Richgee

The easiest way to do what you want is to reduce the starting base points for characters. I find 50 base with 50 disadvantages works quite well for a lower power feel. You then only allow points earned in play to be spent on stats, skills and "powers" used or actively perused during the game. This gives you the ability to add points from disadvantages as the campaign dictates. Adding a hunted to all pc's as a result of who they are annoying during your campaign is fair enough. Add it peace meal as they impact the plans of their new enemy. So after dismantling an evil army's plan to take over a strategically important village it may be worth 5 points but after they raid their main strong hold and steal their cash reserves it can be worth 25. This is in addition to exp character points. These new disadvantage points could be directed to perks, contacts or to any thing you feel balances the effect that the imposed dis advantage will have. As an old player of dnd and role master the artificial level structue never sat too well with me. With hero the simple truth is there are no levels(beyond cps) or profesions it is driven by character development, through role play. So your "thief" can be a magic using assassin and your fighter can be a bit sneaky.

Oops I forgot to add independent -2, which drops it to 1 real point.

Messrs Swan and Vesta's box of all weather instant flame. 1 point of rka (fire) 5pt, 8 charges continuous for 1 turn -0, OAF small box containing 8 small sticks with a red end -1, gesture red end of stick must be rubbed against the box -1/4, no range fire forms on end of stick -1/2, active 5pt real 2pt

Wode should read +3dcv, +6d6 presence attack only to scare opponents. Oif dye on skin, extra time 1hr to apply, must be naked, application temporally adds psychological disadvantage berserk at sight of enemy -14 -8 to recover.

Lucky rabbits foot 3d6 luck 15pt. 3 charges -1 1/4, independent white rabbit foot with silver chain -2, gesture must hold foot in right hand -1/4, OAF white rabbit foot -1. 15 active 3 real

Stick men, small creepy (Blare Witch style)stick men built from twigs in the parks. With a wicker man sized king. Flower pot men, sweet looking plants with flower faces, short root legs, flower pot bodies and toxic spore clouds. Action figure armies roaming in mindless packs

How about Soothing foot balm +2" running 4pt, 0 end +1/2, 1 continuing charge lasting 8hr +1/2, extra time to activate 5min -2, gestures must be rubbed into your feet -1/4, independent small tub of pepper mint smelling lotion -2. (8 active) 2 real

For your constructs you are looking at an automation with takes no stun, no body parts. For the small metal origami, I would suggest a str 5 Dex 13 spd 3 rpd/red of 3 (equivalent of thin sheet metal), with 10 body. This means a shot from a police issue glock at 1d6+1 standard rkd dose an average of 1.5 body per hit. So that's 6-7 successful shots to take one down. Give them cling to str limit and teamwork. Keep their individual damage down to 1/2d6 hkd which makes them easy an easy win individually but scary on mass. Is this the sort of thoughts you need? I would really recommend a good look at the weapon tables in dark champions. I'm designing an zombie apocalypse campaign at the moment and it has been invaluable in designing the zombies(their design is similar, not in function but they are also automations) and assessing damage potential. At the stat levels I'm suggesting characters with normal human limit on stats and a base point level of 50-75 for looks survivable with out being to unrealistic.

You could push it to near the level of chess making combat last gametime minutes rather than single rounds. All attacks against an other practitioner of the fencing arts have to be called shots. Each opponent gets a skill roll to identify the location and the kind of attack their opponent will make. If they succeeded they get full dcv bonuses, if they fail but luck puts their blade in roughly the right location they get a portion, otherwise it's base dcv. You could introduce location and attack type cards low mid high thrust slash and parry. Selected in secret prior to the fencing skill roll. The real point of fencing is to trick your opponent into a place you can take advantage. This is not based on physical skill but rather is the mental portion of the sport. I'm not suggesting it is the only way to simulate that kind of activity but it would be a very simple visual way to do it.

Convert nnd manoeuvre to flash, throw sand/dirt/candle wax in opponents face. Offhand weapon rule +1 dcv Throw furniture/tapestry for weak entangle attack. Opposing style bonuses/penalties Draw attack 1/2 phase fencing vs fencing skill role to force opponent to declare action first regardless of relative dex.

Sounds like a good idea. I have some questions that might affect creation of the creatures. Are you looking at it as an invasion or a mystic creation. Are your creatures the symptom of your trigger event or are they the cause. Is it a survival scenario your thinking of running (hoards of low power creatures that wear down the pc's by attrition) or is it a bug hunt (pc's tracking down power full enemies who try to hide until they reach max strength). What level of power do pc's have. What weapons will be available. The above would help target the kind of approach you use to build the creatures. If the above seems obvious I apologise, but the answers will stop people hitting you with 300 point super beasts, if you need something else.

How about 50% resistant damage reduction 30 points. Usual magic spell penalties, plus side effect closest ally takes 50% of total damage as nnd kd -3/4, requires a blood oath of loyalty to have been freely given by person who takes the side effect damage -1/2. This would significantly reduce the cost of the spell plus act as a point for pause before you give your loyalty oath to anyone.

You missed a few key disadvantages for your rezoneing power. Makes absolutely no real physical change -1, can be ignored by any one with a good lawyer -1/2, can be ignored by anyone willing to pay fines -1/2, law role to enforce extended time 1 year -6,requires a vote to enact -1/2, other voters are independent and open to bribes and black mail -1, Use restricted by local by laws -1 1/2, side effect transform 4d6 cumulative normal person into smug self important bureaucrat -1 Making it 3 real points. Or you can call it what it is and say it's an ability conferred by the 3 point perk local zoning officer.

Massey thanks for your eloquent post. I was starting to feel that I was the only one that saw it that way.

If you can find it on the net somewhere the BBC ran an excellent documentary series narrated by Magnus Magnusson called Vikings (I think). I'm sure one of the episodes was specifically on the Baltic-Black Sea trade.

I have had a good look at it. For this kind of journey your not looking at a traditional long boat. It would most likely be a shorter more bowed version perhaps 15-20 foot in length with a single sail. This is the most common transport/trading vessel. It's not really suitable for open ocean, so the Baltic voyage would be a coast hugging run. The average speed under sail is 5-7 knots, but only with a prevailing wind. It would have 3+ oar benches dependant on size and cargo carried. The smaller size and shorter draw solves some of the port age issues and difficulty in navigating shallow river sections. The smaller size also means as a trading vessel the crew would be under 10 people. This leads to more fatigue when traveling under oar especial against currents going up stream. The best time to journey is when the prevailing wind is from the north giving you the aid going up river. The smaller boats are a more realistic vessel for the journey but not nearly as cool as rowing up to the dock at Byzantium in a magnificent 60 foot Dragon head war ship.

you could buy it as a straight healing, ranged +1/2, time delay when recipient takes body +1/4 side effect 1d6 nnd rkd -1/2. Then add in your usual spell stuff.

No I've not seen 5e dnd, and with that kind of approach to damage I'm quite glad to have avoided it. It always was hack and slash, but rules like that reduce it to the rpg equivalent of a video game where you miraculously heal after every boss fight. That really highlights the difference between body and hit points.

Apologies I was being alitle facetious. I fully accept that this journey was undertaken. It was an incredible feat of ingenuity and determination, by desperate men. My only issue is time frame. For a low fantasy Viking setting it makes a great back drop and well done for highlighting it. I still belive in reality it would take considerably longer than the maths would suggest.

Like it. It's about as realistic as your long ship not being in need of extensive repair after dragging its soft pine hull 80km cross country.

Just a thought dnd healing spells heal hit points, hero ones heal body. Healing 10 hit points is trivial in dnd, but a 10 body heal is major in hero. When looking to convert healing spells you need to look at the comparative impact of the spell. If as I do you consider a standard 75 base point hero to be roughly on par with a level 10 dnd character, then with good berry in hero you are looking at a spell that would heal roughly 50-70 percent of their total "hit points". In dnd to get the same effect you would need to generate 30-40 points of healing for the same effect. When trying to model dnd healing spells against body for balance I always as a rule of thumb reduce the effects by about a factor of 3 with some vaiance. So in this case good berry would heal 1 body with only 3 charges if I was modeling it.

I think this thread really explains why 5e has a big stop sign next to the transformation power. I'm not a big fan of it outside the hands of NPCs that I control. Or the limited spells that I approved. The wording is quite woolly and contradictory. It states you can't simulate powers but you can change people into creatures with powers. You can't change people into any thing that will kill them imminently but you can change them into things that are very easy to kill. Could any one tell me if any of this is tightened up in 6e.

Your silk road analogy is spot on. Also their is no need to take your boat the full way even if it is your desire to go the whole distance. The Rus on the black sea built their own boats. So it would not be inconceivable that if the call went out for mercenaries to fight a campaign of raids/invasion that they would supply the boats. Allowing the mercenaries to sail south as far as they could on the north flowing river, beach their own boats leave them under guard and go cross country to a staging point where the Rus king would have brought transport boats to ferry the warriors to his fleet on the black sea coast. Contemporary historic accounts have huge fleets of raiding ships attacking major cities on the black sea. Though you can never count on the numbers quoted to be accurate you can look for the lack of other evidence to support the notion of two separate sets of boats on the north and south flowing rivers. There is distinct lack of evidence of the slip ways that would have been created to ease the passage of ships from one river system to the other. No doubt it was done up until the point where boats could be built on the south flowing river, but if it was a regular occurrence over the period of several hundred years the evidence would be there to show it. From my reading it would seem to be conspicuous by its absence.

Back to making items holy. I'm running 5e so correct me if I'm wrong, but transform can't simulate other powers. So surely if you wish to make sword do holy damage what you need is a spell, rka 3d6 with the normal spell disadvantages plus no range, required component a weapon, damage limited to weapon normal damage plus str, the advantage damage is holy and usable by others. This is an exspensive way to do it but just because hero level fantasy characters don't pay points for normal weapons doesn't mean they don't pay for powers. The advantage holy damage elevates the weapon to the level of a real power especially in a fantasy campaign. If the discussion was using transform to change arrows in to flaming fire arrows who wouldn't agree this is a rka spell bought cheaper with the disadvantage component normal arrow consumed after one attack. The the green lantern as stated before had a really poor disadvantage. And a yellow sword dose normal damage. The change is cosmetic, no special power is imbued into the sword. It is just the green lantern got a stack of points for his disadvantage.

I think the main reason you can't find any information on the time this journey took is because this is a route for trade to flow rather than a single journey to be undertaken by traders. The Norwegian and Swedish vikings perused a policy of aggressive expansion down in to these regions. As they went they built or took over strategic trade sites eventually pushing all the way to the black sea. Unless you were a mercenary/raiding group you would be unlikely to travel the full distance. Rather goods would make their way along the route being traded and passing through multiple hands before reaching the final destination. If a party of mercenaries was to under take the full journey I think the river/sea travel times look good but the land crossings are very optimistic. Pulling a boat over land is no easy feat. You are days in preparation breaking down and emptying your vessel ready to move it. Cutting logs to draw it over, rending fat to grease the logs physically moving your whole life between camps. Covering more than 2-3 miles in a day seems very unlikely. There is a local historic example near my home where in order to clam a small chunk of Scotland a Viking king sailed up loch long(a sea loch) and had his men pull his boat cross country to loch lomond, then sailed down the river leven and back out to the firth of Clyde. accounts have them take a full day to pull the boat the 2.5 miles. Which was a feat considered heroic on their behalf.