Zindil

Re: [Review] The Turakian Age I think that the major obstacle that Valdorian Age has to overcome is that there are so many sword and sorcery games out based on the original sources. With Mongoose printing Conan, Elric, and Lankhmar, and Green Ronin printing Thieves' World and Black Company, Valdorian Age is competing with the worlds that most people identify with when they think sword and sorcery. Many of them are quite good as well. Conan and Thieves' World are both high quality products, based on what I own of those two lines. So, for those Hero gamers that play other systems, the other products might be all they need. For Hero gamers that don't use other systems, if you are a Conan fan, you might be predisposed to buy the Conan line instead of Valdorian Age and convert it over to Hero. Turakian Age and Tuala Morn each have an advantage that might help with their sales. Turakian Age thrives on being a classic take on high fantasy, and in my opinion that helps. Old School gamers might prefer it to something like Eberron or Forgotten Realms, which have taken magic much farther than older sources such as Greyhawk or Dragonlance. Tuala Morn doesn't have anything to truly compete with, for there isn't anything quite like it.

Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project I can understand that. However, I really appreciate you posting it online. The setting captivated me the first time I looked at it. It seems to have a depth that few post apocalyptic settings manage to achieve.

Re: Mega Fantasy City Map - My latest project That map is amazing Keith! Any chance of you making Savage Earth into a pdf or book in the near future?

Re: Disney Princesses For Cinderella, I would go the vpp route via the Fairy Godmother, but I would change it a little bit. I would give her control of it (except for maybe the normal power roll), and make it like Johnny Thunder and his thunderbolt. So, basically give Cinderella control by telling the fairy godmother what to do. i.e. don't have the "no conscious control" limitation on it. This would mean that Cinderella would still have a glass jaw, but as long as she stayed out of harm's way, she could do a lot by commanding the Fairy Godmother. As soon as Cinderella goes unconscious, the Fairy Godmother doesn't have anyone to "command" her.

Re: Working on my Home Grown Campaign: Fantasy Hero game Based on the miniatures, I would say they are mammalian. Those feet look somewhat similar to a pig's. Other observations, the males are definitely bruisers, as you wanted. I would give the racial package for males a max of about 25 str. (a +5), a con. and body of 23(+3), and a -3 to ego to represent a temper. Something strikes me as though they would have one. A keen sense of smell, and maybe tracking by smell, might be appropriate too. The females strike me as graceful, not strong. So, maybe a max dex of 23(+3), and a con and body the same as the males. They would have an ego deficit just as the males, and the same sense of smell.

Re: Urban Fantasy Recommendations I can't believe no one has mentioned this series from Neil Gaiman yet: The Sandman Comic series from DC-Vertigo. And yes I mean the entire series. Urban fantasy doesn't get any better than this. Also someone else said above the Buffy the Vampire Slayer tv series. I second that one even if it isn't a book. Buffy is such a popular series among roleplaying geeks that I couldn't imagine a comprehensive urban fantasy book that didn't get some inspiration from Buffy.

Re: Vikings? Also, AD&D 2nd Edition had a good vikings campaign book. It is on drivethru rpg for $5. I have it stashed away somewhere, and in my opinion it is a great resource for adding vikings in a campaign. Here is the link to it: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=16912&it=1

Re: What cities do you use in your game? I wasn't looking for anything specific Bygoneyrs. I was just looking for some city setting suggestions in general. I feel comfortable winging most anything, but with a city I like to have a good idea about the layout and a few places to work from. Right now I have my group traveling constantly on a long quest, and I know they will end up in a few cities. So, having a few more supplements to plug into the game couldn't hurt. I appreciate everyone's suggestions. I am going to try and track down some of these supplements for future use. Zindil

Re: New to Fantasy Hero Let me throw in my two cents here. White Lion, and Mr. Bunraku, if you all are looking for a setting, Turakian Age is great. While it isn't innovative in any way, in my opinion it does a great job of capturing the old school fantasy setting feel. Magic items aren't by default common. Other races are uncommon to say the least. It gives a detailed summary of every region in the book while leaving plenty of room for GM add-ons. If you want a more traditional fantasy setting check out Turakian Age. Also the bestiary is indispensible if plan on using hit locations. It gives hit location charts for about any body-type you can imagine. Fantasy Grimoire 1 is great. I am using the default magic system from Turakian Age, and someone in the group refers to it a few times every session. It has been well worth the money. Btw, Mr. Bunraku, it is good to see yet another Tennessean on here. There are quite a few of us.

Re: What cities do you use in your game? It seems like Lankhmar and Harn are being suggested a lot. I will definitely check them both out. In the first long term D&D game I played in, the dm transplanted Lankhmar into Greyhawk. That is what made me think about getting city books and filing off the serial numbers. I don't recall much about the TSR version of Lankhmar, but I will definitely check it out now. Thanks for the suggestions everyone. If anyone else has some favorite city supplements, please suggest them.

Re: Mook rules? I agree that a couple of mooks will be no match for a hero, but if you get them in large groups they can be very deadly. Assume that a standard mook will have an ocv of 3 and a hero will have around a 6. That mook will have roughly a 25% chance of hitting the hero. That is not a problem. However, to simulate some of the pulp situations where the hero wades through a small army of 10 mooks, something else will have to be done. 2 or 3 out of 10 would hit the hero per phase. This could lead to a situation where the hero could die from mooks alone. That is why I suggested a psych lim on mooks. I wasn't explicit before on the scenario I had in mind, but I still think that simulating a scene like this can be problematic in Hero without some creative solutions. Not that Hero can't simulate pulp; it obviously can. However, I think it simulates supers and fantasy better than it does pulp, and I think that Spirit of the Century simulates pulp better than Hero does.

Re: Mook rules? You could always give the mooks either a psych lim or a physical lim of "has trouble hitting heroic individuals." Give them a hefty ocv penalty associated with it. This is stretching things a bit, but Hero really seems to have problems dealing with mooks based on how the system is designed. In a champions game, a mook doesn't stand a chance of taking out a hero one on one. Things don't scale the same at the heroic level, it seems. By giving the mooks that limitation, they are still deadly to everyone else, but they couldn't ever hit the heroes without getting really lucky. If on that one in hundred chance a mook takes out the hero, that is what heroic action points or villain death traps with a climactic escape are for.

Re: {pulp/star hero world building} Birds and spiders I would consider making the spider people more anthropomorphic to maintain that pulpy feel to the setting. Maybe make them human looking with black furry bodies, red eyes, and spider-like fangs. The reason why I say this is that it seems to me that most pulp sci-fi settings do not have aliens that are too different from humans physiologically speaking. You make them feel alien by their weird culture and maybe make them feed on other sentient races.

Re: Faerie's Tale Nice! Thanks for the heads-up on that RP.

Re: Faerie's Tale I just recently picked up the pdf of Faery's Tale Deluxe from IPR. I really like what I see so far. I have a two 1/2 year old daughter, so I have been bombarded by my fair share of fairy tales recently. After I read the description of the game and discovered that it is meant to be played by kids as young as six, I had to pick it up. Great job on it Firefly! I hope you do more stuff like this in the future, and I can't wait for my daughter to play it when she is older. By the way, the art is incredible in there.