GDShore

Interesting rejoinder, LL however Assault mentioned in his second post that the vessels were catamaran, and that there was magic in this world. Thus Levitation. As for disassembling ask anyone who has ever taken his fathers watch apart about putting it back together, and that on a nice stable table or counter not the pitching deck of a ship at sea. The reason I said it would sink the ship in a storm. is that the catapult shown was a Roman 3 Talent device, (refers to the weight of shot fired at a range of 900 to 1100 meters) { R. Talent = 32.3 kg. = 71 lbs. 3 oz. The devices mass will be close to 500 kg. This can be reduced by building the body completely in iron by approximately 1/3 reducing mass by about 160 t0 170 kg. [weight is now @ 340 kg.] Modern aircraft carriers use a steam catapult to launch aircraft from the deck, this is not sufficient in and of itself, the carrier is required to turn into the wind, at close to top speed. The best rigged sailing ships (American Clippers) could sail within 6 points (maybe) of a head wind. A sailing ship can not turn into the wind or it will luff, and come to a near dead stop. The launch from a Catapult will not impart enough velocity to a vehicle that probably weighs north of 150 kg. when crewed. (50 kg. crew of 1, up to 100 kg. vehicle) A vessel that was oared, might be able to create a wind across the deck to impart sufficient lift to achieve takeoff. So... if you can counter mass achieving takeoff velocity is simple.

The "crab claw" is a rather primitive sail tig, in certain circumstances, very efficient. However it does not scale up. If you are to launch a vehicle of 6 to 10 meter wingspan and length of 5 to 8 meter you need a largesh boat. You will possibly need a beam equal to your wingspan and an overall length of 4 to 5 times the aircraft's length. Too large to massive for crab claw sails to be efficient. The folding wing idea is not bad but not on pontoons, use a hull design similar to that of the "flying clippers".

looking at LL's ballista, the weight would probably seriously, adversely affect buoyancy. That much weight forward would sink your single hulled in the first major storm, even placed on the linking deck would require very... careful balancing. LoneWolf, your method could also work.

Okay, with a catamaran style vessel, all the masts cam be on the "canoe parts" and lateen form, with a wide linking deck between. The deck would be opened both fore and aft, a catapult however would not be necessary if you have magic. The ornithopter would/could have a levitation spell on it giving it a vertical takeoff landing ability, the wings which flap like a birds do not give the vehicle lift but rather propulsion. In addition to the lateen sails, the vessel is propelled by sweeps, again with magic water ingress is prevented. The above is a short description of the capital ship of the capital ship of the Kingdom of Skeene's navy in my world. I call it a Sea Dragon class ship, with 3 subclasses, 1 with 5 ornithopters, 2 with 4 griffons + riders, 3 with 2 red dragons. Simply though, Assault's question was on how to launch such (and of course recover) in a world with magic not really that hard.

Bravo Christopher, I too have missed wisdom but could not come up with a way to introduce same. (a blind spot of mine) I will be using this in future games. Thank you. Absolutely brilliant.

Actually, iron is not cheaper to produce than bronze, even with the long trade routes required. Iron is harder to mine (bog iron excepted), harder to smelt, harder to work and produces a nastier byproduct slag than either copper or tin. Bronze is easier to work, to recycle and does not have the rust problem that iron has. Yes, iron is harder, more durable, holds the edge longer and weight for weight repels attacks better. The major push for "iron" late classic wasn't the scarcity of tin but rather the presence of deposits of iron in Roman territories. It is physically superior to bronze in combat, and is the primary reason Rome conquered Greece (along with Greek infighting, ancient combat tactics and the Greeks were warriors not soldiers) So Bonze or Iron age, why not both, why not set it at the cusp, where bronze is coming to its end and iron starting to dominate. Their will be some trade offs, no plate armor for instance but you will have some interesting mash ups too.

Yeah, for me the most fun, was the build, the creation of the universe. The backstory, the histories, the peoples living there the skeleton of the game. I enjoy running the game, but my pre game prep time was very short, you have to be able to improvise when your group does something they weren't supposed to do (in your carefully mapped version) a campaign that was supposed to run 18 sessions wound up going for 56. Real time just over 2 years, game time 9 months. The group followed a red herring and would not return to the main trail, (each session 2 weeks apart) in the two weeks that followed the deviation from my original plan I rebuilt the campaign. New planets, new clues, some encounters repurposed, some needed major surgery [truth be told I loved it, I wallowed in it] and best of all they never figured out what was going on till the very last session, at that only one of them caught the final clue. They had thought that they were performing one task and they were but it was much bigger than they had thought. About an hour after we had finished that campaign, and were talking about where to go in the next, he says "did you say X, did he say X, was that a slip or deliberate.... watching their faces as they realized that the story they all thought was A (and enjoyed immensely) was actually X was my second best moment as a GM. For me at least that was the real reason to play!

My new campaign will be mostly, FH1e, but I am adding some 6e stuff, some D&D and some C&S (Chivalry & Sorcery). Use what fits your soul best and run long with it. Remember also that we now have 50 years of RPG history to draw on. I once tried to collect all of the RPG systems published, I stopped when I passed 30. I could not afford it.

There are questions I have. 1. Is this gang metropolitan? Is it confined to a single city? 2. Is it regional? The Medellin Cartel started as a regional and expanded eventually to global. 3. Is it national? The bigger it gets the more elaborate and pompous it is. 4. Does it span a continent? Bigger, bigger. 5. Is it global? Either everybody knows about them or nobody. Smersh was global but only national police or intelligence agencies knew about them. For me I like names that lull the public into a belief that the bad guys are actually the good guys and if the villian's do a bit of Robin Hooding then they (the public) will protect and defend you. Thus THE DEFENDERS.

I think its a good idea too, we used D&D modules in our gaming group all the time. It just took a bit of work converting antagonist's to Hero system. One of our group ran E.P.T. and even he would use D&D modules on occasion.

Actually he did not die. He survived the swim but was judged no longer fit to fight. The consul's of Rome awarded him a significant pension, that was honored by the Etruscan that was put back on the throne of Rome. (Tarquinius Superbus, last king of Rome) The Etruscan army he held at bay at the bridge, besieged Rome, and captured it. @ 6 th. century BCE.

One of the things about D&D was they had no other template to work with, no powers, no talents, ect. Does the birth of a new potential mage create waves in the magic firmament such that a wizard immediately moves in their direction to take them on as an apprentice? I am not trying to put any one down. This is one of the questions I began asking in "78-"79 among others. If people are being born with magic ability and no one shows to teach them do they just dry up and blow away on the wind? Or do they teach themselves? Ever seen what happens when someone tries to teach them selves a new skill it is dangerous to the person trying it and to 'every one around them'.

Sweep works in game, because of two things. 1 - in game we suspend reality, 2 - we accept that suspension as proper. In truth even if the defender is armed with a double bladed pole arm (blades on either end) anything beyond a meter and a half is out of range. Horatio got away with his defense because initially it was three superlative warriors on the bridge. They piled up bodies up in front of them into a wall, trying to climb such will leave you defenseless, a meter wall might be jumpable, but a meter by meter probably is not. The Thermopylae point is well taken, but remember they were flanked and destroyed. A fantastic warrior could hold a choke point bridge a long time, until the other side decided it was projectile time. Bing, bang, boom game over.

Publius Horatius Cocles also called "Cyclops" because he had lost an eye fighting in wars past, commanded the garrison of the bridge Pons Subius, the only bridge across the Tiber river along the Etruscan side. AS the Roman right wing lost its leaders wounded and removed from the field, it routed towards the bridge, the garrison underwent a morale loss and fled across the bridge. This resulted in the retreat of the remaining already outnumbered Romans, the center crossed successfully in good order, the left wing arrived and began its crossing, Horatio shames its commanders into staying and defending the bridge from the invaders. (Spurius Larcius, and Titus Heminius Aquilinius). After a period of time [probably 20 to 30 minutes] with the bridge nearly dismantled behind them and their shields in flinders and armor in tatters the two leaders begin a retreat and order Horatio to join them. ( the Etruscan end of the bridge was only 6-7 meters wide while the roman side was 15-20 meters.) The fighting had created a wall of bodies about a meter high and edge to edge of the bridge, [up to this point most of the histories by Roman period accounts mostly agree] Horatio continues to defend the bridge until the dismantling is completed, "then he turns his back upon the enemy and MOONS them, the Etruscans begin pelting him with projectiles one of which, a spear strikes him in the posterior. He then consigns his soul to the god Tibernius and leaps into the Tiber. Fully armed and armored he swims the Tiber to safety. " The bit in quotations is what is mostly disputed. The salient point though is that the three had built a wall of bodies across a 6-7 meter breach, allowing Horatio to continue the defense, for a period of time equal to that of the defense of the three. After which he made his escape although not unscathed.

My apologies Mr. R, if you would please, what other threads have you posted your project to, that I might correct my error. Thank you.

Before you can start naming, what are your demographics, what races, nationalities, ect. Your gods, who is most likely to worship who, what kind of priesthoods, [Chast, is her priesthood male or female]. Is the society patriarcal or matrilineal, is it in a republic or monarchy or is it a city state (Venice). Finally what linguistic base are you using, Anglic, Francophone, Germanic, Hispanic, Aramaic, Oriental, ect.

Be wary of old men who carry brooms. .... first corollary - or those who carry canes.

YES, age and experience will defeat youth and enthusiasm almost every time. .

I have a somewhat twisty mind, so I went and tried a search, use the following Hero game system Fantasy Hero. It will give you better results.

I am late to this but it has been a good read. I played football in high school as probably did most of you, I did not play on either offense or defense I kicked field goals. I was 5'3" tall and weighed 97 lbs. Under 40 yds. I was lethal, one field goal try was from the 32, the snap was botched, the holder fumbled it then flipped it back to me. I ran with it and at the 2 yd. line I thought I had a touchdown when I got grabbed, then lifted and flung over a shoulder and began an unpleasant trip back up the field. WE had crossed the 15 when the ref finally blew the play dead, there was a long argument about whether I had been tackled, the tackler said my knees never hit the ground so no tackle, the ref ruled a grab was a tackle.

Actually there is no mention of mass in the 6e rules only str. and velocity, I botched the velocity formulae, it should be vel./10 which would reduce it to 15 die 6. I merely postulate this as a thought experiment, I am somewhat disappointed by the damage that firearms inflict in game. I have been on the receiving end of someone trying to shoot me not the least bit pleasant. The reason I suggest move through is that is what a bullet does, I have hunted enough to know what damage a rifle slug does on impact. (I saw the damage inflicted on inanimate objects)

There are problems with any area defense, too wide a defensive arc and you are bypassed, flanked and overwhelmed. The smaller the defense force the smaller the face required, so for a single warrior to hold the enemy at bay a facing of no more than 5-6 meters preferably narrower. when I was still active in the SCA we would play at Horatio at the bridge, the narrow was easy at 2-3 meter a defender could hold upwards of a half hour, as the face widens time drops, at 4-5 meters wide 10-15 minutes was the average, at 5-6 meter 5 maybe six minutes. The issue is that as the face widens the attacker can vary his line of assault, it does not matter much what weapon the defender uses. If the attackers were three or so, the defender had an easier time of it, the attackers kept getting in each others way, unless the attackers were a sword and board and two polearms the defender goes down so fast blink and you miss it. As for the sweep sword and board doesn't do it the attacker closest to the shield will clobber you on the head, as for the polearm defender his problem is that against a competent team, that team will have their best om the side where the defender will most likely start his sweep. Advancing shield forward he accepts the sweep on his shield then traps it there with his weapon, (sword or axe) while his two companions make sushi. I have seen a successful single defender versus 2 pole and a sword, he went Viking style, round shield, center boss, center hand grip and a long hafted axe, as the trine advanced onto the bridge the defender quick advanced towards them sidestepping shield wards axe held under the shield he tabled the shield to his forearm and used it to deflect and block the polearm, sweeping the axe out from the shield into the swords mans shield lifting him off his feet and driving him backwards into the second polearm where they collapsed in a tangle, finishing off the first polearm at his leisure , then as the two managed to reach their feet dispatched them. The chaps name in society is Grendal Redtroll and hi is big. 6'5" -6''6" and plus 300 lbs. Sweep can be done, but only if you are big enough to pull it off, when I was gaming nobody in my group ever used it, no one thought it the least bit effective.

For the most part you are responding to this ancient story with modern mores, the ancient army if honour challenged must respond to Horatio one at a time or lose their honour. To them the loss of honour was a worse fate than death, for in death they would be remembered as facing off with a hero.

I have decided that the slug damage shall occur as a move through, thus, with a muzzle velocity of @500 fps or 152.5 meters per second divided by 6 = 25 die 6 at 100 meters, 12 die 6 at 200 meters. (if one envisions damage from firearms this way it completely changes the functionality of firearms in system, looking at the Kentucky long rifle, 1776 muzzle velocity of @1200 fps or 366 mps = 61d6, in its last iteration 1860 at 1600 fps or 488 mps = 81d6. Hmmm, maybe not I can see why the developers did not go this way, but deliberately undervalued the damage inflicted.

Let us break down the Giradoni rifle, 1 - barrel a long tube potentially made from different materials, 2 - lock a complex assortment of gears and levers whose purpose is to release a burst of air thru the barrel, 3 - magazine a container that holds and feeds slugs/bullets into the lock, 4 - air chamber a container that holds a charge of compressed air the chamber either cylindrical or spherical, 5 - speed loaders a device that allows for a fast reload of the magazine, 6 - pump a device to recharge the air chamber, 7 & 8 crucible and mould - devices to create the slugs, 9 - tools to refine slugs, 10 - bars of lead to make slugs. Most of these are artisan work (highly skilled artisan work, if you think this is not possible by hand think back to the Afgan guerrilla of the late 70's early 80's capturing Russian weapons and copying them by hand, to better tolerances than the original) but two bear looking at as magic items. [using 6e stats and the Magic Items book published 1987 by David Berge, Barry A. Wilson and Andrew Robinson. Air Chamber - Aid - strength + body = 18 + 30 = 48 basic points - advantages - No Magic Roll x 1/4 = active cost of 60 points - general modifiers - none - limitations - Obvious Accessible materials +1, independent +1, 2 handed weapon + 1/2, has a strength minimum + 1/2, cannot add damage with strength minimum + 1/2, limited usage - charges +1, = 5 = real cost of 10 points. Effect - canister holds enough air for 25 rounds. I am still working the pump, will add it when I finish.