David Johnston

Re: Alignment Issues Because both of them are alignment based. If alignment has no place in Fantasy Hero, then neither can anything approximating a faithful representation of those books.

Re: Alignment Issues That would mean Fantasy Hero can't do Three Hearts and Three Lions (Law/Chaos and make no mistake, Chaos is evil) or Witch World (Light/Shadow).

Re: D&D3e to HERO System Conversion Update I don't buy it. I've seen too many players go sociopathic with far less exotic environments that have no alignments to take seriously the premise that the existence of objective forces of good and evil encourages that. Now, some players are just inclined that way. They think that's what's fun. But the players who in other circumstances wouldn't, seem most likely to go that way when there's no real side to join that's any different from any other side. Left to their own devices in a world made up of scum and nonentities, the only thing to fight for is your own advantage and let anyone who stands in your way go to the devil. In short, the typical cyberpunk campaign.

Re: Alignment Issues You do realise, don't you, that such a character is probably entirely consistent with D&D's Evil? Evil does not require you to kill.

Re: Alignment Issues What constraints would those be? The fact is starting with any fantasy that had a Heaven and as Hell as objective elements of the universe, there were plenty of fantasies that had clear cut and opposed moral factions before D&D ever came along. In fact that was one of the things that defined swords and sorcery as a separate genre, a kind of fantasy noir in which there was evil but no good. Elric is an example of that. There's plenty of evil in Elric, most notably that black phallic substitute he carries around. There just doesn't happen to be any good. Um...rollplaying? Not to sound harsh, but I suppose one need not care about characters' motivations if one views the RPG as simply advanced wargaming, and the characters as simply a set of stats to be used to one's advantage, a thin mask to be worn by the player. That's a reason for the player to care about his character's motivations but I've played in games that had no character disadvantages and my characters still had motivations. Is it a reason for the gm to care about them?

Re: Alignment Issues

Re: Alignment Issues Hm. Why do you care about a character's motivation in the first place?

Re: Alignment Issues In fact if you read a current set of D&D rules, they say quite explicitly that Good people do bad things and Evil people do good things. But the reality is, in the fantasy genre there are loads of worlds which have some kind of alignment system.

Re: Alignment Issues

Re: Alignment Issues More like being a mutant, at least in the case of D&D. There are people and things that can detect it. As far as Hero system goes, one simple approach, and the approach which is is in fact already used to some extent, is to make alignment a special effect. If you are Holy aligned, then your magic is going to have a Holy special effect. Things that are vulnerable to Holy attacks are going to get the smackdown. NNDs and other attacks that are specifically aimed at those who are not Unholy are going to hurt you. Detects that are aimed at Holiness will ping you. But people who have no or neutral (if such exists) supernatural connections? No alignment. Of course Detect Unholy will also ping on you if you happen to be carrying something with a Unholy enchantment on it, or even if you yourself are under an Unholy spell, so it's not as simple as seeing if someone pings as Unholy and then whacking them, if you are not an irresponsible fanatic. Of course a bipolar approach may or may not suit your purposes. It was good enough for Norton, Moorcock and Lewis, but it isn't for everyone. I kind of like the Master of Magic system where there were 5 flavours, Life, Death, Nature, Chaos and Sorcery. (One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong...)

Re: Magic special effect It isn't. All the other powers have at least two special effects too. Cyclops doesn't just have "Forcebeam", he has "Mutant Forcebeam". Iron Man has "Circuitry Forcebeam". Susan Storm has "Cosmic Forcebeam".

Re: Superpowered Worlds You're talking about these übermuscles like they won't have the drive to make tech to do things they can do but that are hard to do. Or like they're such über-übermuscles they can haul any size wagon into town themselves. Any size they can make with pre-industrial technology. Make a wagon too big and you run into the problem of the strength limitations of the materials you make the wagon from, and most particularly the material from which you make the harness you'll be using to attacn your draft animals to the wagon even assuming you have draft animals with the same superpowers the natives have.

Re: Why do we have skills?

Re: Costumes in a Real World Game Any form of movement power capable of propelling you faster than about 40 MPH is something you'll want to be wearing leather or skin tight clothing for. Regular clothes just won't stand up to the wear and tear and the drag becomes noticeable. There's a reason why if you look at a luger or a speedskater their outfit looks very much like a superhero costume. The faster you go, the more clothing that isn't smooth becomes an issue.

The old Torg RPG, long since fallen by the wayside, had an unusual approach to cross-genre adventuring. While normal people plopped into another universe would almost immediately lost the ability to use any ability or technology that did not exist in the new universe and quickly transform entirely into a denizen of that universe, unable to even clearly recall their previous lives. What's more, when one universe invaded another, they could impose their rules on it, causing the defenders to find their weapons failing and even forgetting which side they were on. PC types and major villains were more resistant of course. Looking through my old Torg materials I started thinking about the Hero system equivalents. One approach I've seen is a rules mechanic where the longer you spend in a high magic universe, the more of a failure chance your anachronistic technology accumulates. Obviously your battlesuit character's priority is going to be getting out there as fast as superhumanly possible. There was kind of a similar idea in a time travel module, where the longer you spent in the past, the more Unluck you accumulated. If someone was to feel like dusting off his Torg material and using it with a system which is not dead, obviously the cumulative thing wouldn't work. I could of course try to create a Hero version of the relevant Torg mechanics, but life is too short for that kind of nonsense. The result would look like a dogs breakfast anyway. So, how about this approach: 1. Spear carriers and bystanders pretty much instantly lose their ability to do anything that conflicts with the local ground rules. They gradually lose memories of their previous existence if the local reality is "pure". 2. Heroes and villains are another matter. While equipment and spells they haven't paid points to buy as powers stop working for them just like that of the spear carriers the stuff they paid points for still works. However any powers that have an incompatible special effect with the zone or universe you are presently in, give you 1 die of bad luck if the zone is "mixed" and 3 dice of bad luck if the zone is "pure". If this bad luck kicks in, then your powers and equipment go on the fritz. There's one other element that I'm thinking of including, the "reality storms" that happen on the borders between realities and that characters could invoke. The natural ones are easy enough to handle. Ego based free roaming transformation attacks that give you a "radiation accident", transforming you and your equipment. I think maybe I'd have them cause amnesia as well. But the character invoked ones were basically spiritual duels. If you started one the opponent could fight back with his "ego" + skill and transform you instead. I'm not sure how to do that.

Re: Why do we have skills? All clairsentience does is give you sensory data. But if what you are sensing is anything complex or hard to understand, Clairsentience won't help at all.

Re: Why do we have skills? There is of course another thing in the favour of skills, which that some skills do things that are simply impossible for a power. Knowledge skills in particular have no power which can duplicate them in every application. At best you can just use telepathy to steal the knowledge from someone who does have the skill.

Re: Total lack of ideas, clock is ticking down I had a character named Templar, who had the power to teleport between different times and places and to summon objects (weapons mostly) from his past. He was in fact a Templar knight who used his power to escape execution (but who had firm religious convictions about the wisdom of trying to defy God's will by changing history.)

Re: Help with alternate U.S. history? For your Missouri fascist regime, I suggest "Heartland Protectorate" as the name.

Re: Help with alternate U.S. history? Utah? Extreme liberals? I...don't...think so. Well, maybe the Pacs militarily occupy and rule the locals with an iron fist. Or Utah could just end up as it's own nation. OK. Step one. Impose martial law. Suspension of civil liberties is always a good first step toward dystopia. Therefore there must be convincing indications that the assassination was the result of not a lone whackjob but some kind of conspiracy. I suggest killing Vice President Bush as well in a coordinated strike to decapitate the American government. Then you can have Alexander Haig impose martial law and order the arrest of Tip O'Neal and some other leading Democrats for treason. Unfortunately I have no idea who was President Pro Tempore of the Senate in 1981 and can't seem to find out. Maybe use a fictional character, or just assume whoever it was stepped aside in favour of Haig. Scrabbling desperately for support, President Haig nominates James Swaggert as his vice president. Non-biblebelters freak. Step Two: Create the secession movements Governor Brown of California announces that he has no intention of turning over his part of the national guard to federal control when the current President is illegitimate. Other governors in the pacific area follow suit as do governers in the northeast who are O'Neal partisans. Step Three: Go broke. The American credit rating immediately smashes because of the instability and this creates economic chaos world wide, especially since Reagan's ballooning deficit means that the United States is now totally unable to service its debt. Swaggert's nomination for VP is never ratified since much of congress thinks Haig isn't even rightfully President. Saddam Hussein takes advantage of the confusion and conquers Kuwait. The U.S. dollar plummets in value. Overstressed, Haig commits suicide but there are widespread suspicions that the O'Neal Conspiracy has claimed another victim. There are now two people with a claim to be President, O'Neal (still in prison indicted for treason) and Swaggert, nominated but not ratified. Governer Brown refuses to recognise the legitimacy of either of them under the circumstances and demands an emergency election to settle the issue of who is in charge. Step Four: Wrap things up. The election never happens. Swaggert refuses, and large parts of the country (and the military) refuse to accept his authority. War breaks out but the bankruptcy of the nation makes it impossible to properly prosecute it. The troops sent out to secure the missile silos rebel because they aren't even being fed properly. From there, everything breaks apart in short order. Texas announces its secession to get away from the federal debt, Brown and Swaggert both set up their own nations on their power base, and umm...Donald Trump appoints himself successor to Tip O'Neal, who died in custody. Meanwhile, massive starvation and rioting in the USSR causes it to fall even harder than in reality and the Saudis have fallen to be replaced by a fundamentalist regime which, in combination with Iran and Afghanistan are fighting Iraq. The disruption to the world petroleum market is substantial with most of the major producers having taking a major hit. The Midwest Union is considering going to war with Canada. Something like that?

Re: Why do we have skills?

Re: Kim Possible - Modern Day Pulp Heroine? Since when is Rufus Ron's DNPC though? Has he ever rescued Rufus from anything? Now Rufus rescues the guys all the time.

Re: Superpowered Worlds Dude, you are so going to come up short as a lover by their standards. What do you mean, you only have two hands? But on consideration, prey species may not be much in demand for as niches for the beasties. Although it does make it easier to fill your belly...

Re: Superpowered Worlds

Re: Why do we have skills?