Heroman

Re: New Power: Scalable Immunity

Isn't this basically PD/ED/Armor built with a "Only Works Against: Limited Type Of Attack"?

Re: Divide by Three

I actually like the look of KS's Metruvius system alot. It seems to be a good balance between static raw/MP spells and the overly powerful VPP. It does lack the ability to readily use the different spellbooks out there, though I would guess after you establish a deck of Famillia and Facillia you could approximate them.

I am actually hoping to write up a rune system based on this design (so each power/adv is a rune, the sum combination invoked being the spell). It certainly seems to reward one who goes deep into magic.

I am curious, for anyone who has used it, does it work better in a design where you get weapons for free, or always a point cost?

-hm

Re: just ordered the entire set. also have a question

Oh, also keep in mind that there is a TravellerHero now which could save you some work if you wanted to run it in that campaign world....

Re: Elves

I have elves, but they are short, made of cookie dough and live in hollowed out trees. The inhabitants in the game LOVE elves, especially during the hot season when they get a nice and baked....

Re: Sidekick (only) with Fantasy ?

I guess related to that, if they only had sidekick and you wanted to make things easy for them, are there issues with sharing the FH templates (in example, having a HTML page describing the different packages, maybe sample CHAR builds, or even a PHP which allows em to click a CHAR setup, a class, and additional skills?

I guess the question is about what is allowed to be reprinted...

Re: All Flesh Must Be Eaten

The thing that I wonder about this genre, is how do you get around the general feeling of hopelessness that the Characters would be stuck in?

 

If you've ever seen the movies, the world in general is fscked, no two words about it. Unless you go outside of genre and allow for supernatural intervention/assistance on the side of the Living, there are no mundane means of defeating the Zombie hordes in the long run.

 

Particularly if you go for the far more grim Return of the Living Dead zombies. You couldn't kill those zombies with massive brain injury, they devoured the brains of anything that was living (humans were not their sole target, cats and dogs were fair game as well), and you couldn't burn them as it only ended up creating more of them (through the smoke from burning the bodies coming back to earth as rain and animating any nearby graveyard).

 

I just have hard time getting over these aspects. I had similar problems with the movie The Grudge, the characters had no hope, they had absolutely no ability to defend themselves against a supernatural horror.

 

TB

Really, when you encounter an Against All Odds type scenario, the intended overall feeling is supposed to be hopelessness. All the pathetic people you encounter have succumb to the acceptance that they will die or are so strung out that they will try to go in a blaze of glory. That is the difference between them and our Heroes. The heroes do not want to give up, despite the odds. Perhaps it is that, admist all the running around, (hopefully) exciting and near death enounters in the fast action run, they finally find a path out of the horror that they must blaze thru. If there is no way out, then the Hero is the one who realizes they need to work on defenses and make a safe haven. The Hero is the one who never gives up (or if you are playing a fallen type hero, maybe they succumb to depression but during the course of the game find something to believe in). A Hero could also be the type who, despite all current evidence, believe there must be a way to defeat the enemy, just one not conceived of or discovered. That would lead the entrenched/running group to need to visit science labs, hospitals, etc, taking them out of whatever relative safety they have developed into the exciting world of danger with the hope of success. Feeding that hope is the sign of a healthy game. Even a heroic PC cannot live on just failure alone. They need little glimmers of light (even if offset by loss).

The Grudge is a good example of more the Discovery Hero, something in common with good Call Of Cthulhu games. In this case, the enemy may be limited but is neigh invunerable. There is where Gun Heroes get munched up. You simply cannot get rid of them thru brute force. You need to evade or slow down the enemy while you try to gain enough information to finally get rid of the enemy. This type can be kinda hard for D&D type converts who usually are not challenged in this manner.

In either case, if the scenario is a doomed one where, in the end, there is no escape, then the fun of the game must be built on survival (though the final doom may be outside the scope of the game). In example, for Call Of Cthulhu, you cannot really win; there will always be occultists, dangerous things will always come into our world, and there is the ever present threat that someone, somewhere will wake an Old One and make humans into skittles. The fun comes from confronting these and pushing off the doomed day while trying to keep your fingers around sanity.

Re: Building Tech for Original Setting

The only thing I would say about the magshield/magblade item is this: if the technology is so prevalent, I would doubt they live with the 50/50 chance of having the right polarity. That would be like having a huge mastery of metals and making swiss cheese armor that only has a 50% chance of stopping a bullet.

At *worse* I would build the shield as a DR (only vs magnetic weapons) as it likely cycles thru polarity to slow down the attack.

By general rule of thumb, I would make the weapons and defenses on par with each other and any any unusual interactions with non-magnetic items, especially if the civilization developed this stuff well before any contact with other species.

Re: Ship travel times: speed-of-light vs. speed-of-plot

Hey, I'm game!

But to get back to my original question, do you need to know the scientific reasoning behind why FTL works (folding space-time, superluminal, hyperspace, etc.), or the game mechanics behind how it works (travel times, can you be tracked or intercepted, etc)? Both? Neither?

I think the question, from a gaming perspective is more of a "can this affect you?" in determining importance of details. If your engine runs off an inexhaustable energy supply, details are not important. If you need to refuel, it becomes important. If ambushes and in transit combat are not done, how/how long is not important (aside from rough guesses). If you need to travel 100 planet diameters before you can engage your FTL drives, then it can be important. Heck, I had been running my space game far, far before SH and 5th and never really worked up details on the ship and space combat because the design of the game did not make it important. Only now, with a interest in fighter combat and the like does the science 'harden'...

Re: And in his wake ... desolation (Power Design Help)

CE Would seem to work very well, except it likely will not cause the harm at a fast enough rate. I would definately go more for either Major Transform or maybe even a Killing Attack with invisible sfx, limited to affect the planet's resources/life. Even a couple D6 at megascale AoE would kill off life fast...

As far as 'carriers', it would seem the best way would be some form of uncontrolled usable on others. Define how may active agents you want and bingo!

Re: Anime Champions?

 

However, at the very, very end of the film series we see a more grown-=up C-ko who is really cute, not cute-to-the-point-of-parody, and apparently much more emotionally mature as well. It seems likely that C-ko and A-ko will end up as a true couple after that, and C-ko expresses the desire for everyone to put aside their rivalries and become friends, which means that even A-ko and B-ko could reconcile.

Hrm, I really never got the feel that A/C-Ko were a couple. C-Ko, while having the "Essence of Desribaility" also has the "Essence Of Naitivity/Innocence". Hers is much more of a big sister/best friend worship at most. I think A-Ko's lack of interest in boys merely comes from no time between C-Ko's need for attention and B-Ko's rampages.

Related, Blue/Gray was a pretty interesting twist on the 3 characters.

Re: Anime Champions?

Have you seen the Tachikoma-kun omakes for SAC? Although they are mostly comic, they are ina way sad too. The Tachikoma really do ahve feelings, needs and desires, yet they are essentially disposable weapons. Are they any less worthy than the heavily-cyberneticized beings referred to as "humanity" in that series? Is a being any less of a being because it was manufactured rather than born?

True, but they do serve a higher purpose of introducing the question of who actually has ghosts in the age where organic and inorganic are freely traded. They themselves, I believe, resolve that they do indeed have ghosts and not just developed feelings. They are never really just thrown at the enemy, they actually are used quite tactically but are expected to be heavier in the firefight due to their armoring and nimbleness. I would think that any person equally powerful would be used the same though yes, the big difference is that few feel remorse when they get hit. I do wonder if it also had any correlation to hired mercenaries and how they may be considered 'disposable'.

One thing I must have missed...when they were taken away, was it ever explained why they were brought back? Were they 'fixed'?

Re: Anime Champions?

Bubblegum Crisis is one of those stories where part of the question of "How do we save the city?" is "Should we bother? Is the city worth saving?" MegaTokyo thematically is very similar to the Gotham City of Batman Begins: a stinking pit with a glittering surface that all but the most quixotic have given up on.

Hrm been a while since I saw that. Isn't the premise of BGC pretty much, for every episode..."BGC member 'X' has friend 'Y'. 'Y' gets into trouble with subtle, evil, gloating person 'Z'. Optional confrontation between 'X' and 'Z' where 'X' realizes something is amiss. 'Y' is violently killed by 'Z'. GBC member 'X' gets mad/pouts. They go nail the killer 'Z'." I don't remember there being much story beyond that to the point that after a while watching it, I generally thought "Hrm...that person is not a BGC person. They are a friend. Boy, are they toast!!!!" It is amazing they knew anyone in the city by the time it was all done...

Arguments of 2033 vs. 2040 are sort of like the arguments over whether the Ghost in the Shell theatrical films are better than Stand Alone Complex. Both deal with the same issue (in a world where almost everyone is at least part machine, does the word "human" still have any real meaning?) in different ways. Stand Alone Complex is especially notable for the tachikoma, a series of robot tanks with artifical intelligences who are used by Section 9 as cannon fodder despite the fact that they are developing feelings and emotions.

I liked the first movie far more than the second, but the SAC more. I love the politics and philosophy they draw up, but in the second there were just too many points where I thought to myself "just shoot someone already!!!!"

The series I think help flush out the support cast far better than in the movies.

Re: Anime Champions?

But if you want to play super-heroic, it doesn't get much weirder than Graviton. Someone built an entire alternate DC Universe around A-Ko as the new Supergirl. And if A-ko ever learns to fly she'll have all the requirements.

 

As it is A-Ko has the three classic Superman powers: "Faster than a speeding bullet" (runs to school every day at Warp 10 with C-ko flying behind held by the wrist), "more powerful than a locomotive" (I feel sorry for any skyscraper she punches) and "Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound" (she certainly has extremely prodigious jumping ability and precision). The only thing stopping her from being the new Supergirl is that she refuses to call herself Supergirl. And her rival B-ko is much closer to a Lex Luthor figure than she realizes (she has the wealth, the skills, the unholy obsessions, and the power armor, with the addition of a percieved romantic rivalry).

Actually, isn't the hinted premise that she in fact is the daughter of Superman and Wonder Woman (from the last scene where you actually get to see the parents)?

Re: Overwhelming PRE attacks

I would definately approach it from a limit perspective. That and simply deny powers where the player is obviously trying to get a combination to circumvent your restrictions. While it is reasonable to have a hero with complimentary powers, when they directly add it is not abiding by the limits you place.

You could also, for those pesky PRE monsters, introduce the BDR (Blind, Deaf, Radar) Villians. You need to understand what the attacker is trying to get you to do after all...

Also, rampaging computer controlled vehicles will mock (well, can be programmed to artifically mock) PRE dependant people. Face it; the villian element will watch and learn about the heroes. They want to succeed so they will adapt. There even could be a larger villian that wants to rough up the heroes so they provide even these smaller gangs with tech designed to hit the heroes hard.

A few questions with regard to the -1 Ablative rule where the defense value degrades by 5AP.

I am looking at this from a Heroic style genre, namely small mecha (4m), using hit locations and designing some damagable exterior armor.

Where it states "...every shot against which an Ablative Defense Power provides protection and which could, if a good enough roll were achieved, do BODY damage to the target..."

If a vehicle has layered defenses, such as DEF (Ablative) and normal DEF, does that mean the potental damage the attack can do must overcome both the ablative and normal DEF combined?

When using Hit Locations, does that mean you take the damage multiplier into account when making this determination?

Is the maximum DEF or current level of the Ablative DEF used when making this check?

Thanks for the info!

Re: Help save a campaign

Overall, does not sound too unsalvagable.

How many days have the fled? The elf with them or still running?

If they are already at the estate

If they have been away 3 days, it is likely some dust has settled and their ability to affect the uprising is gone. It could be that the slaves overran the government and have taken control. It could be that the government got back into control and is now squashing the remaining slaves. Your decision for what the city will be like. If it is part of a larger kingdom, the slaves will likely loot as much as they can and then flee before neighboring lands come to reclaim. It would likely be better for the group if the slaves were doing good; likely less people alive who witnessed many of the illicit activities.

If they are still fleeing, you could just overview it and be at the same spot as above.

Likely, the only one with an issue is Feng. He lost the match and may feel compelled to regain some honor to keep himself and his estates alive. Easiest thing would be to gather up his friends and make a brute squad. Turn in a few slaves to the guards and (especially if they are swamped) maybe get special sanction to hunt down the slaves. This would also allow the not-so-nice allies of his to vent a little, with approval from the government

If he and the others can regain some critical structure which was taken over, he could probably get his pardon and get back some stability.

When I said 'only one with an issue is Feng' I of course meant Feng and scaredy elf.

The forest is teeming with orcs, you see. The slave uprising was not accidental with their arrival. They staged it in fact. Orc spies have been stirring up things for a while and it cumulted. Feng should also not feel too bad about the arena either. His opponent, you see, was no ordinary fighter. Instead he was greatly skilled orc warrior, disgused (some sort of cosmetic or magical means) to look humanish so he could get close enough to the prince during the battle to kill him. The group could realise something is amiss during their escape. During the escape, the opponent was injured. Feng, feeling a bit in debt since his life was saved, dragged the guy along. At some point during the inspection his real race is revealed. Someone (Articus maybe) faintly hears the drums far off and with any luck (or maybe more hints from the NPC peons) they realize an orc seige is coming.

Cimmerage, has his own problems. He stumbles across a large part of the orc army's camp. They are stripping the lands to make their siege equipment and to feed the troops. They are devistating the land without care.

If he goes on to his homeland elves (not sure how long it would take), they will be rightly pissed off at him. Leaving a forest to be desecrated by the orcs is likely a great atrocity. Perhaps his is even stripped of his ranger title for running like a coward and must make amends before they allow him to return. He could be forced to return to that city to warn them (lesser of 2 evils).

If instead he stays, perhaps repeated hammering into his head that he alone cannot do too much will defragment the group.

Of course, you do have the longer term issue. Why the heck do these people stay together? The leechers must find some value from the stronger ones and the stronger ones must have a use for the leechers.

Some ideas.

Ranger boy. It could be that the PC is not comfortable in the city. Maybe do some more woodland missions that he is better in. Then when they go tot he city, he would be more oblidged to stay around and help the group as they helped him in the woods.

Assassin. Sigh, not much to do about info horders. Perhaps, after giving some brute squad help or maybe even recruitment from a in city thief, this person gets on the government payroll. Still allowed to freelance, but is in service more along the line of Feng.

Pyra. You know, most enlightened cities where the pretty scrolls of magical power are located do not take kindly to building fireball chucking mages. Perhaps there is something juice they would love to have but cannot because of that reputation.

Another rambly idea. The group cowards at Feng's place for a while. Eventually a troop from the city comes. Feng and the others (possibly identified as his cohorts) must venture into hostile territory, follwing the orc band who looted the city to return an item of power.

If it were not for Feng's land investment, I would move the group away from this city.

Re: Next Generation Space Shuttle Design

OK, so the real important question given where we are....what is the writeup on this thing?

Re: RANT: Astral Projection

It all depends on the effects surrounding the projection as to which would make a better construction.

Duplication is nice because it already has rules for recombination which could be fairly limiting or instantaneous. It also has rules for feedback, really trying the forms together.

You can also potentially even lose one form or another (astral is killed, physical is killed) and still have a character (since each are duplicates) if that is the desire of your construction.

In addition, what is left behind is your real body. People can poison it, perform surgury on it, even use telepathy and scan your brain while you are out. It is not a case of "well, the body left behind is a special effect and stuff that happens to it occurs on the real shifted out multiform also (-1)" limitation; the design of duplication makes it that way.

You could also do additional cool things like mind link the 2 forms and allow people to scan the physical body mind (power or maybe a machine) and they would evesdrop on the astral travel. Alot of cool stuff because the form left behind is real and not just an effect.

I do not think there really are too many cases where the form left behind is a rock with no value; it is not that form left behind is entirely beneficial, but realistic. Now, if the GM's style of gaming is such that he does not expect to do much with the left behind body, if it is below the scope of the game, MF is probably acceptable since it is cheaper (with those evil % difference advantages)

Re: Ninja Exploding Tag Dagger

Had I not already spent the money on Fred v1, I would be able to turn to that page

Hello,

I am looking to write up an exploding tag similar to what is used in the anime 'Naruto'. It basically is a small paper tag which will explode. It is often attached to a thrown dagger so it will explode next to a person. I believe I have the basics of it as below (though rough, has the key elements):

Exploding Tag: Energy Blast 4d6, Explosion (+1/2) (30 Active Points); 4 Charges (-1), OIF (-1/2), Linked (Dagger; -1/4)

My question: it being AOE and the dagger being targeted, how does one determine the location of the dagger (and center of explosion) on a miss?

A comon tatic would be to leap in the air and throw it down at a person so even with a miss it hopefully would land next to them and explode.

Re: Traveller Hero is ready for Download

Very nice! A question, there any good Traveller/GTS/etc sheets out there for starships? Wondering how the main system lays them out, if there is a good format.

Also, any thoughts on having a zip of all used structures (if you HDed it) for DL?

Re: Instant alien beast...

Thanks....now I am going to have nightmares for a week....

I was curious, has anyone ever made up a master PER chart for SH? This is mainly for ship sensors, determining PER modifiers for planets, objects, ships (based on SIZE?), spacial anomolies, etc?

-HM

Re: What do you do onboard a starship?

Getting the children born isn't the challenge' date=' getting them raised is. Dr. Anomaly raises some concerns about doubling the population every 20 years, going from 500 to 25,000 in two generations? Who raises the children?[/quote']

 

The evil robot overlords who take over, of course...

 

Most people can take care of more than 1 or 2 children. If the working percentages quoted are normal work days, then it is no different from the current day, and that is just for the working part of the crew. With the operational needs for the ship, these poeple will have far more time to watch and mentor children than we do. You could have people dedicated to raising children, maybe 4-6 at a time, certainly at least more than 1 at a time. Some could be natural offspring while others can be test tubes (which would also insure a good genetic mix in the society). I could even see, if this is an advanced enough society, growing the child until ready for birth in a chamber, thus not effectively incapacitating the mother during the 'pregnant' time.

Given that the ship will have limited resources, it seems best to perform the population growth as late into the trip as possible, only when you can be assured of a planet to use if possible. If there is a concern about the # children once you arrive, you could even do a surge and then level it back off so you have alot of 20s with a single child, even.

It is far too early in the morning for me to do the math for it, though...

 

-hm

Re: What do you do onboard a starship?

I would expect ALOT of PS 2(000?) game playing....

It really depends on the key foci of the mission. Chances are each person will be highly skilled in an advanced technology or skill to insure a variety of real life capability. Even if they are bored, you definately will want security. They could be multitasking with more important things at the start but then focused as the population grows. These are humans, after all.

I would start with several generation of people. If you have a new cycle of people every 20 years, you should plan on several generations brought in (depending on how old the oldest group is) to have that cycle going from the start. A gene bank, I think is a 100% need to insure the variety of people and to help with unforseen low birth rates while not giving up any diversity. As far as genetic variety due to children, that is not an issue because no one says that they have to be *their* children. They could be test tubies.

There should be a really huge luxury segment to help with the psychological aspect of the journey, definately. It is doubtful that everyone will be a workaholic and with so much automation, there will be alot of boredom.

For me, from a planning perspective (not gameplay), I would probably only have 200% of the needed people around at any point. Maintain a population of 400-500 for the entire journey. Once you get close, start the test tube babies and gear for a huge population explosion. You can likelt grow the 25,000 population well into your journey and not have just a standard growth progression.

A key reason would be to reduce the resource consumption. There is nothing saying that you cannot find a planet and then stay in orbit til the population grows. In addition, it reduces the risk of not finding a planet before your onboard resources deplete. It would suck travelling 1000 years only to run out of tacos...

If the ship can stay in communication with earth, then you do not even need to worry about technological advances; they can all still be done at earth and shared so research and that type of expertise will really not be needed.