Nightshade

I like it. But, here's a suggestion: Make the most visible vampire, the "leader" type a teacher (or even the principal), but have him/her controlled by the student. That way, the PC's may think that he is stalking her and have to protect her... Nightshade

I allow the martial maneuvers as written, as it gives a way for the fighter types to keep up with the magic-users. Of course, I have an epic game, so it suits my needs. If you don't want to do that, just allow the combat skill levels. Nightshade

I'd want to witness some of the events that shaped our society of today. Really see what happened. I'd also love to see cultures in North America before the European invasion. That would really be cool. Nightshade

In another of many questions I have been asking on campaign building recently: What about magic? How much time do you spend to create the magic. Do you create all of the spells? Just create guidelines? A little of both? How do you plan on using the Fantasy HERO Grimoire? Personally, I like having many types of magic, each connected to special effect. However, I also like the idea that magic is consistent in some aspects and not in others. For example, all of my spells are divided into groups, such as Necromancy, Abjuration, Totemic, Alchemy, etc. Every group requires the use of a different skill roll and is fed using an endurance reserve. All spells require endurance, skill roll, and side effects, with an additional -1 of limitations. However, every spell group has different structures. Elementalism, for example, is divided into five paths (Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Metal). Each path will have its own skill associated with it, but they will all be on the same endurance reserve. I will also have tiered spell groups, where each spell will have a level (level one darkness, level two darkness, etc.). That way, the mage will be able to increase his individual spells without having to buy several of the same type of spells. In addition, I will have connected spell groups, which will require prerequisites in order to get the spells and spell circles, where it will be necessary to get so many points in a circle before getting spells from the next circle. These will be limitations, as it is more difficult to get spells in these structures as the other two (I am thinking a -1/2). I was thinking of creating some of the spell groups, but using the FHG for some of the others (like alchemy). I was also going to allow the players to come up with their own spells and even spell groups if they wanted. If they didn't, though, they would have some resources to go to so they didn't have to do everything from scratch. How about you guys? How much time and effort do you put into the magic in your worlds? Nightshade

What is PBP? I've never seen this before? Nightshade

Although I run on a large world, most of my campaigns focus on a single realm. If the plot becomes larger than that, I can make encompass more kingdoms, etc. as the plot dictates. I like having the ability to make characters go to "far off lands" but having them on the same continent, so they do get some influence over each other. It also makes really big events (like the continent being invaded by creatures that were a hybrid of dragons and demons ) that much more momentous when a single kingdom will quickly succumb but alliances have a chance. I also like having the ability to have more than one type of whatever. For example, I have 3 different elves defined, 2 different types of giants, 4 different types of dwarven kingdoms, spiderpeople, a bunch of others and more human empires than non-human. In my mind, the more variety, the better. That way, I can run many different types of plots in the same world and not have any continuity issues. Nightshade

What size of campaign worlds do people play in? Do they have a couple empires, a single empire (or even city), or are they much bigger than that? My fantasy world is enormous (over 60 empires), with my primary continent about the size of Eurasia and Africa combined. However, I don't know that everyone wants a world that large. I like it, but I am prejudiced Just looking for perspective. Nightshade

It seems that the response demands a couple of clarifications. Can she change her clothing at will? If so, this seems like Instant Change (Transform power) or Shape Shift using the focus. Or does she just always have the focus on and it looks like different clothes every day? If so, this looks like a special effect to me. The focus is not obvious in this case, though. In my mind, if it really has no game effect (the latter example), then this should be a special effect. If it is potentially useful (the former example) then I would require a point expenditure. Nightshade

How would the naked power advantage turn off the power though? Is that the usable as an attack part? Nightshade

Ouch... How about this: Do it as a Drain, with an advantage that states that the recovery is bought with the advantage of the longest the character can have (up to the player and GM), with a limitation of the power recovers all at once (-3/4 or -1/2?) instead of slowly. Or... You can do it as an Absorb, defined as the spell is absorbed by the character, then released as the same spell when the points are used. Put some limitations on it as to whether the spell can be moved, etc. and there you go. Any other ideas? Nightshade

I do what I call a character sketch. I list the stats, but then just general abilities for each NPC, monster, whatever. Then, for the major bad-guys, I will do a character sheet. It allows me to keep track of who goes first, how much body, stun, etc. Nightshade

I see your point. How about this one, though. Let's say we are talking about something that is generally thought of as a spellcaster, say a lich. Now, the book could have a lich write-up with spells, say necromancy spells. Say I want a lich with darkness based magic (from my world). Then I just substitute, right? That works pretty well. I agree. Let's then look at dragons. Dragons could literally have any type of magic. They really don't have a type of magic that would necessarily be associated with them, so what do you put there? The same really could be said for demons/devils, and many other caster-style creatures. I know that I could substitute, but really, I'll very likely be looking for them in the spellbook anyway. In addition, if we want to look at page count, I would rather have more creatures with "X points of magic" than fewer with spell write-ups that can be found elsewhere. Nightshade

I actually would rather have "X points of stuff" than specifics for some creatures. It allows me to more easily customize the creatures but keep them generally in the same power level. Of course, if it is a unique creature (e.g. Tiamat), then I would prefer the specific spells and powers. It is already unique, I should not have to customize it too much from the actual write-up. The difficult part, of course, is that not every world will have the same (or even similar) magic systems. It will make it difficult for anyone if MMM uses a magic system that is completely different than what the world uses for magic. That is, IMO, more annoying than giving points to put into spells, etc. Nightshade

Setting I would buy a setting to start off with. If you have never run a game/campaign before, the whole concept of creating a whole world can be daunting. Trust me, it takes a lot of time. HERO will be putting out the Turakian Age soon, so that would be a good way to start, since you won't have to convert everything. Also, there are many good web sites around where you can steal... err, mine for... ideas. My recommendation would be to start there and change things to fit your tastes. Nightshade

As already stated, there is no specific rules about size or weight of objects other than armor in any of the HERO books. This does indeed mean that you can mount a howitzer on a Kawasaki Ninja according to the rules. However, a combination of Star HERO and the Ultimate Vehicle does provide a framework to help. The first thing to do is to figure out the base size of an object. Let's take for example a computer. We can define a computer's size by the number of active points or programs it has. I would think that the number of programs is more convenient, so let's use that for this example. Let's say a base computer uses up 1/8th of a hex per program. That would mean that a computer with 8 programs takes up 1 hex. We would then assign this base computer a technology level from Star HERO. Then as the technology level increases, the computer gets smaller (as well as faster, smarter, etc.). Apply the same logic to the rest of the primary systems you are talking about for your campaign (weapons, engines, power sources, etc.). This way, you can get ships that have better tech engines, but lower tech weapons (like freighters) vs. ships that have high tech weapons, but low tech armor/shields (pirates, for example). It also makes it fun to mix and match, if you are into that sort of thing. My suggestion is if you want to get into that level of detail for ship building, make a list of the products available on the market, along with cost, size, tech level, and the appropriate HERO stats, and as the campaign goes along, add technology to it. That could be the basis for some of the adventures, a side plot, or just something to make things more interesting. The amount of space available for things in general are discussed pretty well in the TUV, so you can then get a better feel for what is in the capability of the vehicle. I hope that helps some. It looks like a lot of work, but it really isn't too bad. Once you get a couple of them done, you'll get the feel of it pretty fast. Nightshade

What types? Perhaps this is a better question for Steve, but it has been something that I want/need to know. Do you know which magic styles the FHG will have? We know some, but my world will have quite a few types and I don't want to create a spell system that will be in the Grimoire. Any guidance there? Nightshade

I would like the following: Role templates. These would be templates for different roles that are common with people, races, cultures, etc. Things like a chieftain, shaman, guard. This way one could have an infernal orc guard, a typical city guard, or a dragon guard without having umpteen writeups. Lots of undead. For all of the reasons already stated. Good creatures. It is interesting to have to find and convince a guardian to give you the item he protects in lieu of attacking them. Interesting ways of making creatures unique. It isn't just a dragon. It's Smaug. It's Bahamut. It's Tiamat. It isn't just a lich, it's King Leoric. How to make the more unique (or powerful) creatures more unique. Fantasy Standards. I know how to make an Orc, or an Ogre, or whatever. But that doesn't mean that everyone wants to. One of the complaints most commonly voiced is how complicated everything is (I never had this hang up, but it is always brought up). Well, making some write-ups of common fantasy creatures is one way to lower that complexity a little. In my mind, it makes the game more accessible to new players, which is a good thing. Nightshade

IIRC, the Hermetic movement wasn't until after the Greeks were part of the Roman Empire. There was no reference to Ether in the texts that I am refering to. Nightshade

As an aside, the Fantasy HERO Grimiore is coming out relatively soon. I will say that I am mostly interested in the more generic stuff personally. However, I definately see the need to put out official campaign settings. If my players suddenly told me that they wanted me to run a sci-fi game, I would be looking for something to get me started, and Terran Empire, the Xenovore invasion, and some of the others that eventually get put out would be what I was looking for. I would much rather give my money to HERO for a setting than to other companies. Nightshade

One thing that I found out in one of my history classes was that there were actually five elements, not four. Hermetic lore (true lore, not the various gaming ones) had Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Metal as the primary elements. I can come up with a primary source with a little research. I know that copies of some of their texts are available (with translations, of course) if anyone were interested. Nightshade

I don't think that I have had that same experience. As I stated before, my combats usually end up with many very wounded PC's and dead NPC's. I would also disagree with the "superhero" nature of being knocked unconscience. That is a fact of reality that people get knocked out, stunned, and generally battered around well before they are killed. Again, if someone was in heavy armor, they frequently were knocked out before they near death. Not in a game, in real life. If you were in a major fight, if someone fell down and wasn't moving, you moved on. You rarely had time to worry about whether they were really dead or not. If this is a frequent occurance, perhaps it has more to do with the stun lotto for killing attacks. I would suggest using the hit location chart for this instead. My experience is that that cuts down on the extremes for stun damage. Nightshade

I got mine in the mail yesterday. All I have to say is wow. I didn't get much sleep last night, but I am up to the 200s somewhere. Very well done. I'll have to write a review for this one. Nightshade

Use a military pick, bec de corbin, or similar armor piercing attack. In large scale battles with heavily armored opponents, the strategy would be to knock the guy down, then get the big AP attack out (there is a scene of this happening in the movie Excalibur). This is also why the Bec de Corbin was created. It was literally the first "can opener." Pull out a 1 1/2 d6 AP HKA and watch the knights blanch... I have found that my combats tend to be too bloody. Almost every combat ends with seriously wounded characters. That has been my experience. Nightshade

PC/Dungeon in Ames, Iowa has some, although they may be out already. Nightshade

I have a culture on my world that is heavy into javelins. They have many different javelin contests. One emphasized javelin accuracy, where they throw at a large horizontal target (javelin darts anyone?). Another is more like the olympic javelin throw, emphasizing distance of the throw. There is also a speed throwing contest where they measure how many javelins can be thrown into a vertical target in a certain time period. Another is basically javelin skeet - moving targets must be hit by the thrower. Great fun all around! Another culture I have solves all of its internal disputes with a set of games similar to the Olympics. One of the favored contests for this set of games is a form of jousting. The two participants must ride male bison, who butt heads. He who stays on longer, wins. They also have wrestling, log throwing, and a marathon-style race. They definately glorify strength in this culture. Nightshade