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cndblank

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  1. Re: Nobles, Knights, And Necromancers Review I guess you prove my point here because it is a Fantasy Hero NPC book and not an organization book. It would have been great if it was and had twice the page count, but its not. Also after you have the leaders and specialist and their MOs, any more information is going to be getting more and more setting specific which the GM is going to have to change any way. We already have stock fantasy thieves and thugs from MMM so no low level members are really needed to be included. I guess I just feel that you are not judging the book by what the intended audience is going to value. But that is just my opinion and I do appreciate you taking the time to do your reviews. By the way are you running a Fantasy Hero campaign currently?
  2. Re: Nobles, Knights, And Necromancers Review You earned it. Now for bonus points, when will the Hero Designer pack come out and how much will it cost? Keep up the good work!
  3. Re: Nobles, Knights, And Necromancers Review Then give it a 3.5 because this book is way better than a 3. I would have liked to have seen more on the groups too, but I think they left it out more so the GM can make his own group to fit the needs of the campaign. You also have the SOP and tactics for several members of each group. All the GM has to do is fill in between the lines, he is going to do so in a way that best fits his campaign. Any thing more would be more TA background information than NPC info.
  4. Re: Nobles, Knights, And Necromancers Review A good review and I agree with most of your points. The Substance however is at least a 4 (Meaty). This is exactly what I was looking for a Fantasy Hero GM. I expect to get years of play out of these NPCs. Plenty of tactics and behaviors to make sure your player will have no trouble remembering their encounter with the NPC. Good magic items and clear suggestions on how the NPC will use them magic items and any spells they have. Plenty of suggestions on plot seeds to use them in your campaign. Also plenty of suggestions on variations of the NPC and how to make them a little weaker or more powerful. The Style is plain but dense and easy to use. A minor quible on the art work, I did notice that two of the non humans NPCs where shown as human on their character sketch. I can't wait for the hero design files to come out for this book. These NPCs can be used again and again with just a few changes. Just as long as they don't charge 25 or 30 dollars for it. After all the NPC "Character Sheet" only make up about 1/3 of the information on each NPC.
  5. Re: "Beware the generosity of Kings" - A warning I have to agree that if the King is no fool then with as much bad karma that has come down on this kingdom, he wouldn't want them too far away or feeling ill treated. I do agree that he and his advisors would be giving the matter serious thought. If he was a fool, had something to hide, or had some reason to consider them a threat then all of the above would work. Depending on how powerful the Nobles Houses (or the Temples/Church) were most Kings would like to have powerful honorable Heroes with a proven track record of saving the kingdom that were not aligned with the Old Nobility or Temples/Church and were properly grateful to the Crown. After all Nobles House have to come from some where. They proved themselves to some Lord or King and swore Fealty and service in return for lands and titles or they earn it through conquest. He would reward them with enough titles, honors, and lands (only needing a little work and lot of Gold) that they would be too busy and too poor to be a serious threat to him and then play them off the Old Nobility. He might blame the Old Nobility for not being able to reward them as they deserve. Marriage to his own allies and extended family would only serve to bind the New Nobility to him further. Of course that wouldn't prevent some of the Old Nobility from trying to bring them in to their faction. Many of the Old Nobility will turn up their noses at them but others will be looking for something and more than willing to hold their nose. Everything from support for a legal battle to a place for some noble born priest. Even compromising situations requiring a fast marriage between a very old (but poor) Noble house and a Newly titled and rich Kings Favorite. So the King plays the New Nobles off the Old Nobles and he remains the King. He would also want to make sure his heir takes the throne after him. You really want to give your Players a run take a look at the War of Roses. It was so bloody to the nobility you had merchants and knights inheriting baronies because no one else remained of the bloodline. Have the King make them Knight Companions to the heir. Then once they were emotionally invested the King falls sick, has an accident, or even has to go on a pilgrimage or Crusade, and they become Lord Protectors. Then lets see how long they can keep the prince alive.
  6. Re: The Last Dominion Campaign Setting Talk about a quick turn around time. Thanks! This will be a real help! I'm already trying to figure out how to merge TLD with the Shadow World Fantasy Hero campaign I'm currently running.
  7. Re: The Last Dominion Campaign Setting Been there already. Hearing about those was what tipped me over the edge to buy the TLD, EOG PDF. I was hoping to have access to the Hero Designer Character Files (*.HDC) for all the Character PDFs you put up in the Pencil Pusher Download section and in TLD, EOG PDF. Thanks
  8. Re: The Last Dominion Campaign Setting Just bought the Last Domain. Very sharp piece of work. Are there Hero Designers files on the NPCS? Keep up the good work.
  9. Re: Does wearing armor need a skill ? It already does. Considering any Skilled heavy fighter (or any Knight) would have at least 5 points in +2 DCV Only Against Armor Penalties and might have +2 Dex Skills Only Against Armor Penalties for a total of 5 to 10 points. So a trained heavy fighter is going to pay 5 points to be fully trained in using his armor. More if he wants to really be able to move around. I would certainly expect any NPC Knight to have the first plus the PSL for OCV while riding. I’m surprised to not see it on more than just PCs and Major NPCs. The Romans used extra heavy shields and weapons while training in full armor. Full time warriors are often described as being able to move in armor like it wasn't even there. I expect there is some embellishment, but when all you do all day is wear the armor…
  10. Re: Haalkitaine Hackers in Shadow World I would like to see that.
  11. Re: [Would-Be Hero-GM]Lethality Hero actually does a good job simulating battle (other than it is too easy to knock someone out). People have been stabbed with a knife 48 times and lived. In a battle you don't want to instantly kill someone as much as you want to put him down and out of the battle. A bad blow to the sword arm or a crippling leg wound works just fine. Bleeding to death works great too. A gut wound was a death sentence. If you have the time then you finish him otherwise you get ready for the next and try not to trip on the fallen. Running away is also good because that is where most of the killing happens. And it happens almost exclusively to the side running away. A person that bleeds to death is just as dead as a person that got their head taken off. It just takes a little longer. If you read some descriptions of battlefields, the cries of the wounded were every where. Those that could got up and got off the battlefield but many couldn't. I think Hollywood and fantasy novels sanitized that aspect of the battlefield. As a side note, I also expect that if there was healing magic then holding the battlefield become very important because you can heal your wounded and keep your enemy from healing his. Even a little healing magic could stop bleeding, prevent death by infection, allow some surgeries, and keep a gut wound from being a death sentence. I also expect veteran troops will be much more common and very very determine to not break and run. Honor demands you hold your line so that you can bring the wounded to a healer. After all the wounded would be your brothers, cousins, and comrades, and the next time it could be you.
  12. Re: Stun Problem in Fantasy Hero (Double it)
  13. Re: Stun Problem in Fantasy Hero (Double it) Your experiences support what I've thought all along. In Heroic level Hero, people get knocked out way too much. I have no problem using the Hero rules for Super Hero play, but it needs tweaks to fit Heroic level play. Hero even offers some very good rules options to help a GM get the right fit. But if you just double the Stun stat, most of the problems are gone. There is nothing extra to keep track of and there is no math after you double the stat. And if a player gets hit for four or five 16-20 plus stun attacks after defences in a short space of time, he knows he is going to go down. But there is a big difference between that and being a two shot knockout. Any way my players are having fun.
  14. Re: Stun Problem in Fantasy Hero (Double it) Well with being stunned a second attack is going to have a good chance of hitting. A PC with 18 Str, 18 Con, and 15 Body is going to have 33 stun. Two hits like that and he has 1 stun left. I still find that without using hit location everyone goes down way too soon. Admittedly much of my experience was Dark Champions (automatic weapons are nasty even with good armor), but Heroic characters have way lower PD/ED and Def than Super Heroes. Plus they have lower stats so they are easier to stun and have less stun to begin with.
  15. Re: Stun Problem in Fantasy Hero (Double it) For Spider Man, he has at least two levels of Combat Luck (or is at least 6 Def).
  16. Re: Stun Problem in Fantasy Hero (Double it) I find a d3+1 KA stun multiple works well. I also like critical hits, but instead of doing max damage, I have it do double damage. It is still nasty, but it doesn't leave the PC hero/major villain at -60 stun (2d6K becomes 24 body and120 stun - that is sleeping beauty time). So far doubling the stun of everyone works pretty well, everyone likes it so far and it is a breeze to keep track of. After listening to this board I do think hit locations would help the issue. Still, I think it is more realistic in a Heroic campaign for people to take a while to get beat senseless. You always have a luck blow or a head or groin shot to one shot you, but people especially people in armor take a lot to put down. Look at bare-knuckle fighters or boxers? They would fight forever in Champions terms.
  17. Re: Stun Problem in Fantasy Hero (Double it) I'm more looking to address the sword knocking someone out and the Heroic PC's going around and cutting the throats of the KOed after the battle issue then anything else. I also wanted to address the fact that in Heroic level campaigns, it is very easy to get knocked out. We don't use the hit location but rather armor activation rolls. That might resolve a lot of it. I have both FH and DC and I have tried the options suggested in there. I’m using many of the Healing options now. I'm still testing doubling the stun, but it does seem the easiest and fastest way. People still get stunned which is good. Breaks up the combats. It keeps the fights exciting and while people can be knocked out it doesn't happen nearly as much. I also find it provides more tension as the PC gets to the last 10 points of stun or so. I'm also note that most of my opponents will run away if they get below half body. Those that don't are scary. Only the Knight has 7 Def. The Dwarf has 6 Def. The Mage has 10 Def when the FF is up (I may have to look in to that but the Mage has such low stats it really doesn't matter.) The rest have in the 3 to 5 range. I've been using activations rather than hit locations. It is a starting campaign (75/75) so we will have to see after the they earn some exps. The only problem with "double your defenses" is that only rarely will anyone get stunned. Thanks
  18. Re: Need feedback on house rules for my new campaign I do think you are hitting STR up twice if you make it cost double and put a NCM of 15. I would likely do one or the other. You might want to allow each character to have one stat based on character conception at an NCM of 18 (Perhaps only 17 for Dex). I don't find high Str's for fighters to be that bad. I mean you spend several hours a day working at moving in full armor, swinging a sword, carrying a shield or pulling a long bow and you get every every good at it. Legionaries could march long hours carrying a heavy load and still make a fortified camp at the end of the day. I don't know if they could bench press 400 pounds but they could fight all day long. Have you seen the size of the Legionaries' shield? They are huge. Knights were suppose to be able to leap in to their saddles. They found the skeleton of an English longbowman and the bones in his arms were like the bones in a Professional Pitcher. All the working out had built up the thickness of the bone to support the muscle. I guess what I'm saying is that they may not have looked like body builders, the part's they needed would have been pure wirey muscle. How are you going to handle magic and the fact everyone usually gets stunned and knocked out before they can meet a glorious death in battle?
  19. Hero generally leaves the loser knocked out rather than dead which is perfect for Champions but not as fun for Heroic level combat. I've tried the various Heroic Level Campaign Stun rules. Treating it as Reduced Penetration takes too long and involves too much math. I tried just doubling the defense against Stun which is faster and has almost the same effect. But getting stunned was very rare with both options. Right now I’m just doubling the Stun stat for everyone. In Hero Designer, I just add a power called Stun House Rule for the Stun characteristic equal to their Stun Stat for zero points. It is added to their Primary Stun value The only math involved is that NND attack stun is doubled after checking against Con to see if the target is stunned. That keeps NND attacks just as effective while making sure that your opponents are not all going to end up knocked out. I’m still testing but it is very fast. It takes a while for someone to be knocked out. The only other House rule I use with this is that Killing Attack stun is D3+1 rather than D6-1. This means that a Killing Attack will do at least twice the body done in stun while not having the instant KO Killing Attacks. The Players like it both House Rules so far. They don’t get knocked out so much and have more satisfying combats. Every one gets stunned once in a while. It is a little more dramatic as they get low on Stun. The only major issue is if you have a PC does a lot of normal damage. Since most PC’s in a Heroic level campaign use Killing Attacks it doesn’t effect very many. I might reconsider this House Rule in a Martial Art’s campaign. However I allowed the Monk to have some extra Martial Art’s DCs and he is very effective. He does most of his Body damage from Critical hits, but he can keep more than his share of opponents very busy while being very hard to hit. Plus he can always use Martial Art’s weapons instead.
  20. I had thought he had to roll for each hit to see if he could "Tough" the fight out until I really started looking at it. That makes good sense for a constant power like Tough Guy. Thanks for a quick answer. What about Instant powers? Is there no difference in the Limitation value of RSR between Constant and Instant powers? Say I have a Super hero super hacker that can Mind Control computers by just looking at them for if he is close enough. I want some roll to show him reprogramming the computer. There really should be a larger limitation but I guess you could say that is what Activation Rolls are for. I ended up giving him an Activation roll equal to his Int/Programming roll. Thanks again.
  21. I'm a little confused on this one. We have: Tough Guy: Physical Damage Reduction, Resistant, 50% (30 Active Points); Requires A CON Roll (-3/4), Character Must Be Aware Of Attack (-1/4) I checked the FAQ and found this: Q: If a character uses a Characteristic or PER Roll as his Required Skill Roll, does he still suffer Active Point penalties to the roll? A: Yes, unless he applies the “no Active Point penalty†modifier to the value of the Limitation. So what we are saying is he has a 13- Con roll at -3 for the Active Point penalty or a 10-. He could have taken the 10- Activation roll for a - 1 1/4 instead of the -3/4. Which would also be a lot more readable and require no math. As far as I can tell the mechanics would be exactly the same and he wouldn't have to worry about someone draining his Con and lowering the roll. I could see the above example if at the start of the fight the character rolled until he make his modified Con roll then didn't have to roll it any more after that until the next fight. The RSR text pointed that out as a clear distinction between RSR and Activation Rolls. For the longest time I thought that he just rolled the 13- Con roll with no Active Point penalty every time he got hit (it was a stat based Activation roll which makes sense), but the above FAQ seems pretty clear. Do I have this right? He rolls a 10- to activate the Damage Reduction? And does he have to roll to activate the power against every attack? If so isn't that worth a larger limitation? I guess it would be a wash if his Stat based RSR had a "Must Roll Against Every Attack" worth -1/2 more mod with a “No Active Point penalty†worth -1/2 less mod. Thanks and keep up the good work!
  22. Re: Dark Champions Character Pack now in Online Store I'll Second that. Actually it looks like I'm Fourthing or Fifthing it. The Guns charts are not the main part of the book. Steve DID do a great job with all the ammo and other information on guns. The guns would be much more useful to me in a format I could put on a Hero Designer character sheet that was easy to read.
  23. Re: Dark Champions Character Pack now in Online Store Just to be clear, I meant a Hero Designer Pack rather than a book (I thought I had changed that part of the post! ). Something compact and readable for the Hero Designer GM to quickly outfit new PCs and NPCs with Gear in Hero Designer Character Sheets and Combat Records. And using a cut and paste from the various weapon/armor charts would mean it could be put together in a reasonable time frame. Thanks!
  24. Re: Dark Champions Character Pack now in Online Store I agree, there is no reason to be rude about it. I would love a Heroic GEAR book. Some thing with various weapons, melee weapons, armor, and gear in a one liner Equipment/Weapon Chart format with price, mass, and real points. I could even see spending $30 on it. I don't know about a pack that was just the various weapons written up in the Powers section. I would want something I and my players would find readable when we are looking at the character sheets. And I'm speaking from experience. I wrote up a Fading Suns Hero conversion. Had all the Occult, weapons and armor bought as powers so I could do complete HD character sheets for them. My players hated the layout and the fact that each character sheet was several pages long. They wanted a clean and simple equipment list without all the standard weapon and armor limitations repeated again and again. However having a prefab with all the gear I need in a compact readable format would be worth a lot when I'm finishing up the opposition the night before the game.
  25. Re: Dark Champions Character Pack now in Online Store I can understand the point about all the work need to list all the firearms in to the Dark Champions Character Pack. But what are we supposed to arm our PCs and NPCs with? Typing in each weapon will get old fast. Plus we have already been spoiled with how fast Hero Designer creates a Character or NPC. The other problem is that we really only need what the weapon DOES and NOT how it is bought. My thoughts on fixing this is create a Hero Designer Weapons Pack for Heroic Campaigns. But instead of listing how each weapon is bought in HD, create a custom power with the weapon name in the name field and then cut and paste the information from the weapon chart in to the display. It would be fast and very useful. It would look like this: Atchisson Assault: 12 +0 +0 2½d6 1d6 20 13 +6 140/31 5.20 2H, AF5, LR(50â€) Colt M1911/M1911A1 .45 ACP +1 +0 2d6-1 1d6 7 9 +2 39/10 1.10 That way the GM can look at the sheet and figure out what the weapon his NPC is using does. Players would also find this useful for listing their weapons. And while it isn’t pretty, most Hero players would have no problem reading it. Better would be removing the some of the unnecessary info. Perhaps with a column list and a little formatting. Weapon O/R Dam StX Rd SM P Atchisson Assault: +0/+0 2½d6 1d6 20 13 +6 2H, AF5, LR(50â€) Colt M1911: +1/+0 2d6-1 1d6 7 9 +2 Listing the Real Cost (Perhaps in the Base Cost of the Custom Powers) would be REALLY good for those using Resource points. To make it really useful for Heroic Campaigns adding the price (at least a rough one) and the mass to the equipment section of the Custom Power. For the Atchisson Assault the equipment info that would be: Base Cost 31 Mass 5.2 Price 4000 Most GM’s do not have access to the weapons in electronic format (there are advantages to be a playtester), so they can’t just cut and paste everything in to their PC and NPC. They have to enter the weapons stats by hand. And in a Gun happy game like Dark Champions that is going to take a lot of time. Plus why should each GM have to invent the wheel when they could get it straight from the Source? Either format would be a lot faster than creating each weapon in HD and more useful besides. I know I’d slap down eight or nine dollar for a Hero Designer Pack like this. What do you guys think?
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