stealth is probably helping the owl parts hunt better, since it's at least somewhat akin to an owl's game plan - just with less swooping and more charging and mauling involved. 
 
I've seen a few rulesets that gave them limited gliding abilities that restores swooping as an option, which would go a fair ways toward making these things less absurd.  Bears climb trees quite well, making reaching a position to swoop from easy enough.
 
It's also quite likely that the intent was get a fully flight-capable hybrid out of the experiment and this is the best they could do.  Wizards are usually not aeronautical (bio)engineers. 
 
Or the original creator really, really wanted something special for a rug in their love nest and had a fur-and-feathers fetish.  If you think the owlbear's weird you should see his chinchillafinches and hamsterobins.
 
Mind you, the whole concept only makes sense to people who've been huffing too much yellow lotus dust.  More sane wizards just build animated statues and the like when they want a guard.  The really sarcastic ones sculpt them to look like owlbears.  

Most of my characters would immediately inform my only character to ever encounter CLOWN. Who would arrive at the parade with a minigun, flame thrower, and rocket-propelled grenades.

I don't want this to sound as snippy as it does, and I have run through several choices of phrasing, but the fact is that anything can be taken wrong; as such is true, I felt this preamble to be in order.
 
Again:  not trying to be a jerk here:
 
What are the in-game mechanical effects of a headache? Or a toothache?  Or poison ivy?  Or a wound that is showing early signs of infection?  Or hemorrhoids?
 
When we know that, we can then design their remedies.  For my own games, these things do _not_ have mechanical effects unless they are specifically listed on a character sheet as Disadplications, in which case the mechanic as regards that particular chracter is listed on the sheet.  I have never been submitted a character with hemorrhoids or allergies or "prone to sunburn," so I have never had to worry about it.
 
Outside the character sheet, these are, in my games, _narrative_ problems, and they are dealt with in a narrative fashion:
 
 
You were out way to late on patrol; you've got a spliting headache, and you can hear that alarm clock in your optic nerve.
 
Looks like it is going to be another two-cup morning.  I put the cofee pot on, pop a couple of aspirin and start getring ready for work.
 
You've had your shower amd a quick breakfast, and soon you are finishing off your second coffee and rinsing your plate- not quite enough time to wash up if you're going to catch your ride share to work.  At least that headache has eased off.
 
Yeah, I dont want to be late!  I am sort of hoping that sarcophagus we're studying might shed some light  on the case my alter-ego has gotten tangled up in....
 
 
That sort of thing.
 
 

It's certainly been a very eventful evening at the Kintargo Opera House, what with Lord-Mayor Barzillai Thrune's attempt to murder hundreds of civilians and blame the Ghosts of Kintargo. To our profound relief, we've actually managed to kill most of the devils he was going to use, and the civilians trying to flee can all turn around and watch as we finish off the ones we now outnumber. Although it's probably just as well we're all still in our Masquerade costumes - we don't want to make it TOO easy for the authorities to hunt us down when they inevitably retaliate.
 
The Bone Devil dives to the relative safety of the floor, despite the fact it’s crawling with highly motivated adventurers - and cops Ankylosaur To The Face AGAIN as the dinosaur cosplays as Anguirus. Ayva makes a mental note for the future opera’s stage directions, to suitably represent a Bone Devil’s head getting exploded like a watermelon and its remains crashing into the orchestra pit. For that matter the small part of Terzo’s brain that wasn’t preoccupied by terror and the fact he nearly just died in the last five minutes is certainly complaining that the opera about the rebellion needs some original arias, not whatever old ones he came up with on the fly. Obviously, the opera will have to have Nox as the main character. An entire (completely fictional) redemption arc, invented scenes between her and Thrune, and dramatic reveals. Plus half of it is already set at the opera house.
 
Terzo: I imagine the authorities in Cheliax will be rather confused as they study the libretto. I look forward to it being banned - Just means more sales elsewhere. Might need to consult a cleric of Sarenrae to make the character redemption believable.
 
Painted Nox finishes off the intoxicated Dotarri.
 
Dotarri: Is that Nox? She looks …. Attractive?
Painted Nox: *poleaxe*
Dotarri: ****!
 
Rajira slashes up the already dazed, prone and bleeding Erinyes, and adds a few more Status Effects to give her a Very Bad Day. Chough ensures it’s the devil’s last day by tearing her open like a cheap dog toy and wearing her lungs as a hat. 
 
Looking around we discover to our surprise that we’re all still alive, albeit rather battered. Ayva is in the odd position of wanting to hug the ball of fire, but then Shimza’s healing flames are rather odd. At least that, and the flying ankylosaur, will ensure some rumours that the Ghosts of Kintargo have a dragon on their side. It’s true, too, although Vendelfek is hardly as deadly as the rapidly spinning Ornithischian.
 
We have Painted Nox carry ‘Thrune’s’ body to the Opera House doors, after Terzo hurriedly feeds her speech based on the final scene of The Red Tyrant. He’ll have to rewrite that for his eventual opera about recent events in Kintargo - he doesn’t want to be accused of plagiarism.
 
Rajira uses the window we threw the real Nox through to sing her aria from Huntress of Heroes, a piece she was due to perform prior to Thrune closing the opera house (and, additionally, petrified Shensen, star of Kintargo opera). Her roll comes out to 41. It’s quite possibly the most sublime performance the Opera House has ever seen. Everybody within earshot, probably including some of the Dotarri, are now dedicated to the rebellion. As news spreads, we’ll have well over 10% of Kintargo on our side.
 
Civilla’s inhumanly sneaky homunculus Luster explores the Opera House basement while Ayva hurries off to deal with the petrified Shensen while all this is going on - the rest of us can fly off on the Ankylosaur if we have to, although that might be rather conspicuous. Luster finds a vault, and a very creepy coffin.  If we move the coffin and Shensen to the bottom of the pond in Aria Park using the grotto connecting the two, we can have one of our teams move them to one of our safehouses later. If that coffin DOES contain the vampire we speculated was feeding on Thrune, there’s quite a few precautions we’ll need to take, but we do have some options to turn it human again regardless.
 
Painted Nox returns with Thrune’s body. 
 
Painted Nox: It’s a fake.
Civilla: … it’s Cizmerkis, isn’t it.
Avya: What, really?
Terzo: I’m sorry, who’s Cizmerkis?
Civilla: …Ah… er… I’ll explain later. Business Associate.
 
There are certainly some aspects of the contract that Civilla will have to consider, if Cizmerkis actually suffered True Death. Another thing she might want to consult an actual lawyer about - preferably one of the Inevitables, immortal creatures of pure Law. If Cizmerkis was Summoned as a Greater Planar Ally and Polymorphed for this entire trap, then he’s stuck as a corpse until the spells wear off.
 
Avya: Shimza saved our lives today. Cure Moderate Wounds would not have cut it.
Civilla: I’ll say. “Where’s your healer?’ ‘Up in the rafters’ “Oh dear’ ‘Directing the Flaming Ball of Healing’ ‘ I'm sorry, what?”.
 
We’ve also earned enough XP from this evening to level up TWICE.
 
Once we get that casket somewhere safe, we unseal it - after Civilla casts Daylight. Inside is a very surprised Jilia Bainilus, and she is, indeed, a vampire. So that’s what happened to the missing former Mayor.
 
Civilla: *holds up a Elixir of True Resurrection* I have a cure.
 
Jilia seems very much in favour of that even as her new vampire abilities try to Dominate us. We seal her up again, move her out into the sunlight, open it up to burn her to dust, and pour on the potion. The restored Mayor is understandably rather annoyed with Thrune and his allies. She’s not the only one - hundreds of the most influential people in Kintargo now want Thrune’s head on a spike.
 
Rajira: They probably wanted his head on a spike already, just on general principles. Now they REALLY want it.
 

When the rules get in the way of the fun, change the rules.  The easiest approach feels like either allowing Continuous on Healing (the reduced re-use time cost will still keep the recovery rate down).
 
Alternatively, what about a "time delay" limitation on Power Defense? It doesn't take Extra Time to activate, just Extra Time to reduce the Adjustment taken. That relies on the attack applying against Power Defense, though.
 
If it were my game, I'd look for a way to keep the cost down, even if it's handwavy, as I don't think this would come up all that often.  If these effects could be avoided entirely with 25 points of power defense, recovering faster should cost less than the 25 point cost of full immunity.

Regardless of how the next few minutes play out, the rebellion in Kintargo is going to have to wildly revise their threat estimate of Lord-Mayor Barzillai Thrune. The trap he laid would have devastated us, even if we hadn’t shown up. But it’s equally shocking how many resources he must have expended setting this up. 
 
Consider - in the Red Corner : Dozens of heavily armed Dotarri, Half a dozen Bearded Devils, a huge Bone Devil, an Erinyes, and a Contract Devil. Each of the devils has been concealed with expensive glamours and magical items until it was time to slaughter everybody in the building.
 
In the Blue Corner - Four artists and intellectuals and a few of their friends.
 
The Ghosts of Kintargo are not people suited to mass combat. In fact, our only member suited for face-to-face combat is Rajira’s cousin Mahat, who no doubt we’ll find sitting on a pile of dead Dotarri outside, later. Rajira is pretty deft with a kukri, true, but she got most of her skill at interpersonal violence while training for the Opera.
 
At least the Contract Devil is dead, if that was indeed Cizmerkis disguised as Thrune on the stage. And the Dotarri are clearly dismayed by the apparent death of their Lord-Mayor. But we're still seriously outnumbered, some of us are already badly wounded, and the assorted Devils have clearly identified us as People That Need To Die. Unfortunately the really big Azata is really a really big Bone Devil. They can turn invisible. And Fly. As Civilla, still up in the chandelier, will shortly learn to her cost. The Azata that was already flying is actually an Erinyes, and a horribly efficient sniper. And Rajira is having really, really bad luck avoiding the Bearded Devils. And one of the latter is paying attention to Terzo again. 
 
Then Civilla drops a Chthonic Ankylosaur onto the stage.
 
Civilla: If I kept the Xill around there was a real chance somebody would get implanted with more Xill.
Ayva: The opera about these events is going to be hilarious.
 
Happily, if Terzo dashes to the front of the orchestra pit then most of the party (and the Ankylosaur) can be buffed with the spell Good Hope. Another aria arises from the chaos.
 
Ayva: I can’t WAIT to see this opera.
 
Some of our other allies - Captain Cassius Sargaeta of the Chellish Navy, his boyfriend Marquel Aulorian, and the faerie dragon Vendalfek - keep working on getting the civilians out of the building alive, without too many of them being trampled to death.
 
Up on the balcony the Painted Nox and original continue to mutually annihilate - happily our fake is smart enough to stick as close as possible to Thrune’s bodyguard, to prevent her using her own evil glaive to best effect. And the original Nox has a Baleful Gaze attack now, after tearing a pair of blinders from her eyes in a brutal display. 
 
Although that affects her own allies as well, and the Painted Nox is immune. And for that matter everybody is too busy to even notice her trying to catch their gaze. At least Shimza can do ranged healing in the form of Scorching Rays and Flaming Spheres that make people feel better (with the added bonus that the Bearded Devils pause their attacks on people that are apparently already on fire). And Civilla and Shimza can Dimension Slide to somewhere safer than the chandelier and hide in an Invisibility Sphere. And the Dire Corby we’ve been having trained by a barbarian is finally able to help in combat. She might not be optimised for Face-to-Face Combat but she’s very very good at Beak-to-Spine.
 
Ayva: Our Lady of Squawking Death.
 
Although she hasn’t actually dismembered anything but training dummies lately. We’ve been trying to teach her to use her rage constructively.
 
Ayva in Flashback: ‘No no, you don’t cut them in half, because that’s murder. And murder is…?’ ‘... and Murder is wrong’
Rajira in Flashback: No, murder is crows.
 
Still, the Bearded Devil that Chough lands behind is definitely going to be murdered, after she grabs each side of his head and tears him in half down the middle.
 
Chough: RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE
 
Upstairs, our Painted Nox prevents the original from using the gaze attack again. Or gazing at anything ever again, by slicing her shiny magical glaive through both Nox’s eyes. If that WAS Cizmerkis the Xill killed, then the original Nox might just have been released from her contract, and is free to flee. Not that she can see to flee. Further, since it was Civilla’s Xill that landed the killing blow, she might be able to claim Nox’s contract by Right of Conquest. 
 
Terzo OoC: You MIGHT want to consult a lawyer on that idea first.
 
It probably won’t matter anyway - Civilla shadow-conjures a Holy Javelin and runs her through - Arcane Casters are ridiculously versatile. The original Nox staggers as holy light and clarions ravage her, and gets pushed out a window to a Disney Death. Where everybody can see that there are clearly two Noxs, and this one was some kind of abomination, and our one a blazing figure of goodness.
 
Rajira’s player: Oh god, we’re conflating two great songs - Blinded By The Light and Holy Diver.
 
The Bone Devil manages to critically injure itself (possibly it was blinded by the light of the Nox Kebab) but the Erinyes mages to mortally wound Terzo even as he’s trying to assist his friends with their own injuries. It can also see straight through the Invisibility Sphere. It’s just as well Shimza has an Amulet of Life’s Breath that Civilla made for her, to keep her going beyond any normal amount of injury.  
 
Civilla: We magic-users know exactly how squishy we are. 
 
At least the burrowing Ankylosaur continues to be effective. At the very least the nearly dead Ayva can hide behind it.
 
Civilla: I brought a siege engine to a knife fight.
 
Chough is certainly going through the opposition like a Ballista, too. She nearly kills a second Devil as it’s trying to Greater Teleport out of her way. And then the Ankylosaur becomes even more like a siege weapon, because Ayva casts Fly on it (and Rajira), from where she was hiding underneath. The Bone Devil and the Erinyes certainly weren’t expecting THAT. The concussed Erinyes crashes to earth just as the Euphoric Cloud obscuring half the room disperses. 
 
Rajira yells to Terzo get in behind the Erinyes while she attacks from the front, but this nearly backfires terribly as the Bone Devil casts Hemisphere of Ice first - or attempts to. It would seem it forgot about the Ankylosaur. You’d think a Flying Chthonic Ankylosaur would be difficult to forget. The devil gets thagomized in the face. At least if it suffers True Death at the dinosaur's tailclub it won’t have to explain to anybody what happened. That would just be embarrassing.
 
Painted Nox does a Superhero Landing from the balcony (Constructs with Regeneration don’t have to worry about broken ankles) and contributes to the flanking on the Erinyes. Rajira Flies in to the attack. Chough leaps clear across the orchestra pit to contribute some properly directed violence. Ayva adds Mydriatic Spontaneity, to keep the devil’s pupils constantly dilating and contracting and leaving it half-blind and nauseated. The dottari still intoxicated by the Euphoric Cloud watch all this with fascination, swaying slightly.
 

 
Ayva OoC: I can't wait until Civilla can summon Chthonic T. Rexes. 
Terzo OoC: We’ve all seen that episode of The Goodies.
 

This is one of the key lessons from Strike Force: make your game fit what your players and you want.  Don't use a stamp to crank out yet another dungeon crawl or whatever the module you bought says. 
 
If you have players who are just murder hobos, give them appropriate stuff to kill and things to loot.  If you have players who love to explore, give them an are with interesting elements and encounters to enjoy.  If you have players who love to roleplay, give them opportunities to ham it up with their character.  If you have players who love romances and interaction with NPCs, give them ladies and gentlemen to encounter and interact with.
 
What makes the game appealing, memorable, and enjoyable is the ability of the GM to craft a great story, but also to fill the needs and interests of their players.  Everyone shows up for a different reason, and being able to read that in your players is a key GM skill.

Lord-Mayor Barzillai Thrune, AKA “The Dogf***er”, is a man with multiple strikes against him. Firstly, he’s an Inquisitor of Asmodeus. Secondly, he’s a member of the Thrice-damned House of Thrune. Thirdly, he doesn’t like mint ice cream. This all adds up to Evil with three ‘E’s. EEEvil. Unfortunately, he’s also a bit smarter than we thought.
 
Admittedly, that might be on us. The so-called ‘Ghosts of Kintargo’ have been running around the city with so little difficulty, and successfully distracting the authorities with our fake ‘Nox the Redeemed’, that we may have started underestimating him. The fake Nox was certainly a good idea, and must have enraged Thrune no end. Even the rumours that his devil-sworn bodyguard was now working for the rebels would have been terrible PR for his administration, and there was still the question of how the Ghosts could possibly have switched her allegiance. Assuming the ‘Ghosts’ actually exist.
 
Of course, illusion magic is a thing. And further, there is absolutely nothing stopping Thrune having his own Nox. Revealing his own version, real or fake, at the Ruby Masquerade is a masterstroke, since there are over 300 of Kintargo’s richest and most influential citizens in attendance. Thrune can probably also guess that some of the rebellion leadership are in the crowd - although the jokes on him, we all are.
 
The really bad news, however, is that the dogbotherer seems willing to kill all those attendees in an effort to slander the Ghosts of Kintargo, and just said as much, as his dotarri lock the doors to the opera house with ourselves and hundreds of mostly-innocent citizens inside. And there’s the urgent question of WHY, when we’ve already established that assassinating Thrune in front of hundreds of witnesses is a bad idea, Civilla Alazario unilaterally decided to attack him. The rest of the Ghosts aren’t privy to the deal she made with the contract devil Cizmerkis, current owner of Nox's soul - and that deal was just called due.
 
Although Thrune is hopefully right about one thing - the colours of the Ghosts of Kintargo are indeed the colors of blood, of betrayal, and of death. HIS blood, betrayal, and death. He certainly seemed surprised that one of the Ghosts was standing right next to him on the stage. It’s just a pity that the assassin Rajira wasn’t standing on the other side, to stab him in the neck when he turned to yell ‘Betrayer!’ at Civilla.
 
Terzo OoC: I am trepidatious about tonight’s session. The only combat monster in the party is you.
Rajira OoC: I’m not a combat monster.
Terzo OoC: If your opponents are asleep you are.
 
And then our situation goes from bad to SO MUCH WORSE.
 
True, we’re trapped in a building with hundreds of civilians, and dozens of heavily armed dotarri and a high level Inquisitor of Asmodeus, but we’ve got Vendelfek the faerie dragon in the crowd, and Captain Sargaeta planted our fake Nox upstairs earlier. Chough, the Dire Corby adopted sister of those Kenku we recruited, has also been busy - she’s been disabling those cockatrice cages just in case Thrune WAS planning to drop them into the crowd. Alas, she isn’t in position to drop on Thrune from 60 feet up. And then, suddenly, a huge beautiful bewinged serpentine creature appears in and emerges from the orchestra pit, and a bunch of flying angelic figures drop their invisibility in the crowd, or fly in through up-stairs windows. Apparently they’re Azatas, benevolent celestials native to the plane of Elysium. Perhaps Thrune’s actions have finally provoked a response, or it’s some protocol to defend the Opera House when mass bloodshed is imminent?
 

 
Civilla: Do they have horns and are they spitting fire? No? Then they might be on our side.
 
Perhaps somebody else made plans for this evening. The Lillend Azata moves from the orchestra pit into the crowd, which panics in abject terror. Several of the party goers are crushed. Not a good start.
 
The Ghosts of Kintargo: What?!?!
 
And then one of the other Azata attacks Terzo.
 
The Ghosts of Kintargo: What?!?!?!?!!
 
The Azata are actually magically disguised Devils. 
 
The Ghosts of Kintargo: !!!!!!!!!!!
 
Even with all the rest of this happening, Civilla is skeptical that the chained Nox on the stage is the real thing - after being dismembered and scattered over multiple graves, it would take a Wish spell to locate her, let alone raise her from the dead. Our fake Nox doesn’t seem to care - the moment she spots the original her attention is entirely focused on her. Possibly we should have provided a script. Appearing on the upstairs balcony and shouting “The rumours are true, Barzillai! You DO F*** dogs.”, perhaps.
 
Civilla Dimension Slides two stories straight up, onto the chandelier, and unleashes a Xill onto Barzillai. Xills are ethereal marauders with four arms that use their poisoned mandibles to paralyze their victims and implant eggs, but right now she’s beyond caring whether they're evil or not.
 

 
To her shock, Thrune shrugs off every attack. Happily another of the fake Azata goes after Shimza and comes within claws-reach of the Xill. Although it’s extremely alarming that the Barbed Devils seem to know exactly where the Ghosts of Kintargo are in the crowd. Although it’s likely they devils have been studying the crowd and marking everybody with a Good aura that is powerful enough to be a threat. Certainly they didn’t target Rajira.
 
Rajira uses her claws and her poisonous saliva to injure Thrune, but once again he shrugs off the venom. 
 
Barzillai: You DARE attack your Mayor?!
 
He attacks with his flaming mace, which is exactly when Avya explodes into a vortex of tattooed creatures, which is certainly surprising. Thrune certainly wasn’t expecting it. Nor was Thrune’s Nox. Shimza joins Civilla in the chandelier, and casts Euphoric Cloud on some of the Bearded Devils and dotarri. It might not drug a devil, but it DOES fill a large chunk of the dance floor with obscuring fog. 
 
The real Nox spots our fake - and Dimension Doors upstairs to fight her. Terzo leaps into the orchestra pit and sings a suitable aria to inspire his friends and the crowd. The crowd, thus encouraged, rush the doors. A few get shot down, but the dotarri get trampled and the exit forced open. 
 
Ayva: Do what you’re good at, Terzo - get people out of the opera!
Terzo: RUDE.
 
The big fake Azata seals the main doors again with a wall of Ice. Happily, we have Shimza, who is notably proficient with fire. Unfortunately, another devil cast Unholy Blight into the crowd, but thankfully doesn’t kill too many people. 
Thrune DOES goes down under the Xill’s next flurry of attacks, but is not revealed as another devil. This surprises Civilla - by this point she was expecting it to be Cizmerkis, who by provoking her original attack NOW, against the wrong target, was ensuring her damnation. Although, even if it’s another fake, seeing their Lord-Mayor violently disemboweled does shock the assembled dotarri.
 
Terzo’s performance inspires the crowd again, and they start pouring out of the building. At least somebody is going to get out of here alive. Because with all the devils now focusing their attacks on the Ghosts of Kintargo, it seems quite likely that we’re not getting out ourselves.
 

If nothing else, they sometimes serve as a way to make things about your PC come up in game.
 
Like, I *could* simply mention the fact that I've got this tattoo from whatever mystical mentor trained me, or that his old archnemesis is now looking for me, the best of his old enemy's students, to prove his superior magic, or even that I look very strange to people who view souls ever since mine started that change that my magic causes to a caster's spirit. But then everyone can feel free to ignore it totally to go right back to some other thing that they wanted the game to be about.
 
But by having disadvantages and complications become an option for a PC, you suddenly have that way of letting everyone know, the things I want to add to the game as a whole include...

Missed,rhis the first time through.
 
I appreciate the invite, Sir, but if I didn't board the ship when it was,in ita Prime, I am certainly not going aboard when it is sinking.
 

 
 

And that was the end-of-session cliffhanger.

I like Hero points because they compensate for having no writer.  Here is an example of what I mean:
 
I had a brickish character whose conceit was that he was a "bloodguard" that he was part of a long line of people through history that were chosen by God to protect someone and keep them safe.  These might be nobodies who have an unknown impact on the world, they might be someone important and obviously historical.  In the game, the ward was one of the other PCs who was a bit of a glass cannon, he was big on utility but light on defenses.
 
The ward got into trouble at the top of a building (the team split up and came from below and above) and my character was at the bottom floor.  So he flew into an elevator shaft, and flew straight up as fast as possible and did an armor piercing move through on the roof of the elevator to get out in time to save his ward and do a neat presence attack.
 
I rolled all ones.  I'm not even joking, every die ended up a one.  I did zero body to the elevator shaft and bounce off it, taking no damage.  Thankfully the giant bang was enough to distract the bad guy but... really?  My big moment ruined by a catastrophically bad die roll?  This was a perfect, beautiful moment for the splash page, to do my duty and fulfill my character's purpose, turned into a humiliating and frustrating failure.
 
In some campaigns that kind of thing is fine, it fits the theme and tone. In most, though... not so much

It's like on the Discworld -- there are about 37 different thunder gods, and Blind Io is all of them. He accomplishes this by several different hammers and a collection of false noses.

It's only cosplay if you're not actually a superhero.

This I completely agree with.
 
 
 
This I absolutely agree with!
 
The scab that has gone unpicked, though, is that sometimes the mechanics of a particular game enforce a flavor.  The discussion has come up before.  Unfortunately, as we are fans of not just the same system, but the same universal system, it isn't a popular topic.
 
Just like "what makes it feel like Greyhawk," sometimes the question has to be answered by referencing unique or quirky mechanics not found outside one particular game system.  (Looking at you, Saving Throw).
 
My example was mostly humorous, but also just a little serious: Claw-Claw-Bite.
 
Claw-Claw-Bite is _ingrained_ into classic D and D settings because it was such a huge part of the suspense of an encounter way back when.  Nowadays, there are probably all kinds of feats and unique class abilities that make CCB meaningless over all.  But back when Greyhawk was the king of settings, it was _critical_.
 
What is it?  Well, the monster gets three attacks.
 
HERO can't do that.  Sure, you could declare that it is a multiple power attack (which never had formal rules until 5e, as far as I can recall.  We just assumed- well, some folks did; others assumed _an_ (which means one) attack ended your turn.  Others assumed it was a single attack action.  Still others figured you could shoot each power at a different target akin to some sort of MPA-as-Sweep.
 
And you could rule "CCB is an MPA," but then your ninja is going to want to know why he can't MPA with Punch-Punch-Kick.
 
Or you could define a massive HKA, take Reduced Penetration but split it three ways instead of two.  You could create a power called "Held Action that costs 30 pts for an extra phase to be used whenever you want, give the monsters two of them and _that's_ how they  CCB more than one target-  ir even define it as a limited no-range autofire but claws and bites so identical damage.  You could sig go the old Combo System we used for our Pitfighter campaign back in the 90s --  all kinds of things that you _could_ do.
 
But every one of them is outside the rules as they are right now, and every one of them requires that you _add something else_ to a famously slow combat system.
 
Again: still totally do-able, but _what else_ 'feels like Greyhawk?'   Well, you can sub a characteristic roll for a saving throw (roll 7 to not die!), but that has other HERO-related problems, since the only way you are going to need a save versus most things isn't necessarily fatal in HERO like it is in DnD.  Poison doesnt just kill,  it does damage, which has to be applied, and within parameters determined by how the poison was built.
 
So so you get a con roll every time?  Free life support versus poison?  Or just for those special occasions when you know the poison is instanty fatal [30d6 NND does BODY].  Of course that has the unitended side effect of ruining being poisoned to any lesser degree: 
 
You have been poisoned!
 
Do I make a Con Save?
 
No; I dont think so-
 
Oh, good.  I will be fine for a while.  Better go look for a medic.
 
So yes: you can simulate the effects of other mechanics, but when the mechanic itself is part of the vibe--  well, only one game-- the one you designed specifically for that vibe- is going to give it to you.
 
I mentioned playing my first Western RPG with Traveller.  Since then, we have played a _lot_ of western HERO, but even in the same setting, the game feels different.  HERO as-is just does not deliver that "combat is lethal" feel the way that Traveller does.  One-shot kills are _Way_ more common in Traveller than in HERO.   You can use Hit Locations if you want- add another step into combat- but Traveller gives you things like "take this 2d+2 damage directly into a randomly determined characteristic whose value was determined by rolling two dice...  All hits are disabling hits- all damage goes directly against a characteristic.
 
Again- you can add in similar things, bur you _are_ adding: going over and above what the rules are in order to force a feel found somewhere else.   It works; I won't pretend I haven't done it myself.  The only thing that you can't recreate by additional rules is a quick-and-dirty feel.
 
Now if you want a _supremely_ lethal western, play Boot Hill (at least the first couple of editions).  We had some of the kindest, most courteous, most chivalrous gun slingers and  lowlifes you ever saw--  everyone was afraid to offend _anyone_.
 
Honestly, if you want a game heavy on social interaction and very light on combat, play Boot Hill!  After their fourth or fifth character, the players will think long and hard about if their character even _wants_ to carry a gun!   
 
the only,game potentially more lethal would be Paranoia, but only if you were playing the day after the GM's wife left him-
 
for _you_.
 
and you brought her to the game.
 
 
sure- lethality is but one tiny facet of a game system; it is simply easy to point out as an example.  There are other things, too.
 
I cast level nine fireball!
 
I cast Ranged Killing Attack!
 
Hiw many dice?
 
I'm not sure.  How many guys where here?  How close together are they?  Oh, crap!  My END is pretty low; let's make it four dice and see what happens, okay?
 
 
 

I take it for granted that you will mis-spell something. That is because you are an American and it is an epidemic in your country......

Why the child of heroes?
 
It might prove amusing to have your parents rooting for you, giving advice, cheering you on, collecting news clippings of your exploits and hoping and praying that you never find out that they are retired and still-wanted supervillains.
 
I mean honestly, if I were the GM, I could have so much fun with this....
 
 

Imagine that God is simply a bunch of people sitting at a table in a basement chucking cubes and telling stories...

The Beck Theatre had gone all out in their production of MacBeth this year.  And things were going great in rehearsals...
 
...well, except for props disappearing and reappearing...
 
...and costumes getting torn apart...
 
...and strange noises in the theatre...
 
...and now, somebody's knifed the understudy to Lady MacBeth!

Or "Hold my beer and watch THIS~!"